So we’ve just had Capital Crime here in London near St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a brilliant three days full of panels with debuts through to legends of the crime writing world. I covered two of the events – So you want to be a private investigator and Clare Mackintosh interviewed by David Headley.

 

Mike and Chris Jennings are two brothers who have a private detective agency together. That alone sounds like the start of a great book or TV series! They were a fantastic double act as they chatted with Ayo Onatade, with Mike willing to share anecdotes and Chris suggesting not. Mike was formerly in the army and started the agency. Chris, the older of the two, retired from the police after 30 years, having reached the rank of Chief Inspector.

 

In the early days of private investigation, it was a case of  ‘anything goes’, especially as there was no formal licensing. It’s still not required but it will be coming in at some point. Their book, So You Want To Be A Private Investigator?, is an introduction to the world of private detection. Mike and Chris also run a fully accredited course for budding PIs. They find people come on the course for a variety of reasons. Often people want to work freelance and have something different every day. You certainly need to be prepared for the bizarre.

Some misconceptions that clients have is that they think PIs can work outside the law. This is not the case and having good knowledge of the law is important so that you don’t break it! PIs have no statutory powers and need to know ethics to skirt the grey areas.

A couple of their bugbears about fictional private investigators are there is no friendly police officer feeding information. Nor are the police thick. Important to think about if you’re writing this genre of fiction.

 

Some of the jobs that Mike and Chris take on are defence cases for suspects. Just as the police investigate for the prosecution, PIs will often look at the evidence for the defence. So a lot of their work comes from solicitors and barristers. There are, inevitably, marital issue cases that they look at, plus fraud cases where people are claiming to be sick or disabled when they’re not. This kind of work often involves lots of surveillance. Investigators need to be prepared to sit in a car for hours and stay focused. This job may not appeal to action-based people. They’ve found a lot of women have taken their course and stand out less when following people. As a writer, this is good to know! I could have listened to Mike and Chris for much longer than the fifty minutes we had.

If you’d like to buy Chris and Mike’s book then click here.

 

Equally, I could have listened to Clare Mackintosh and David Headley for much longer too! They were discussing Clare’s new novel – It’s Not What You Think. I’ve not read this yet so it was intriguing to listen to Clare talking about it. She is, of course, the Queen of Twists and there is a specific one in this new book. She wasn’t sure if it would be possible to do but knew she’d have to try. As this isn’t the first time Clare has put big twists in her stories, she finds that she has to think carefully about where the twist will land in the book. She looks for a different shape or structure each time.

 

Clare doesn’t normally think about themes when she starts writing. Sometimes it will be a character or a setting, a dilemma or a twist. But with It’s Not What You Think, she had something she wanted to say with the twist. This book examines a political and topical issue that threatens our society and wanted to explore how that might happen with the people who walk among you. Clare wrote the book two years ago but the issue is even more apparent now as our society polarises and loses its nuance. As serious as that all sounds, Clare does feature some humour in this novel when appropriate to do so.

Clare saw the first scene in her head to begin with. She likes a slow start to a story but is aware that readers don’t so she needed some propulsion in that opening chapter. The book took a year to write and she was worried that someone else would write the twist before she did. Thankfully, no one else did.

Clare likes to write characters at breaking point. It might be a hang over from her twelve years in the police where she saw people at raw times and at their most vulnerable. This would create a tipping point to make different decisions.

 

Despite everything Clare puts her characters through, she herself is an optimistic person. She believes in redemption and restorative justice. She’s aware that people can’t help what they’re born into and how it might affect them.

David asked if success has changed her. She doesn’t think so. It’s nice to fly around the world and attend events but equally she’s had to deal with her goat’s lice infestation recently. I think it’s fair to say she’s very grounded.

Has success brought her freedom? No, if anything she feels a bit trapped on the treadmill of publishing, meeting deadlines. But she couldn’t do anything else now. And for that, we’re all very happy!

If you’d like to buy Clare’s new book then click here.

 

There were lots of panels to choose from and a highlight for me was seeing Chris Lang talk about screen writing. Unforgotten is one of my most favourite crime dramas and it was amazing to hear him. A big thank you to Capital Crime and Karen Cole for inviting me to attend the festival. Capital Crime will return next year in a new venue! It’s moving to The Brewery near the Barbican and will be a bit earlier in the year – Fri 28th- Sun 30th May. You can buy Early Bird tickets now! Click here.