Tell us a little bit about what inspired the series and the character of Anita Sundstrom? I was inspired by my first trip to southern Sweden in We were visiting our elder son who had just moved there. At the time, I was trying to break into scriptwriting and I thought Sweden would be a good location for crime stories β this was well before the Scandi-crime invasion.
On that first trip we stayed with a blonde female detective who has now become one of our greatest friends. I came up with a couple of ideas, one of which featured a blonde female detective. One thing advertising taught me was never waste an idea! Though in this book I use a British character to introduce Sweden to an English-reading audience, it centres round a blonde female detective!
By being just an ordinary member of the squad it means that there is more scope for tension within the group.
There are some lovely little twists and turns in the story β do you plan the whole thing prior to writing or sometimes let the outcome surprise even you? I sometimes have the first scene or the last, and then work from there. I do like to be surprised. If you mean routine, then I have a haphazard one. In theory, I try and work through until about six in the evening, but a huge amount of time wasting goes on during the day. Until last year, when I was still working as a freelance copywriter, I had to fit the books in round my work β the odd half hour here, the occasional hour there.
So I do tend to write in bursts. But one of the advantages of having spent 36 years writing advertising copy every day is that you never have to wait for the muse to come β you just sit down and write. I hope to bring that out in time for the festive season. I love history, and my favourite character is the despicable Harry Flashman.
