The story behind the story

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I consulted a number of former police colleagues for some 'insider expertise'. In particular, there was a detective called Alex Game who I threw a million and one questions at, and also a cyber-crime guru, Nick Hubbard. Such was the extent of their help and guidance at the time that I used their names for my lead detective, Alex(andra) Nicholas.

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But still I didn't think I had it in me to structure a convincing thriller.

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A few years ago, a friend of mine, Vicki FitzGerald, published her debut thriller, Briguella which, ironically, was also broadly based on real events that I was involved in with my police press officer hat on. (She was a journalist at the time, covering the story). I helped proofread this book but when it came to writing her next crime thriller, Kill List, not only did I help proof it, but I also suggested some plot points and scenes, and ended up being credited in the book as an Editor, which I'm very proud of.

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At some point in that process, I shared with Vicki my long-standing opening three chapters of a thriller. I think my initial working title was something like Trauma and for a little while after that it was Occultatum. She told me she loved it. I thought she was just being a supportive friend, and continued with my comedies. But she wouldn't let it go, to the point where she insisted that I put all my other projects aside and concentrate on my thriller, because, she said, she really liked it and wanted to read more.

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And so I did.

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As usual, I wrestled for a long, long, time with the plot. But it was when I decided to take a leave out of Vicki's book, and write in the first person, but from the perspective of several people, that it started to gel. Retaining my detective, Alex Nicholas, I also decided to introduce two journalists. Once I had my trio, the plot started to form in my mind. I decided very early on who the killer would be and worked from there.

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I wrote chunks of it here and there, came up with new scenarios, ditched a few, adopted some more. In early 2021, I decided to have a 'proper' go at it. And then I had an unexpected stay in hospital in July 2021, which resulted more than a month-and-a-half off work. During that time - and having had a true health scare (I had a bleed on the brain) - which re-set my sense of priorities and perspective, I decided it was time to knuckle down, stop dreaming and start doing. So, in a fairly short space of time, I completed Wicked Tongue. I soon realised that I had a very downbeat ending. It was all cerebral. There was no drama. It was a lot of chat and investigation until the killer was revealed. I needed some drama. I came up with three scenes that I thought would give me that 'finale'-type drama.

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Then it looked as if the wordcount was getting out of control, and I had a light-bulb moment, where two of those three scenes became one - set at a funeral - and it ended up working much better than I expected.

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By now, Vicki had read about two-thirds of the book, and had given positive feedback. During my time off work, I decided to finish the book, having snatched hours at the computer when my health allowed. With all that in mind, I wasn't at all convinced that I'd come up with a decent ending. But she read it, in little over two days, and I was genuinely quite overwhelmed by her response. She loved it. And so, here it is. And, for all the structural struggles I had and concerns that I couldn't pull it off, overall, I'm pretty proud of the result.