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DI Andy Horton in my marine mystery police procedural crime novels has been described as 'an especially good series hero, a likable fellow with plenty of street smarts and the requisite personal baggage - an abrasive supervisor (DCI Lorraine Bliss) and an antagonistic soon to be ex wife.'  Booklist (USA).  Heroes in detective novels usually have their own set of problems and the key to producing a successful crime novel is not necessarily that the hero saves the world, aka James Bond, although I like a crime novel where the hero gets his guy, but that he also learns something about him or herself by the end of the novel. At the Bouchercon 2011 crime fiction convention in St Louis last weekend, crime authors agreed that they like to create ordinary people as heroes with real problems and that they write the stories they’d like to read, knowing that it will inevitably strike a chord with readers. That has always been true for me.  I write the sort of crime and thriller ...

This is a question that I often get asked by journalists, readers and people who attend my talks.  So I thought I'd give you a shortened version of my answer, below. I loved adventure and mystery novels when I was young, and this has continued throughout my adulthood with crime fiction. I adore heroes and I think most women do and most men want to be one. I like tough but caring men, which is probably why I married a man who was first an RAF police officer and then a fire fighter. My DI Andy Horton is modelled on a combination of many firemen I have met: strong, fit, cool, resourceful, fearless. Think of fires, 9/11, tube disasters and train crashes. It's the firemen who go in when everyone else is running away. They don't think twice at risking their lives. DI Horton is like this, he goes charging in risking his life, often when he shouldn't or when procedure tells him differently. He’s very much an action man and that’s another reason why he appeals to both men ...

Having been married to a fire fighter for over twenty years, and knowing the risks they face when they courageously and unquestioningly go into blazing buildings to save people who might be trapped, I just wanted to say how sorry and sad I am to hear of the tragic loss of those fire fighters in Warwick. My heart goes out to their colleagues and family. In Cold Daylight is dedicated to you all - "For fire fighters everywhere the true heroes."