D. E. Meredith

D.E. Meredith read English at Cambridge, then ran the press office and the land mines campaign for the Red Cross, travelling extensively to Bosnia, Afghanistan and Rwanda during the conflicts. She worked as a consultant on media relations for Greenpeace and other worthy causes before embarking on "The Hatton and Roumande Mysteries" series for St Martin's Press (Devoured, October 2010, The Devil's Ribbon, October 2011).

From a Q & A about the Hatton and Roumande mysteries:

Tell us about your book.

“Devoured” is a classic murder mystery combining an eclectic mix of early forensic science and the nineteenth-century craze for specimen collecting, set against a backdrop of a river adventure into the heart of Borneo’s steaming jungle and an evil heart of darkness.

What inspired you to write this book?

Quite simply reading the wonderful “The Malay Archipelago” by Alfred Russel Wallace. It’s an amazing window into the mind of one of the world’s greatest naturalists, who has been overshadowed by his more famous contemporary, Charles Darwin. This famous travelogue describes Russel Wallace’s work, ambitions and thinking as he travelled into the remotest corners of the earth looking for birds, butterflies and beasts.

Is Professor Hatton based on anyone real?

No, but I did get his name from a Victorian graveyard near where I live. He is completely imagined. There were no famous forensic scientists working with Scotland Yard in the mid Victorian period, as far as I know. However, I did base him loosely on the character Ed Norton plays in the film version of, “The Painted Veil.” Like Somerset Maugham’s character, Walter Vane, Professor Hatton is thin, milk pale, repressed and uptight, in the way only an Englishman can be. He is intent only on his work - work which was deemed to be Godless, highly controversial and to many ordinary people at the time, next to devil worshipping. Hatton feels...[read on]

Learn more about the book and author at Denise Meredith's website.

The Page 69 Test: The Devil's Ribbon.

My Book, The Movie: The Devil's Ribbon.

Writers Read: D.E. Meredith.

--Marshal Zeringue