Why I turned to murder

Then again, I never thought I’d pass my driving test or give up smoking.

If you’re wondering whether self-doubt’s my default state, think of it as a safety mechanism, a defence against failure and rejection, if you like. Writing and selling your work is littered with both.

Once, I had enough rejection slips from agents and publishers to paper the walls of my bedroom. Okay, it was one wall, but us writers like to embellish. We tell stories, after all.

But not well enough according to the people in publishing.

Disappointed and frustrated, I knew I had to come up with something different to grab their interest. Something that stirred me deep inside. Something that tugged at my heart and my mind.

Puzzles and mysteries had fascinated me since I was a child – especially the ones that had no answer.

It’s what drew me to Agatha Christie and Miss Marple.

Here was an ordinary person, solving complex murders without forensics, DNA profiling and CCTV.

There was something romantic about the idea, a sense of an underdog overcoming the odds to solve a case before the police.

Could such an ordinary person be a breath of fresh air in a crime fiction world, filled with world weary private investigators and derivative police procedurals with traumatised detectives?

On 20th June 2016, AJB thought so in the review he left on Amazon.

“What a pleasure it is to greet a fresh voice that really offers something different. The investigating officer is a goodly leap from anything normally found in conventional crime drama.

Forget cantankerous police detectives with obsequious sergeants and annoying habits: No Accident offers a new and compelling path through the busy world of contemporary crime fiction, and one that is well worth following.”

Didn’t readers deserve the chance to escape into something new and exciting? Something different, like Inspector Morse. Only he was a police officer, not an ordinary person.

The voice of reason, a close ally of self-doubt and lack of confidence, told me I could never write anything as captivating and original as Morse.

Then one evening, Miss Marple came to the rescue in A Murder is Announced. Having watched the episode many times, I knew the plot inside out. Only this time, I spotted something I hadn’t spotted before.

The clues were hidden in plain sight.

Was this the secret to writing murder mystery novels?

Could my ordinary person turned sleuth spot these clues to solve a murder?

The idea filled my thoughts each evening and every morning. While I drove around my South Downs district during the day, I considered potential candidates.

How about the investigative journalist I’d once wanted to be as a teenager? Or a former police officer, turned private investigator, like Sue Grafton’s Kinsey Millhone?

How about an environmental health officer (EHO) like me, exploiting the considerable experience and skills I’d developed over the years?

No authors had ever used an EHO to solve murders.

And few people knew what EHOs did for a living. We’re best known for checking and improving hygiene standards in restaurants, pubs and any business that sells or offers food to customers.

While food poisoning can kill, it’s hardly the stuff of a murder plot. Then again, I could think of a few chefs I’d happily murder.

The idea went into the folder I’d created, filled with copious notes about characters and murder plots.

While the details can wait for another blog post or three, certain elements began to settle out of the murky depths of my imagination.

While my character and plots would be fresh and feature contemporary themes, they had to pay homage to the traditional murder mysteries of authors like Agatha Christie.

• This would place them at the cosier end of the crime fiction market. Unlike the gritty crime stories of today, where murders are often visceral and described in detail, mine would offer an escape from the doom, gloom and horrors of the modern world.

• Murders would be offstage. There would be no excessive violence, foul language or sexual content.

• Humour, perhaps a touch of romance, would help to lighten the darkness of murder.

I wanted to entertain my readers and thrill them with authentic plots that would keep them reading into the night.

It took a lot more time than expected, and a number of false starts before my sleuth Kent Fisher made his appearance in No Accident, the first novel in what would become the Downland Murder Mystery series.

"In the quirky tradition of the English whodunit, Robert Crouch has produced a murder mystery which will keep you reading through the night. Agatha Christie fans will love it! " Tamara McKinley, author.

No Accident was published on 19th June 2016 by an independent US publisher.

It was a nerve-shredding day, spent worrying that no one would buy the book.

But what if someone did and spotted errors everywhere?

My fears never materialised. Readers enjoyed No Accident. They liked my EHO sleuth, the irreverent humour and no guessed or worked out the identity of the killer.

A review by Crime Fiction Lover was music to my ears.

"Expect sharp dialogue and irreverent humour in this whodunnit, which manages to pay homage to the traditional murder mystery, while striking a contemporary and irreverent note."

I’d turned to murder and realised my dream.

Now all I had to do was repeat the process.