A Profile of Martin Edwards by Alison White

First Cut Is the Deepest is Martin Edwards latest work, and fans will have their expectations of ‘a good read,’ nicely met, yet there are some surprises in there too. This book is a departure in various respects from the earlier novels featuring Edwards’ series character, the hapless Harry Devlin, a Liverpool solicitor with an unfortunate ability to stumble upon murder.

"You are becoming darker, deadlier and thoroughly gruesome," I told the author, after reading this latest work. "I am," he said, with relish. "We all have to move on."

And moved on, Martin Edwards certainly has. The Harry Devlin series began in 1991, with All The Lonely People. Firmly set in Liverpool, as hinted at by the evocative Beatles echo in the title, in this story, Harry’s ex-wife Liz, with whom he is still infatuated, turns up at his dockside flat. Sadly, she is not there to kiss and make-up - but is very frightened. Harry wants to help, but the next day Liz disappears and it seems she was right to be frightened. When the police come looking for Harry when Liz is found brutally murdered, then he has every right to be frightened too. Harry sets out to find out the truth, while still coming to the terms with the fact that his wife is gone forever. Loneliness is a key theme to this story - indeed Devlin is a lonely man. Even when he finally does discover the truth about his wife’s death...he is still very much alone.

This novel was nominated for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Award for best first crime novel of the year - the winner was Walter Mosley with Devil In A Blue Dress. Heady stuff though, to even be nominated. So why fiction? And in particular, what made Martin Edwards turn to crime?

"I’d written legal books - all told, I’ve published half a dozen, as well as four or five hundred articles - and that gave me experience of dealing with editors and writing professionally. But I had always dreamed - ever since I was a small boy - of publishing a novel. Not just any old novel, specifically a crime novel. The genre has always fascinated me. It still does. Its possibilities seem to me to be almost infinite and yet there is an element of structural discipline which, thoughtfully applied, can be enormously attractive, to writers as well as to readers."

With the authors’ passion for crime fiction and working himself as a Liverpool solicitor, then perhaps Harry Devlin’s conception was inevitable. Although Harry is not, Edwards is quite adamant on this, in any way a self portrait. Sure, they have one or two things in common, but there it ends. Not least the number of dead bodies they encounter. Which one would hope, would be considerably less in Edwards’ case. There are difficulties of course, when using a series character in keeping the body count plausible. Edwards is philosophical about this.

"It’s often said that there isn’t so much scope nowadays for the amateur detective, except possibly for the amateur who may have professional connections with the world of crime, such as a lawyer, a journalist or an insurance investigator. Fictional sleuths are, at least in this country, more and more likely to be professional police officers. But I tend to think that this trend has emerged mainly because many of our best crime writers - Rendell, James, Dexter, Hill, Rankin and so on - simply happen to have policeman as their heroes. In reality, it’s not much more likely that one chief inspector would keep stumbling over mysterious murders in his own backyard than an inquisitive amateur like Harry."

With the success of his first book and the ambition to publish a novel fulfilled, a desire to publish a second followed, and Suspicious Minds was born. A music lover, Edwards takes each of his titles from pop songs which give significant clues to the themes of his books. It’s a wonder Harry is able to sleep at night in this book, as first, a client’s wife goes missing, then his daughter and her boyfriend. At the same time, a sex attacker is terrorising the neighbourhood. What’s a guy to do? Solve it all, if your name’s Harry Devlin. But it’s never that easy and when brutal murder is involved and Harry’s suspicions lead to inevitable disaster and a clash of personal and professional loyalties.

This book has a more complex structure than Harry’s first outing, in which the character was very much established and of course the murder was very close to his heart in the first book, so there was more emotional involvement for him. It’s often said that the second novel is harder for authors to write than their first, I asked how Edwards felt about this.

"At the time, I was very happy with this book and my publisher gave it a rapturous reception. All very exciting. With hindsight, though, I’d like to have developed the character of the culprit in more detail. It’s a common feature of the detective novel - as opposed to a work of psychological suspense - that the killer’s motivation is sketched in quite lightly, so as not to give the game away too early in the narrative. As I’ve gained in experience, I’ve devoted more and more attention to characterisation. Yet I’ve tried to avoid sacrificing strength of plot. It does seem to me that the literary quality of crime novels is, in general, higher today than ever. But there are plenty of well written suspense novels that aren’t quite as suspenseful as they might be, because of a tendency to neglect plot. The best crime novelists - again I think of the likes of Ruth Rendell - are skilled not only at delineation of character but also at composition of plot."

