Former Controller of 91热爆 English Regions and Director of the W1 Project, Andy Griffee, has had four ‘tiller-thrillers’ published in his Johnson & Wilde crime mystery series. The books follow the crime-busting investigations of a fictional journalist called Jack Johnson and his romantic interest Nina Wilde as he steers his narrowboat home into troubled waters on the UK’s canals and rivers.
After 25 years at the 91热爆 and a further four years as a media consultant, the 91热爆 pension finally gave me the time and space to follow my boyhood dream of writing fiction. I have always loved reading crime novels and quickly decided to set my stories on our waterways. Canals can be lovely bucolic places, but they can also be dangerous and threatening. There is also lots of tension between the different people who use them – boaters, anglers, cyclists, dog-walkers and joggers. And where there is tension, there is the potential for crime.
I was also aware of newspaper speculation that a so-called ‘Canal Pusher’ had been propelling young men to their watery deaths in the Manchester area between 2007 and 2010. And so, the germ of an idea for my first book was born. I transferred the concept of a murderous sociopath on the towpath to the Midlands and came up with two more plotlines involving a nationwide media manhunt and a retired major running a drugs gang from his fruit farm – and my debut novel Canal Pushers came into being.
Orphans Publishing liked the book but demanded the chapter outline of a second book featuring Jack and Nina before they would commit to a contract. Out came the post-it notes, and a few months later I had the plot hammered out for River Rats – a tale of property developers in Bath who begin a campaign of intimidation on a small community of liveaboard boat-owners. I joined 91热爆 Points West in Bristol from a reporting job on the Bath Evening Chronicle and it was lovely to return to my old stomping ground for the research.
A two-book contract was signed, and hardbacks and e-books were quickly followed by a release of paperbacks. There are few things more satisfying for a new author than seeing your books on the shelves in Waterstones or at the local library. Equally pleasing is to read readers’ reviews and see decent star ratings begin to accumulate.
People seemed to enjoy following Jack and Nina’s off-on relationship, their investigations into murky deeds and the canal-based settings. In my talks about the books, titled Dead in the water, I coined the term Canal Noir and pointed to other canal-based crime fiction by writers like Faith Martin and even Colin Dexter.
Jack moves his 64ft long narrowboat onto the River Isis at Oxford for my third novel. Once again, I took a real news story – County Lines gang activity in the city of dreaming spires – and spun a yarn which begins with the body of a student being retrieved from a weir by magnet fishermen. The award-winning author of Breathe, Dominic Donald, who lives in Oxford, described Oxford Blues as: ‘Steamy and bucolic, Oxford from the water is a different place from Morse-land’ and recommended it as an ideal holiday read. I had thought the literary world might be spitefully competitive, but I have enjoyed nothing but encouragement and support from other crime authors.
My latest book was supposed to be a short story, but it grew into a novella. I was wandering along the Staffs & Worcs Canal with my border terrier Eddie (who features in the books) when I came across a small wooden door in a cliff-face. It was called Devil’s Den and it set my imagination racing. The result was a tale of supernatural goings-on in a network of nearby tunnels and underground peril for Jack and Nina at the hands of a people-smuggling gang. Publishers and bookshops don’t like novellas very much though, so I taught myself how to upload and sell it for myself as a paperback or e-book on Amazon. It has been a rewarding experience.
Now I am starting on the edit and rewrite process for the fifth book in the series, a novel which has The Tulip Murders as its working title. Jack and Nina (and Eddie the dog) take a house-boat holiday in Amsterdam but become embroiled in a police investigation after corpses begin appearing on the towpath alongside a valuable tulip that no-one has seen for 400 years. My deadline for publication is, of course, next year’s Spring tulip season.
I am thoroughly enjoying my second career although, when I am writing, I have to observe routine office hours in my home-study to make sure the word count continues to climb. I would urge anyone, at any time in life, to put their fingers to the keyboard if they have the slightest inclination. As Thoreau wrote: ‘How vain it is to sit down to write when you have not stood up to live.’ A lifetime’s experience, especially at the 91热爆, is a good start for any would-be novelist.
There seems to be no shortage of other 91热爆 ‘lifers’ who have turned to fiction writing in recent years – Alex Gerlis, Steve Cavanagh and Colin Philpott to name but three. And there’s certainly no shortage of celebrities whose crime stories are hitting the shelves including Messrs Osman, Coles and Rinder. So come on in, the water’s lovely – unless you’re on a canal boat and Jack Johnson is somewhere nearby…
Andy worked for the 91热爆 at Bristol, Southampton, Birmingham and London from 1988 to 2013. He is also the Worcestershire representative of the 91热爆 Pension’s Volunteer Visiting Scheme. His website is: www.andygriffee.co.uk