A chat with Nick Louth

“ Her heart was hammering as she heard the key turn in the rusted lock and the door squeak open just a few feet from where she crouched. He must not find her, or it would end now.   The prophetic shriek of the gulls again: death, death, death. The body in the marsh.  Dismembered.”
 
I wanted to start with this quote from the beginning of your book because its tone foreshadowed the essence of the novel. Wonderful.
How do you decide where to start your story and what to include in the first chapter to produce a tone for its entire narrative?
I always like to start with a dramatic scene as the best way get readers involved with the story. In this case I wanted to bring in some childhood fears, to intensify the feeling of terror, so had Liz choose a familiar cubbyhole in her family’s holiday home, and describe her fears of being caught.  
 
 This novel is not only a suspenseful mystery but also a forensic mystery in that a marsh is a different type of geographical area than most people are used to. Do you do your research before you write along with an initial plot plan, or do you research along the way?
It does vary, but generally I do the research as I’m going along. I’ve learned that this often saves wasted effort where I research something in detail only to then not include it in the plot. Just recently, I’ve written a scene about a woman who  makes a remarkable Houdini -like escape from a locked kit bag. She had a suspicion she would be abducted, and prepared for it by secreting a GPS enabled fitness tracker (minus its strap) under the shoulder webbing of her sports bra. I was lucky enough to have several female friends with different types of tracker who volunteered to test whether the device would still function in that location on the body. This enabled me to write the scene so that the woman’s police colleague was not only able to discover the location but also remotely monitor her heart rate and stress levels, to know she was in trouble.

I think your novel’s craft works well with your background in finance—left-brain, logical. One plus one needs to equal two. Would you say this is reflected in the plot while your right brain created the characters?
I don’t tend to think of my creativity in those terms. I’m certainly surprised at the fertility of my imagination, particularly relating to plotting whereas characters I have to work a little bit harder at. My finance experience certainly helps me to construct the property scam within the Body in the Marsh.

Craig Gillard is a memorable protagonist for a series, and  I think the quote “Dignity in the face of mayhem” reflects his character. How important was it in this first book of the series to show that Gillard was emotionally broken (love and marriage) but strong in morality?
You’ve hit on a very important point. One of the best pieces of advice for writing a truly compelling novel is to tighten the relationships between characters. Normally, the relationship between an investigator and a murder victim is simply a professional one. But there’s a great deal more emotional heft when the detective was in love with her, even if it was a long time ago. The subtler way in which Craig’s enduring obsession with her overshadows his empathy with and treatment of some of the other women in his life was lost on some reviewers.

Okay, you got me with the ending. I will be careful here because I don’t want to give any spoilers, but after finishing this read, I thought, yes, this author is more intrigued by the how than the why. Would you say that is true with your storytelling? 
The how and the why really have to work together. If the mechanics of the murder don’t work, all your efforts creating motivation are lost. Certainly in this case I wanted to imbue my perpetrator with an incredible level of preparation and skill, so that an almost impossible ‘how’ makes sense at the end.
 In a later book in the Gillard series The Body in the Stairwell, I created alternating viewpoints between vulnerable victims and an evil perpetrator, which showed exactly the detail of ‘how’ as it was developing. While there was no mystery about the direction of the plot, the tension instead came from the reader being unable to warn those endearing victims of the consequences of their foolish actions.
 
How did you hope to develop the character of Craig Gillard from this first book to the next several in the series? What was important for his arc? 
While Gillard’s development as a detective is perhaps conventional, the arc of his personal life as he moves on from book 1 is about re-engagement with women after the trauma of Liz. His relationship with Sam follows this throughout the twelve books.
 
I don’t see how this story could have been written without careful planning. Do you plot before writing? And how intricate is your plot in detail?
I’m definitely a plotter not a pants-er: I know exactly how each book is going to finish before I begin, and have a 5000 word treatment of each title prepared sometimes four or five books ahead. Over the years I’ve got much better at not having to make disruptive plot changes during the course of writing, by predicting  in advance which part of the plot are going to work, so I can work faster.

What software tools do you like to use, i.e., Scrivener, Plotrr?
I use dictation software for the first draft and then edit by hand. No charts, no diagrams, it’s all in my head! I have a Word scratch pad, for writing scenes one at a time, and then move them into the main body of the text when I’m happy with them. I do often write scenes out of order and then save them so that I can add them later.
I had to look up the other tools you mentioned, as I hadn’t heard of them!  
 
Where the body is found in your series is highlighted in your titles and essential to the story. How does this challenge you, more so than emphasizing the overall theme?
The naming convention The Body in… used by the publisher actually turned out to be a bit of a burden over the course of the series. Sometimes I would like to keep the location of the body a mystery, and other times I couldn’t really place the body in the type of locations that they are often found, because the body in the dumpster (for e.g.) doesn’t make for a good cover image! In such ways marketing leads content by the nose…

 I enjoyed this first book, the first in a series. I see you have other books published. Is this a second series or  stand-alones? What is your writing schedule like, and do you work to write one or two novels a year? Next book out you don’t want the readers to miss?
The twelve book DCI Gillard series is complete, though I may yet add another title or two. My new protagonist is a woman, Detective Inspector Jan Talantire, who is based in the beautiful coastal county of Devon. I signed an eight-book ebook, paperback, and audio deal, with a two book per year schedule, exactly the same as my Gillard series.
Some people would regard my writing schedule as punishing, because I work seven days a week, and rarely take a day off. But I create ideas like an apple tree grows apples. It never feels like work, and I never get writers’ block. My most recent first draft I wrote in seventy-seven straight days, which puts me months ahead of schedule.
The first book in the DI Talantire series is two The Two Deaths of Ruth Lyle, and the second is The Last Ride, published earlier this month by Canelo in ebook and paperback, and by WF Howes in audio.
 
 
Thanks for chatting Nick!
               Thank you for your time and interest, DJ.

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