Lifestyle: Lawyer turned crime novelist explains his passion
FOR most people doing well in one career is enough, but Martin Edwards is the exception.
By day he is a partner and head of employment at North West law firm Mace & Jones, while in his spare time he is a successful author.
His latest novel, The Serpent Pool, is set in the Lake District, and thrillingly marries suspense, literature and the un-ravelling relationship of its central character, DCI Hannah Scarlett.
The Serpent Pool is Lymm-based Edwards’ fourth Lake District Mystery, and has been published in this country and in the US too.
He has already begun the next novel in the series – which is set in the Keswick area – and takes place six months after the end of the Serpent Pool.
Asked about his passion for writing and his two careers, he says: “I always wanted to be an author, from a very young age.
“I studied law as a means to pay the mortgage and found that I liked it. I began to write legal texts and articles before the publication of the first novel.”
He has written 14 novels so far, the most successful being The Coffin Trail, the first Lake District Mystery, which was shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year in 2006.
He says of the current series: “No one had ever set a crime series in the Lake District before and I thought it was an excellent location.
“The Liverpool Series, had a male protagonist, Harry Devlin, and I thought for this one I’d have a female protagonist and explore the developing relationship between her and the male character, Daniel Kind.”
Although there has been interest in bringing his work to television, Martin is not holding his breath.
“If it happens, that would be great, but it’s not in my control, I’ll just keep writing the books in the mean-time.”
The novel begins with the gruesome murder of a well-heeled book collector, which rocks the close-knit (and promiscuous) Lakeside community to its core.
The action then shifts to the everyday life of DCI Hannah Scarlett, who runs the cold cases team at Cumbria Constabulary.
She is investigating the mysterious death of Bethany Friend, in a snake-shaped pond – the Serpent Pool – six years previously.
Hannah’s probe become inexorably linked to the recent murder of book-loving George Saffell, who was a customer of her partner, Marc.
Marc has a wandering eye, while Hannah struggles to suppress her feelings for the academic son of her former boss, Daniel Kind, who in turn carries a torch for her.
Daniel has returned to the Lake District to speak at a literary festival to mark the work of the Manchester-born Romantic poet Thomas de Quincey, who was fascinated by the act of murder.
Literature and books are central themes of the novel, along with murder (obviously), obsession, and the contrast between spiritual love and animal passion.
Fast-paced with an excellent conclusion, Martin Edwards’ characters are well-thought-out and rounded.
