Today it's my stop on the Wicked Game blog tour and it's my absolute pleasure to be able to introduce you to author Matt Johnson in this debut spotlight feature.
Matt Johnson served as a soldier and Metropolitan Police officer for twenty-five years. Blown off his feet at the London Baltic Exchange bombing in 1992, and one of the first police officers on the scene of the 1982 Regent’s Park bombing, Matt was also at the Libyan People’s Bureau shooting in 1984 where he escorted his mortally wounded friend and colleague, Yvonne Fletcher, to hospital. Hidden wounds took their toll.
In 1999, Matt was discharged from the police with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. While undergoing treatment, he was encouraged by his counsellor to write about his career and his experience of murders, shootings and terrorism. One evening, Matt sat at his computer and started to weave these notes into a work of fiction that he described as having a tremendously cathartic effect on his own condition. He has used his detailed knowledge and memory to create a fast paced, exciting and authentic tale of modern day policing. Wicked Game was the result. Matt is currently working on a sequel Deadly Game.
Can you tell us a little bit about your debut novel Wicked Game?
Someone asked me recently what genre the book is. I struggled to answer the question. Although Wicked Game is a story of modern-day policing, it’s also a tale of secrets, betrayal, loyalty and comradeship. It is a crime thriller, but the crime is terrorism and the book has also been described as part police procedural and part spy thriller. What it is definitely not is a ‘lads only’ book.
The main protagonist is Robert Finlay, a veteran cop who has recently married and has a young family. Just as he seems to be getting his life on track, his past catches up with him when several former military colleagues are murdered and he is, clearly, a target to meet a similar fate. How he reacts to the threat and how he tackles it forms the basis for the story.
I've read that you were encouraged to write about your own experiences to combat PTSD, had you ever considered writing beforehand? How hard was it to put pen to paper and let the memories appear?
I used to write a little as a police officer, but only speeches and retirement-do odes. The prospect of penning 90K words or more for a novel didn’t occur to me. When I first started, it was very challenging. But I found that by sticking at it, the discomfort eased and, before too long, I started to enjoy the experience. The appearance of memories was often very difficult, and I escaped to the countryside outside my home to clear my head. Sometimes it was days before I could go back and face it all again.
How did your writing journey progress from writing for therapy to deciding to write a novel?
During counselling, I became too emotional to effectively communicate. It was suggested that, in between sessions, I could write down descriptions of my experiences, reactions, emotions, etc. and then bring my notes in for the counsellor to read. One day, she commented on how much she enjoyed my writing and said, ‘Have you ever considered writing a book?’ The idea was firmly implanted. After that, it was something I felt I had to do. I bought a couple of ‘how to’ books on creative writing and then sat down at the PC to try and weave my counselling notes into a novel.
If you had to describe Robert Finlay in three words, what would they be?
That’s quite a tough one. Let’s just say that he is resourceful, determined and loyal.