In his third book, I Remember You, Edwards’ continues with the interweaving of plots, and definitely not at the expense of character, as the appearance of the colourful tattooist Finbar Rogan can testify. Certainly someone seems to want to harm Finbar, first his studio is destroyed in a fire and then a bomb is planted under his car. The fire provides a dramatic, and gripping opening to this book. "Flames licked at the building, greedy as the tongues of teenage lovers." And once again Harry is drawn into a tangled web of secrets and deceit. I asked Edwards’ for his thoughts on this work.

"In this book, memories - Harry’s, the killer’s and the principal victim’s - play a key part in the story. There is also a sub-plot connected with Harry’s legal work. Readers often point out that he doesn’t spend as much time working in the office as he should - but who can blame him?"

To a certain extent, Edwards’ stayed with a memory theme with his next book, Yesterday’s Papers. This time Harry finds himself looking into an incident which occurred thirty years previously, when an amateur criminologist tries to persuade him there was a miscarriage of justice. When Harry begins investigating and another death occurs, it does seem that someone out there is frightened of what might be uncovered. An atmospheric book, Edwards’ says he enjoyed writing this book enormously. "The plot is multi-layered, it concerns a strangling back in the sixties and I had the opportunity to dig into Liverpool’s past and the Mersey Beat era. Great fun. The Sunday Times ranked it as one of the paperbacks of the year, which was wonderful and would have been even more wonderful if it had prompted the publishers to get a few more copies into the shops."

That said, it certainly didn’t prevent Eve of Destruction reaching the shops. Edwards says, "In all my books, I like to touch on aspects of society that intrigue me and this is no exception. Voyeurism for example, is a key element of this story." Again in this story, an intriguing and interwoven plot is a key element.

Yet after this book, Edwards’, though still writing of Harry Devlin, seemed to change direction a little, The Devil in Disguise, was a very different book in many ways. I asked the author what had brought this about. "I’d been determined for many years that one day I would create a classic Golden Age type mystery, but set in a contemporary urban setting rather than Mayhem Parva. This is one of the lightest of my novels, full of jokes about the legal profession, and with another elaborate whodunit puzzle. It wasn’t in any sense a trendy book, and I wasn’t sure how people would react to it, but my new publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, were tremendously enthusiastic and thankfully the reviews turned out to be great."

As hopefully so, for the latest offering, First Cut Is the Deepest? "Yes. I’m keen to ring the changes with the Harry Devlin series. I don’t want to stick to a formula or become stale. Quite simply, I’m trying to write a better book each time out. This one is pretty ambitious. It’s much darker than the others and there is far more emphasis on Harry’s personal life."

Edwards is also a regular contributor to various magazines as a reviewer. He says, "Because I’m so keen on crime fiction, it’s no hardship to review books. The only problem is finding the time to read as many as I would wish. It’s probably a mistake to over-intellectualise about any type of popular culture, but I do enjoy writing essays on aspects of crime writing that interest me. A couple of dozen or more of my pieces - including an article on "The Prodigal in Crime Fiction," would you believe? - appear in the new Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing. One day, I’d like to write a whole book about the genre. And if it turned out to be half as good as Julian Symons’ classic Bloody Murder, I’d be delighted.

Novelist, reviewer and editor too, for Edwards has reviewed several volumes of short stories. "I’ve always enjoyed reading them and editing anthologies for regional chapters of the CWA was a labour of love. When the chance came to edit the CWA’s national anthology, I jumped at it. So far as writing short stories is concerned, I’ve published several featuring Harry and a couple involving impossible crimes, but the form also gives me the chance to experiment. I’ve had several historical mysteries accepted recently, plus a Sherlockian pastiche and singletons written from different points of view - with gay or female narrators, for instance. It’s a good way of stretching as an author, of taking chances and learning more about the craft of writing."

With so many demands upon his time, I wondered how the author managed to balance everything in his life. "Badly! I’m focused on trying to write so much and am motivated to write, so it is difficult to fit everything in."

In Shots, Autumn 98, Paul Charles said of Edwards, "Martin Edwards has a lot going for him. He’s from Liverpool and he’s a member of the fab four. That’s crimewriting’s fab four, Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin, R.D.Wingfield and the aforementioned author."

Pretty good company. Pretty good prospects. So what can we expect in the future? "I plan to keep writing about Harry indefinitely. I’m sure there’s plenty of mileage left in the character. I feel as though I keep learning about him all the time. And about the supporting cast, as well. They are becoming more important. I really enjoy writing the books and I hope that my commitment to entertaining my readers comes through. I’d like to think so. There’s often talk of television - at present, there’s an option out, with a popular tv star attached to the project. Whether it will come to anything, we’ll have to wait and see. I’d also like to try my hand at other types of crime novel, but not at Harry’s expense. I like him too much."

Well that’s good news for us, as Martin Edwards is up there with the Masters.

*First Cut is the Deepest is published by Hodder and Stoughton, £16.99

A version of this article has appeared in Mystery Writers' Journal and Shots.

