scene Cross’, where family, love and business carnal’ without the cringe factor is very eye, partly because lawyers are such a intertwine with intrigue and deceit. Tom hard. Romance is important nonetheless, familiar feature in Gibraltar, partly because flew to Malta purposely to trace Spike’s yet I am inclined to sacrifice a fancy line he did a postgraduate degree in law and movements across the island: or metaphor to the cause of making his wife is a lawyer too, but mainly because “I wanted to give him free rein the story flow more easily for the “I’ve overdosed on police procedurals and Malta has to explore the Mediterranean reader. And these days I avoid grawanted to try a different angle.” Furthersuch close ties – while enjoying his tax-deduc- with Gibraltar tuitous violence – there is so much more, Tom feels at liberty to explore the table holidays, naturally.” sickening stuff in the news already, protagonist’s ‘intellectual hinterland’, as he that it was that one doesn’t want to add to it in believes that “sometimes the poetry-lovthe obvious fiction as well.” ing cop can be a bit of a stretch credibility The idea of a rock-solid setting for wise.” crime-investigating lawyer first Spike’s second Tom explains how the character’s dawned on the author when he spent some time in Gibraltar adventure... looks and brains came together: Tom had written a few books which didn’t – “the country with the highest “I originally had Spike pegged as a get published before hitting the shelves density of lawyers per square metre, more balding thuggish type, but my wife perwith ‘Shadow of the Rock’ in 2012. “They all than anywhere else in the world” – to gain suaded me that a bit of dash never goes featured a crime as the engine for the plot, experience after his postgraduate degree amiss. However, I believe that a character’s but they weren’t really crime novels as in Law: he realised that the Old Town ability to stir an emotional affinity with the such. So I decided to write a proper crime would make the ideal setting for some reader is more important than their looks. novel: there wasn’t a massive difference old fashion mystery, and soon afterwards, I’m currently reading a Michael Connelly between the two, just a sense that the ‘Shadow of the Rock’ was published. novel and I have no idea what Bosch looks story had to come first and that each event like (and don’t really care): he just resohad to contribute to furthering the plot. nates! Hopefully, Spike’s moral fibre, even Perhaps that’s why I’ve always been drawn He hoped that people might be interested if he makes mistakes, particularly to crime fiction: I like to be whisked by Spike’s adventures in Gibraltar as an inalong by story.” triguing location, since he felt that the Brit- with women, is his most alluring He realised aspect.” ish media often portray Gibraltar just for that the Old its connections to Britain. “There is much Town would To those who dismiss crime fiction more to the place than that, and I wanted Spike is “a composite of a number as beneath literary, he replies that make the there’s plenty of crime fiction that people to discover it for themselves, and of lawyer friends I have watched ideal setting can rival classic fiction, and that the visit the Rock to learn more.” over the years, who combine for some distinction is fairly futile anyway. testing jobs with the demands of old fashion “As long as the characterisation is relationships and families. I get A Gibraltarian of mixed Italian and Malmystery... strong, and the writing is fresh and the sense that life ‘goes to work’ tese descent, Spike runs a successful legal truthful instead of lazy or clichéd, it on lawyers in quite a brutal way: practice which keeps him crazy busy, but doesn’t matter what genre your book falls be they the commercial solicitor fighting to never so much that he can’t help out a into: good writing is good writing.” Crime make partner who works a hundred-hour good friend, or sleuth out a good mystery week and never goes home, or the criminal fiction is highly versatile, he adds: “Most – and definitely never so much that he books contain a crime somewhere in the barrister slowly becoming inured to what can’t score some romance along the way. plot. From ‘Jane Eyre’ to ‘Oliver Twist’, find they see day to day, lawyers are pulled in Romance is a pivotal part of the story beme a classic that doesn’t!” cause “if you are trying to make a character all sorts of directions and their personalities get sorely tested. Of course, the breathe on the page, you have to show beauty of the legal profession in Gibraltar The first three books in the series, ‘Shadow his or her full life, and relationships are is that all types of legal work are available, of the Rock’, ‘Sign of the Cross’ and ‘Hollow essential to that”. so Spike can be pulled in any direction I Mountain’ have recently been optioned want!” for television. “No guarantee they will get However, Thomas’s wife advised him filmed,” Tom sighs, “but in case they do, any against sexually explicit scenes, so this suggestions for casting Spike and Jessica He chose the less-travelled path of a novel contains nothing to alarm the are much appreciated!” lawyer protagonist over the more clichéd guardians of young readers. “I’m grateful For more info visit www.thomasmogford.com. detective, whether police officer or private for that advice, as writing about ‘matters
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