It started with an offhand comment: ‘Nick, why don’t you write a murder mystery that takes place on one of these walks?’
I was halfway through a week-long group walk along the north coast of Devon with a dozen other Americans. As we marched along, I learned most of those with me were readers, and many were mystery lovers. When I mentioned I was a writer, and a mystery lover as well, Betsy offered her suggestion.
Well, I wasn’t a writer in the sense the other walkers believed. I’d had a solid career in public relations and corporate communications, which did, to be honest, involved a lot of writing. After retiring, I’d struggled to write a literary novel and couldn’t get it quite the way I wanted. Betsy’s comment got me thinking. Maybe tackling a mystery would be the change I needed.
When I arrived back home in California, I dreamed up a plot and used the walk I’d just enjoyed as the setting, as well as some of the people I’d met as characters (names were changed, of course.) I hammered out a first draft in five weeks, sat back, and thought, ‘That was fun!’ I was able not only to re-live my experience but spice it up with murder.
Of course, the book was far from being finished. I began workshopping chapters with my writing group, fine-tuning the story over three more drafts. Then I hired a British editor to make sure I was depicting the country and my British characters appropriately. (Among other suggestions, he cautioned me against referring to Wales, which the characters spot across the Bristol Channel, as a British ‘territory’.)
All through this process, I was so charged up writing about England and its trails (two of my passions) that I drafted two further books, using the same lead character - a retired San Diego police detective named Rick Chasen.
Eventually, the first book was ready to be pitched to literary agents. I was well aware this would be a longshot. Even the finest writers struggle to get representation - the competition is overwhelming. Nevertheless, I had to try.
Several agents responded to my enquiry, but something always held them back from taking me on as a client. Was it because my main character was gay? Doubtful. Perhaps it was because the book was difficult to classify - it fell in the space between being a traditional mystery and what is known as a ‘cozy’, a light mystery with quaint characters, no violence, no sex, and no harsh language.
Just when I was about to admit defeat, an agent came through, told me she loved my book, and offered to represent me. That was great news (it merited a celebration dinner with my husband!) but it still didn’t mean the book would be published. Another journey through a series of almost-deals started, but one that also ended happily - I got a three-book contract with a well-known publisher of mysteries.
Besides being an opportunity to virtually visit England from my home in Pasadena, part of the fun, and challenge, of writing A Deadly Walk in Devon and its sequels has been depicting an older gay man (only slightly based on myself) discovering romance and other challenges later in life. Although the Walk Through England books are, above all, light-spirited and fun, they do gently tackle aging and related issues such as geriatric care, family dysfunction, financial planning and physical limitations.
I’ve greatly enjoyed meeting readers, and have been blown away by their voracious appetite for tales of intrigue in the English countryside, no doubt whetted by the books of Conan Doyle and many other illustrious predecessors. I’m only too happy to accommodate them!
A Deadly Walk in Devon is published by Kensington Books
