Author of the Month

Name: Iain Maitland

First Novel: Sweet William

Most Recent Book: The Scribbler

'Definitely one that will keep you burning the midnight oil!'

Synopsis:
DI Gayther and his rookie colleague DC Carrie have been assigned a new caseload. Or rather, an old one... cold cases of LGBTQ+ murders dating back to the 1980s and beyond. Georgia Carrie wasn't even born when the notorious serial killer, The Scribbler began his reign of terror across the East of England. Roger Gayther was on the force that failed to catch him and remembers every chilling detail. Now, after all these years, there's a sudden death featuring The Scribbler's tell-tale modus operandi. Can Gayther and Carrie track the murderer down and bring him to justice before the slaughter starts again?

Review:
Maitland opens up an intriguing new dark path in crime fiction with his department investigating cold cases featuring the LGBTQ+ community. Despite being in the present day, Maitland is adept at bringing to the fore the sense of how crimes against gay folk were treated in the late 80s. Remember, this is the time of Thatcher, a Tory government who implemented Section 28 which discriminated against the gay community (thankfully being repealed in the early 2000s). With this act passed in the 80s, and with the fear of HIV/AIDS, this led to many cases being dismissed or not investigated properly with a sense of ‘they got what was coming to them’ by the police at the time.

So, I am sure that somewhere there are plenty of cases like this one that Maitland has set up in this first of a planned series. It also opens up how a killer can change his M.O. and carry on killing even though the killer was thought to have disappeared soon after his crimes became front page news.

Maitland sets up his book in a way that reads like a play. There are five sections to the investigation, leading up to a dramatic standoff and finale. There is more to the case than just ‘killing gay blokes’, and Maitland slowly peels away the layers to show how the damage wrought on a child can have a devastating effect on the adult. There is a huge twist near the end which I didn’t see coming and it will be interesting to see how it affects Maitland’s next book in this series.

I was gripped from the beginning and Maitland is adept at showing how the two detectives grope around in the dark to solve a case thirty years old without any authority to get results. ‘The Scribbler’ is dramatic and very visual and I felt as if I had a TV series running in my brain. I am looking forward to seeing where Maitland goes with his next case. Definitely one that will keep you burning the midnight oil!

Reviewed by: C.S.

CrimeSquad Rating

Questionnaire

1) ‘The Scribbler’ claims to be the first in a series tackling LGBTQ+ cold crime cases. Why did you decide to centre your attention on the LGBTQ+ community?

I’ve felt for a long time that crimes against LGBTQ+ folk have not been treated with the same respect and attention that crimes against straight people have had. I had a gay friend at school who kind of opened my eyes to things in the 1970s. I am talking everything from discrimination and harassment up to murder – I vividly recall a series of killings of gay men in West London in the late 1980s and how that was handled and never solved. I guess most of us these days have friends and family in the LGBTQ+ community and are aware of how our loved ones have been, and are still being, treated at times.

2) This first novel in the series deals with a series of murders in the late 80s/early 90s. Why did you choose this particular time frame for ‘The Scribbler’?

There’s a really clear contrast between old-school policing in the 1970s and 1980s -think The Sweeney – and the modern police force which, whatever its faults, is more diverse than it has ever been. I think that sort of late 1980s to early 1990s time was the point at which things maybe started to change a little bit for the better.

Also, in those days, police investigations were more primitive – finger prints, identity parades and so on – compared to today with advances in DNA, CCTV everywhere, computers and databases and algorithms and greater co-operation between forces. As a writer, contrasts like this are good to write about.

3) DC Georgie Carrie is a single mum living with her own mother. She is a complete contrast to DI Roger Gayther who is shop-worn and on his final warning. Why did you pick these two characters to begin your series?

It’s to get that contrast really. Gayther is the old-school copper, a decent and kindly man but one who is steeped in the old ways of dogged determination, sifting through reams of evidence and gut instinct. Carrie is the rookie DC, keen and enthusiastic, and someone who knows what to say and what to do in these changing times. But she’s new and naïve. So, a good contrast.

4) You cover many mis-conceptions such as homosexuality and paedophilia in your book and attitudes in the late 80s. During your research, did you find if we have moved forward at all, especially with regards to our police force?

Yes, for sure. I think society has changed over that time and, as the police force is drawn from society, that has changed too. Clearly, we still have a way to go but the modern police force is a different one to what it was 30 years ago. Both in terms of its make up and the way it thinks. If I were a gay man wanting to report a crime in the 1980s I would have been very reluctant to go to the police. I’d report it nowadays.

5) Will we learn more about your team in future books, especially the gay policemen, Thomas and Cotton?

‘The Scribbler’ is, at least in the early part, really about establishing and getting to know the characters of Gayther and Carrie and how they work together. Thomas and Cotton are new to the team and are in the background for this one. I didn’t want to overload the book with developing four characters at the expense of the plot but they will come close to centre stage in the next one. And who knows? They may spin off into another series.

6) What can we next expect from Iain Maitland?

I’m just finishing a dark literary thriller, ‘3 Bluebell Lane’, about a sad and lonely man called Mr Boyle from Felixstowe in Suffolk. That should be out next year. I’m spending this summer on the TV adaptation of my memoir, ‘Dear Michael, Love Dad’. I’ve then got two or three sequels to do for ‘Mr Todd’s Reckoning’ featuring one or two of the characters in the first book. I’m also planning to do at least three more Gayther & Carrie books, starting with ‘The Key Man’.

7) With your experience as a writer, what advice would you give to anyone attempting their first novel?

Write, write and keep writing no matter what. Always remember you are right and everyone else is wrong. I spent 18 months solid pitching to agents and publishers and being rejected relentlessly. Without that mantra, I’d have given up.

Also, when you do start getting feedback from an agent or publisher, act on it – be prepared to make changes to your manuscript. A manuscript should not be set in stone; it should evolve.

Most of all, never give up. If you give up, that’s it, it’s over. You’re finished and you will always regret it. If you keep going, you may break through. You only need one agent or publisher – out of 100s – to like your work and you are on your way.

8) Are you a fan of crime fiction? If so, which three crime novels would you like with you if stranded on a desert island?

Yes, I love crime fiction. Can’t get enough of it. I’m a big, big fan. I’d take Claire MacLeary’s new book, Payback – gritty and funny too. Barbara Nadel’s A Knife to the Heart – the latest in the series of Cetin Ikmen Mysteries. And Graeme Macrae Burnet’s His Bloody Project – I read that every year and just love the brilliance of his writing.

Thank you for having me.

8) Are you a fan of crime fiction? If so, which three crime novels would you like with you if stranded on a desert island?