Most people enjoy a scenic drive through the South Downs. So did I, until I started imagining murder around every corner.
As an Environmental Health Officer, I spent years travelling between food hygiene inspections across the South Downs in East Sussex. My work took me to quaint villages, bustling tearooms, cliffside cafés, and country pubs.
But instead of admiring the view, I was imagining murders.
A tearoom nestled in a tranquil village? The perfect place for a murder. A hedgerow by a quiet country lane? Ideal for hiding a body.
And with each journey, these images grew until one day, I pulled over, grabbed my notebook, and started writing.
I had to decide on my sleuth before I could let him loose in the South Downs.
Once Kent Fisher existed, the surrounding landscape looked different.
I'd spent years travelling through these villages, along country lanes and across the Downs. I knew the landscape.
Then I started seeing it differently.
I started seeing the possibilities for murder everywhere.
Coastguard Cottages, Cuckmere Haven
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On the East Sussex coast, where the Cuckmere River reaches the sea, the Coastguard Cottages overlook Cuckmere Haven and the sea.
Apart from its natural beauty, the links to smuggling draw me closer to the beach and the sea, where smugglers swarmed over wrecked and beached ships, looking for contraband.
During the 18th and 19th centuries, Revenue or Customs Officers watched from the cottages, waiting for the smuggling gangs to move their contraband inland along the Cuckmere River.
One of these gangs had their base in Alfriston, a village a few miles inland from the coast. When my research into the gang's methods revealed hidey holes, and the tunnels used to distribute contraband, I had to incorporate this into No Remorse, which I was writing at the time.
But did I bring smuggling into a contemporary story?
Kent Fisher went into Ye Olde Smugglers Inne in the centre of Alfriston. It was the gang's headquarters, after all.
But history and methods used by the gang had a key part to play in solving the murder.
Birling Gap and the Seven Sisters
This dramatic stretch of coastline is one of my favourite places. Owned by the National Trust, Birling Gap sits between the towering chalk cliffs of Beachy Head and the Seven Sisters. Over the years, I inspected the kitchens in the old hotel, which is now a visitor centre and café.
But it's the dramatic hills and sheer white cliffs beneath that made me determined to use the location in one of my novels.
While Kent Fisher often visits the windswept location in the novels, I had to wait until No Escape before I wrote a tense clifftop climax.
To ensure complete accuracy and atmosphere, I visited Birling Gap at dusk, watching as the cliffs merged into shadows below a darkening sky. The landscape became eerie. The only light came from the emergency exit signs on the visitor centre.
And somewhere up there, close to the cliff edge, a murder was about to take place. Unless Kent Fisher could make it up the black slopes without being detected.
The South Downs from Arlington
Arlington features in several books, with its narrow country lanes. The pub and church are still at the heart of the village, while not far away in Caneheath, there's a farm that's now a small industrial estate where Kent Fisher first meets Freya Layman in No More Lies.
Little does he know, he'll return to prevent a murder in the climax of the story.
But for me, Arlington will always have a special place in my heart.
I first met Harvey, the inspiration for Kent Fisher’s Westie Columbo, at a farm that's a mile down the road from the industrial estate.
Harvey, as we called him, was one of four cute pups, which followed their mother out of a barn. When the mother swung to the left, the leading pup veered away and went off on his own.
My wife turned to me and said, “I know which puppy you’re going to choose.”
St Mary’s Church Friston
At the top of the hill on the A259 coast road, overlooking the village of East Dean village, lies a beautiful flint church. From the graveyard, you find sweeping views across the Downs to the coast.
But I got to know it more for its outside tap by the entrance gate.
It became a vital refreshment stop during Sunday morning runs across the South Downs. We would refill our water bottles and take a brief rest, before continuing on our way.
The church became the inspiration for the one used in the opening chapter of No Bodies, the second novel in the Downland Murder Mystery series.
While I've run and walked past the church many times over the years, I've yet to study the gravestones to look for interesting names that I can give to characters. Colonel Witherington, who's a significant character in No Bodies, owes his name to a headstone in a graveyard.
But not this one.
Maybe it's time I took a gentle stroll up there.
Tiger Inn, East Dean
This well-known pub on the village green is a favourite with locals and visitors from the surrounding areas. During sunny summer days and evenings, customers fill the bench seats and tables outside and spill across the village green.
In No Remorse, this is where Kent Fisher meets Louise, a receptionist at a luxury care home that overlooks the village. Having visited the pub many times over the years to inspect the kitchens, I could describe the place from memory.
But perhaps the most interesting detail was the owner of the pub. His family also owned the manor house just outside the village. They could trace their ancestors back to the time of the Norman Conquest. The poster of their family tree on the wall inspired me to create the Fisher Dynasty that led to Kent.
Without the South Downs, its villages, and pub kitchens I inspected, there would be no Kent Fisher.
And without Kent Fisher, I would never have got to know the Downs so well.
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