Martin Edwards

Martin Edwards has been described by Richard Osman as "a true master of British crime writing." His novels include the eight Lake District Mysteries and four books featuring Rachel Savernake, including the Dagger-nominated The Puzzle of Blackstone Lodge. He is also the author of two multi-award-winning histories of crime fiction, The Life of Crime and The Golden Age of Murder. He has received three Daggers, including the CWA Diamond Dagger (the highest honour in UK crime writing) and two Edgars from the Mystery Writers of America. He has received four lifetime achievement awards: for his fiction, short fiction, non-fiction, and scholarship. He is consultant to the British Library’s Crime Classics and since 2015 has been President of the Detection Club.

Edwards's newest novel is Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife.

My Q&A with the author:

How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?

The aim of Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife is to give readers the chance to play mystery games of various kinds as well as enjoying a twisty mystery. Titles are very important, but it wasn’t easy to find a fresh idea that worked for a crime novel set at Christmas. I was keen on Evil under the Snow, as a jokey riff on Agatha Christie’s Evil under the Sun, but my editor suggested Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife. In the end we compromised. Evil under the Snow became the title of a podcast that plays an important part in the story. And I enjoyed finding ways to make my editor’s choice of title highly relevant to what happens in the remote village of Midwinter – even though there is no character called Miss Winter in the story. But the elements of the title all come together, again in a jokey way, in the final pages.

What's in a name?

Names, like titles, are very important. I think it makes sense to choose names that differentiate the characters to some degree and also to fit in with the tone of the book. It’s also a good idea to avoid names that start with the same letter if possible. However, as a lawyer, I’m aware of the dangers of accidental libel. So many of my characters have surnames (but not first names) borrowed from sportsmen of the past, mainly footballers and cricketers.

How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?

Very surprised and very happy, because I dreamed of being a detective story writer from the age of just eight years old, although I didn’t come from a literary background and never even met a writer until I was much older.

Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?

For me, middle sections are the hardest. I usually have a strong idea for a beginning, and by the time I get to the end, I’ve set up my characters and puzzles, so it’s great fun to tie up all the loose ends. Middles are hardest, because you need to sustain the energy and excitement of the narrative without resolving things too quickly. I revise the whole book plenty of times, always striving to make every part of it better. Once it’s gone into print, there’s nothing more you can do, so you have to give it your best shot and work on the manuscript until it’s as strong as possible.

Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?

One of the joys of writing fiction rather than fact (and I write both) is that you can make stuff up. And you can make up people, which I love doing. I’m not trying to write about people in real life, but inventions who are believable and not two-dimensional. But of course my own tastes and experiences influence the way I write and in Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife, to some extent I identified with Harry Crystal, a detective novelist who keeps stumbling into calamities.

What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?

My parents were gifted people who were not ambitious but had happy lives. Growing up, however, I felt they could have achieved a great deal if they had had more ambition. I had a much narrower range of talents than either of them, but I was determined to make the most of my passion for books and writing, and they gave me a good deal of support and encouragement. They also urged me to get a ‘proper job’, which was good advice, because it enabled me to write the books I wanted to write, not the books that publishers told me to write. In the end, that’s worked out pretty well.

Visit Martin Edwards’s website.

Writers Read: Martin Edwards (April 2013).

The Page 69 Test: The Frozen Shroud.

The Page 69 Test: Dancing for the Hangman.

The Page 99 Test: The Arsenic Labyrinth.

The Page 99 Test: Waterloo Sunset.

My Book, The Movie: Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife.

Writers Read: Martin Edwards.

--Marshal Zeringue