A Profile of Martin Edwards by Alison White

'Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and other crime stories,' collects together 27 short stories written over the past ten years by Martin Edwards and published in a wide range of magazines and anthologies here and overseas. Edwards says, "I've used the short form to experiment as a writer, and to expand my range as far as possible, by exploring a wide range of themes and settings."

He certainly has, the book contains nine stories with historical settings, including two Sherlockian pastiches, ten, including the title story, are tales of psychological suspense, and eight feature Harry Devlin, Edwards' series character, the hapless Harry Devlin, a Liverpool solicitor with an unfortunate ability to stumble upon murder.

The Harry Devlin series began in 1991, with All The Lonely People. Firmly set in Liverpool, as hinted at by the evocative Beatles echo in the title, in this story, Harry's ex-wife Liz, with whom he is still infatuated, turns up at his dockside flat. Sadly, she is not there to kiss and make-up - but is very frightened. Harry wants to help, but the next day Liz disappears and it seems she was right to be frightened. When the police come looking for Harry when Liz is found brutally murdered, then he has every right to be frightened too. Harry sets out to find out the truth, while still coming to the terms with the fact that his wife is gone forever. Loneliness is a key theme to this story - indeed Devlin is a lonely man. Even when he finally does discover the truth about his wife's death...he is still very much alone.

This novel was nominated for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Award for best first crime novel of the year - the winner was Walter Mosley with Devil In A Blue Dress. Heady stuff though, to even be nominated. So why fiction? And in particular, what made Martin Edwards turn to crime?

"I'd written legal books - all told, I've published half a dozen, as well as four or five hundred articles - and that gave me experience of dealing with editors and writing professionally. But I had always dreamed - ever since I was a small boy - of publishing a novel. Not just any old novel, specifically a crime novel. The genre has always fascinated me. It still does. Its possibilities seem to me to be almost infinite and yet there is an element of structural discipline which, thoughtfully applied, can be enormously attractive, to writers as well as to readers."

With the authors' passion for crime fiction and working himself as a Liverpool solicitor, then perhaps Harry Devlin's conception was inevitable. Although Harry is not, Edwards is quite adamant on this, in any way a self portrait. Sure, they have one or two things in common, but there it ends. Not least the number of dead bodies they encounter. Which one would hope, would be considerably less in Edwards' case. There are difficulties of course, when using a series character in keeping the body count plausible. Edwards is philosophical about this.

"It's often said that there isn't so much scope nowadays for the amateur detective, except possibly for the amateur who may have professional connections with the world of crime, such as a lawyer, a journalist or an insurance investigator. Fictional sleuths are, at least in this country, more and more likely to be professional police officers. But I tend to think that this trend has emerged mainly because many of our best crime writers - Rendell, James, Dexter, Hill, Rankin and so on - simply happen to have policeman as their heroes. In reality, it's not much more likely that one chief inspector would keep stumbling over mysterious murders in his own backyard than an inquisitive amateur like Harry."

With the success of his first book and the ambition to publish a novel fulfilled, a desire to publish a second followed, and Suspicious Minds was born. A music lover, Edwards takes each of his titles from pop songs which give significant clues to the themes of his books. It's a wonder Harry is able to sleep at night in this book, as first, a client's wife goes missing, then his daughter and her boyfriend. At the same time, a sex attacker is terrorising the neighbourhood. What's a guy to do? Solve it all, if your name's Harry Devlin. But it's never that easy and when brutal murder is involved and Harry's suspicions lead to inevitable disaster and a clash of personal and professional loyalties.

This book has a more complex structure than Harry's first outing, in which the character was very much established and of course the murder was very close to his heart in the first book, so there was more emotional involvement for him. It's often said that the second novel is harder for authors to write than their first, I asked how Edwards felt about this.

"At the time, I was very happy with this book and my publisher gave it a rapturous reception. All very exciting. With hindsight, though, I'd like to have developed the character of the culprit in more detail. It's a common feature of the detective novel - as opposed to a work of psychological suspense - that the killer's motivation is sketched in quite lightly, so as not to give the game away too early in the narrative. As I've gained in experience, I've devoted more and more attention to characterisation. Yet I've tried to avoid sacrificing strength of plot. It does seem to me that the literary quality of crime novels is, in general, higher today than ever. But there are plenty of well written suspense novels that aren't quite as suspenseful as they might be, because of a tendency to neglect plot. The best crime novelists - again I think of the likes of Ruth Rendell - are skilled not only at delineation of character but also at composition of plot."

