Fans of MW Craven and Mark Billingham will love Simon Toyne's latest serial killer crime thriller, Dead Water. We asked Simon to take us beyond the book, to tell us more about his writing experience and favourite authors.
Dead Water features a disturbing intersection between crime, trauma, and identity. Were there any particular themes you set out to explore when writing this book?
I never start out with a theme, I generally start each new book with an idea for an interesting mystery, and the characters and themes emerge from that as I start figuring it out in more detail. As Dead Water is book three of the Laughton Rees/Tannahill Khan series I already had my main characters and I then had the idea of a mysterious headless, handless body washing up on the shore of the River Thames by Tower Bridge – which is where the river often gives up its dead, apparently. Having no head or hands, as well as being macabre and therefore intriguing, makes it much harder for anyone to identify the victim. I then wrote a clue on the corpse’s arm and I had my mystery and the start of the investigation.
What kind of research—procedural, forensic, or psychological—went into crafting the story, and how do you decide how much detail to include?
Like any crime writer I probably have an unhealthy working knowledge of forensic science and police procedure, and that knowledge certainly informs the writing of each story. I used to totally disappear down the rabbit-hole of research, partly because it’s fun, and partly because it’s easier than writing a first draft, but then realised I was wasting a lot of time so now tend to research to order a lot more, as in I figure out the story, work out what kind of things I need to know and go and find out about them. I also have a friend who’s a retired police constable and he reads the first drafts of each Laughton/Tannahill book and does a big list of stuff I’ve got wrong and suggests ways to fix it. This means story always comes first, and research and fact-checking comes second and has to adapt – which is the right way round for fiction. I think too much research can sometimes hamper the progression of a good story. As Tom Stoppard once said “Just because it’s true, doesn’t make it interesting.”
If Dead Water were to be adapted for screen, who would you cast as Laughton Rees and Tannahill Khan?
Juno Temple as Laughton, Dev Patel as Tannahill.
What authors or works have influenced you as a writer?
Like most writers of my generation, I was hugely influenced by Stephen King and The Stand remains one of the only 1000 page plus novels I’ve read more than once, the other being Bleak House, which hints at another big influence. Dickens actually wrote one of the very first literary detectives in Bleak House, so he pretty much invented the whole crime genre, so you can’t get more influential than that. I think I like both of these authors because they’re brilliant storytellers and have such a distinct and specific voice. They also really tap into what makes people tick – their fears, hopes, hates etc. - and it’s the emotional resonance of their writing that makes them universally appealing I think.
What advice would you give to aspiring authors who want to write crime or thriller fiction?
The best advice I can give to any writer writing anything is to try and establish a routine whereby you write for a certain amount of time at the same time each day, because starting is hard and having a routine makes it much easier. You should also try and write without thinking about it too much so you can get a flow going and only edit when you have a good of chunk of something to work with. When I started writing I tried to do both at the same time and it’s a bit like trying to cycle uphill whilst re-painting your bike at the same time - you can do it, but it’s not the most efficient way to do either. Just repaint the bike when you get to the top. :)
