Exclusive interview with author Elizabeth Corley and a review of her very scary serial killer mystery novel
Rating: Three Stars
by Gabrielle Pantera
“I had been mulling over the dynamic opportunities of what might happen if there was an ‘understudy’ to a seriously deranged criminal for some time,” says Grave Doubts author Elizabeth Corley. “Something more than a mere copycat crime, but two people egging each other on to bolder and more violent crime. At the same time I had a strong desire to write scenes in parts of the UK with a strong sense of place…the mill farm in Devon to where the killer tracks Nightingale, the northern Devonshire coast at the peak of the holiday season contrasting with the tougher countryside around Telford.”
The Nightingale to whom the author refers is Sergeant Louise Nightingale, viciously attacked by a serial rapist intent on murder. There is a stalker terrorizing the countryside and her colleague Detective Chief Inspector Andrew Fenwick is investigating. He wonders if they after the right guy or a copycat.
The character of Sergeant Louise Nightingale is a strong woman who is capable and resourceful. The book is suspenseful with a little bit of romance, but the story is really about the detectives and the details of tracking the stalker-killer. The book is very scary. Be ready to check your doors and windows and sleep with the lights on.
“Writing crime thriller fiction has led me to meet some fascinating people as I research the detective and forensic aspects of the book,” says Corley. “I spent time at one of the major detective centers in the UK receiving all sorts of advice and interesting insight. I was surprised at how relatively ‘low tech’ the detective rooms looked…nothing like in CSI dramas. But, the unseen technology is impressive. Also the straight- forwardness with which they describe investigating crimes that most of us would find impossible to deal with.”
After Corley completed the draft manuscript, her UK publisher sent it back saying it was way too long. “It is a long book but the momentum in it is strong and none of the plot lines or characters deserved ending up on the floor,” says Corley. “In the end I changed my UK publisher.”
She visited crime scenes, checked train timetables, and traced ordnance survey maps for footpaths, and even checked the times of high tides for one scene. “There is an enormous amount of background information available on the Internet and in specialist books, but hearing direct from practitioners is invaluable,” says Corley. “I participated in a conference on forensic science for crime writers, held by one of the leading forensic pathologists in the UK and attended talks arranged by the CWA on specialist topics. For this book I also subscribed to the weekly police news magazine.”
Sonia Land at Shiel Land Associates is Corley’s agent. Corley searched in the Writers and Artists Yearbook for agents who specialized in crime fiction and found Land there. “When we met, I realized that we had actually been at a dinner together only a few months before,” says Corley, “but I didn’t know then what she did.”
Corley has written five novels in the Fenwick and Nightingale series. She’s working on the sixth now. The idea for Grave Doubts came to her as she was finishing Fatal Legacy. There was interest in adapting the series for German TV, but the series has yet to be optioned.
Corley says she takes great pleasure is meeting fellow crime writers, that many are drinking buddies.
Corley travels extensively as CEO of a global investment management company, dividing her time between London, Germany and France, and sometimes the USA, Canada, and parts of Europe and Asia. She was born in Luton and grew up in Sussex, where the series is set.
Grave Doubts: A DCI Andrew Fenwick Mystery book 3 by Elizabeth Corley. Hardcover, 544 pages, Publisher: Minotaur Books (July 1, 2014), Language: English. ISBN13 9781250024862 $27.99