In his third book, I Remember You, Edwards' continues with the interweaving of plots, and definitely not at the expense of character, as the appearance of the colourful tattooist Finbar Rogan can testify. Certainly someone seems to want to harm Finbar, first his studio is destroyed in a fire and then a bomb is planted under his car. The fire provides a dramatic, and gripping opening to this book. "Flames licked at the building, greedy as the tongues of teenage lovers." And once again Harry is drawn into a tangled web of secrets and deceit. I asked Edwards' for his thoughts on this work.

"In this book, memories - Harry's, the killer's and the principal victim's - play a key part in the story. There is also a sub-plot connected with Harry's legal work. Readers often point out that he doesn't spend as much time working in the office as he should - but who can blame him?"

To a certain extent, Edwards' stayed with a memory theme with his next book, Yesterday's Papers. This time Harry finds himself looking into an incident which occurred thirty years previously, when an amateur criminologist tries to persuade him there was a miscarriage of justice. When Harry begins investigating and another death occurs, it does seem that someone out there is frightened of what might be uncovered. An atmospheric book, Edwards' says he enjoyed writing this book enormously. "The plot is multi-layered, it concerns a strangling back in the sixties and I had the opportunity to dig into Liverpool's past and the Mersey Beat era. Great fun. The Sunday Times ranked it as one of the paperbacks of the year, which was wonderful and would have been even more wonderful if it had prompted the publishers to get a few more copies into the shops."

That said, it certainly didn't prevent Eve of Destruction reaching the shops. Edwards says, "In all my books, I like to touch on aspects of society that intrigue me and this is no exception. Voyeurism for example, is a key element of this story." Again in this story, an intriguing and interwoven plot is a key element.

Yet after this book, Edwards', though still writing of Harry Devlin, seemed to change direction a little, The Devil in Disguise, was a very different book in many ways. I asked the author what had brought this about. "I'd been determined for many years that one day I would create a classic Golden Age type mystery, but set in a contemporary urban setting rather than Mayhem Parva. This is one of the lightest of my novels, full of jokes about the legal profession, and with another elaborate whodunit puzzle. It wasn't in any sense a trendy book, and I wasn't sure how people would react to it, but my new publishers, Hodder and Stoughton, were tremendously enthusiastic and thankfully the reviews turned out to be great."

First Cut Is the Deepest, followed, and again the author demonstrated he would not stand still, as this was much darker than his earlier works - and also more gruesome. Edwards agrees, "Yes. I'm keen to ring the changes with the Harry Devlin series. I don't want to stick to a formula or become stale. Quite simply, I'm trying to write a better book each time out."

Edwards is also a regular contributor to various magazines as a reviewer. He says, "Because I'm so keen on crime fiction, it's no hardship to review books. The only problem is finding the time to read as many as I would wish. It's probably a mistake to over-intellectualise about any type of popular culture, but I do enjoy writing essays on aspects of crime writing that interest me. A couple of dozen or more of my pieces - including an article on "The Prodigal in Crime Fiction," would you believe? - appear in the new Oxford Companion to Crime and Mystery Writing. One day, I'd like to write a whole book about the genre. And if it turned out to be half as good as Julian Symons' classic Bloody Murder, I'd be delighted.

Novelist, short story writer, reviewer and editor too, for Edwards has reviewed several volumes of short stories. "I've always enjoyed reading them and editing anthologies for regional chapters of the CWA was a labour of love. When the chance came to edit the CWA's national anthology, I jumped at it."

Edwards' versatility was further underlined a couple of years back when he was commissioned to finish The Lazarus Widow, the last Scottish police novel to be written by the late Bill Knox. "We'd never met, we came from different generations and our interests as writers were very different. So completing his novel was a tremendous challenge - all the more so since Bill never left any notes to indicate what the solution was going to be! But I wanted the reader not to be able to 'see the join,' where Bill's manuscript stopped and I took over, and I found the whole project utterly fascinating."

With so many demands upon his time, I wondered how the author managed to balance everything in his life. "Badly! I'm focused on trying to write so much and am motivated to write, so it is difficult to fit everything in."

That said, he's still managed to fit in writing another novel, Take My Breath Away, will be published by Allison and Busby in May. It represents a complete departure from the Harry Devlin series. The book is set mainly in London and opens with a shocking murder - committed by a dead woman. This is, by far, his most ambitious book so far, as well as the crime theme, there are also underlying elements of political satire.

"The idea for the book haunted me for years. I wanted desperately to write it. Then, when I set down to work, I found it was the hardest task I'd ever set myself. But I'm thrilled that, after two and half years, all the strands of the story finally came together in a way that was very rewarding. Thrilled and truly relieved!"

Thrilled is exactly what Edwards' fans will be knowing his book of short stories is available now, and his new novel to follow in May. Whatever Edwards' tries next, with his commitment and talent, then it's bound to please.

A version of this article has appeared in Shots.