Death in the Cove the new 1950 set mystery – How did you come up with the name Inspector Alun Ryga?

DEATH IN THE COVE is my twentieth crime novel and the first historical mystery I have written, my other nineteen crime novels are all contemporary with fourteen featuring my rugged and flawed detective, DI Andy Horton; three starring former Royal Marine Commando but damaged Art Marvik, an undercover investigator for the UK’s National Intelligence Marine Squad,  and two standalone thrillers.

DEATH IN THE COVE is set in 1950 England, a country still reeling from the aftermath of war with austerity and rationing biting hard. Newly promoted to detective inspector, Ryga from Scotland Yard, is on his first solo investigation outside of London, to solve the mystery of why a man in a pin-striped suit is found murdered in an isolated cove on the Island of Portland in Dorset.



How did you come up with the name Inspector Alun Ryga?


He started off as Inspector Rees as he has a welsh background but had left Wales when he was 15 to join the merchant navy like his father. Ryga is actually Latvia’s capital on the Baltic Sea but that had no influence on me choosing the name.  It wasn’t until I had got well into Eva Paisley’s character – she is the war photographer who discovers the body on the secluded bay on Portland Island and who Ryga teams up with to solve the crime – that from her lips ‘Rees’ didn’t sound right.  She is forthright and confident and rarely calls him by his first name.  I tried Regan but that kept making me think of the TV programme The Sweeney with Regan in it (John Thaw) and my character was the opposite to his so I played around with it, dropped the ‘n’ got Rega then changed the ‘e’ to ‘y’ and got Ryga (sounds like ‘Tiger’) and that sounded good coming from Eva - sharp, edgy. I liked it and it stuck.


I am now writing number two in the Inspector Ryga series and mapping out ides for number three so plenty more mysteries for Inspector Ryga -accompanied by Eva Paisley- to solve.


DEATH IN THE COVE is published in paperback, ebook, Amazon Kindle, Kobo. 

It is also available as an audio book published by B7 Media and narrated by Jonathan Rhodes.

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

If you like Peter James, John Harvey, Ann Cleeves and Peter Robinson you'll like Pauline Rowson's crime novels

Image
It is often difficult to find a new author and one whose novels you think you might enjoy but libraries are a great place for dipping your toe in the water, or rather for letting your fingers do the choosing and there is also a handy little book in UK libraries that can help with that.  It's called Who Else Writes Like? Reviewers have compared the Inspector Andy Horton novels to American writers, Ed McBain and Joseph Wambaugh and their British counterparts John Harvey and Peter Robinson both of the latter mentioned in the directory Who Else Writes Like? My crime novels are also compared to those written by Colin Dexter, Ann Cleeves, Robert Barnard, Graham Hurley, Dorothy Simpson and Neil White.   In addition, there is also a good website called Fantastic Fiction where it is suggested that if you like Peter James and Stephen Booth then you might also like the Inspector Andy Horton and the Art Marvik Mystery Thrillers. Where to buy Pauline Rowson's
Read more

Marvik is about to face his biggest challenge in mystery thriller FATAL DEPTHS, no 4 in the series.

Image
Marvik's job is to go into a case cold, to risk his life in order to expose killers. He's used to facing threats and danger on missions for the Royal Marines now he does it for the police & he's about to face his biggest challenge - to discover the truth behind his parents deaths, killed in an underwater explosion. FATAL DEPTHS, no. 4 in the Marvik mystery thriller series. Published by Joffe Books in paperback, on Amazon kindle and kindle unlimited.
Read more