It all starts with Adam…
Close to Home started with one single big idea, and once you’ve read it you’ll know exactly what that was. But I knew straightaway that there would something else that would be just as important, and that was the character of the ‘central copper’. There was a huge amount riding on that, not just for Close to Home itself, but for the other books that were going to follow it. I was building a whole series on Adam Fawley, so he was going to need strength in depth. Not just broad shoulders to carry the weight of the narrative, but a complex and compelling back story, and a personality readers would warm to.
A huge amount of that came from his voice. Close to Home is written from many different perspectives, including social media feeds, blog posts, and interview transcripts. But the principal narrator is Adam himself. There are pros and cons of doing it that way, as any writer will know. It does give you wonderful access to your character’s thoughts and feelings and memories, and given the especially tragic events of Adam’s recent past, that was really important to me. But if you do it entirely that way, you don’t have any view of your character from the outside. So that was one reason why I included all the other points of view as well, so we get a perspective on him. What sort of professional he is – what his colleagues think of him. How he reacts. What makes him laugh and what pisses him off.
I’ve now written three Fawley books (In the Dark is out next July and the third next winter) and each time I’ve found more to say, and more to explore. I really can hear his voice in my head now, and I’m so delighted my early readers have responded to him the way they have. One said he “sidesteps all of those weary ‘maverick’ tropes while staying kind, compassionate, clever and just that bit out of the ordinary”. I couldn’t have put it better myself….
I had originally planned to review Close to Home alongside this guest feature from Cara but sadly my reading was hampered over the Christmas and New Year period with another nasty cold/chest infection so I'm hoping to review it soon.
Last night, eight-year-old Daisy Mason disappeared from a family party. No one in the quiet suburban street saw anything - or at least that's what they're saying.
DI Adam Fawley is trying to keep an open mind. But he knows the nine times out of ten, it's someone the victim knew.
That means someone is lying...
And that Daisy's time is running out.
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