About
The idea of an ordinary person solving murders gripped me and refused to let go.
The idea occupied my thoughts as I drove around my South Downs district between inspections. Places where bodies could be hidden leapt out at me. Cliff edges that were perfect for a tussle between hero and killer beckoned me.
Villages steeped in history and secrets looked perfect for a traditional murder mystery series, set in today’s world.
All I had to do was create my ordinary person and a complex and compelling murder to solve.
While I’d written a few novels over the years, I was selling articles to national and local magazines at the time. But solving a murder excited me.
I pictured an underdog, an outsider with a strong sense of right and wrong, solving complex mysteries and murders to ensure good defeated evil.
As an environmental health officer, I investigated complex problems and enforced hygiene and safety laws. I’d also worked with the police to investigate several fatal workplace accidents.
What if a murder was disguised as a work accident?
The idea prompted No Accident, which went on to become the first novel in the Downland Murder Mystery series.
It didn’t start out that way. In an effort to create and get to know the characters, setting and general story, I wrote a first novel involving a drowning in a swimming pool. Though fun to write, it lacked something. A second novel, No Bodies, was submitted to agents and publishers on both sides of the Atlantic.
While it received some encouraging comments, no one was willing to take on me or my novel.
Undeterred and determined to make my idea worked, I started No Accident. It featured environmental health officer Kent Fisher, who investigates a work accident that turns out to be murder. Everything was going fine until I couldn’t solve the murder.
You might wonder how I couldn’t solve a murder I’d created.
You’re not the only one.
Without boring you with the details, I couldn’t break through the impasse. So, I set the novel aside and channelled my energies into a blog called Fisher’s Fables, which was a humorous spoof of my management experiences. To protect my identity, I had Kent Fisher narrate the blog, which was populated with many of the characters from No Accident.
He came to life, even if he became a lot like me.
Excited, and filled with new energy, confidence and belief, I returned to No Accident.
But it took a complaint about a poor hygiene rating to set me on the road to publication.
In June 2016, No Accident was released into the world by an independent publisher in the United States.
Another nine novels have since followed, showing how an ordinary person can solve the most complex murders.
Walking around the South Downs with my wife and our cameras, enjoying the scenery and wildlife, now counts as research.
If you’d like to learn more, please take a look at the books.
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In case you were wondering – answers to some of the questions you may have about the novels, how Kent Fisher became an accidental detective, and more.
