In The Spotlight - Tom Wood

Name:- Tom Wood

Job:- True Crime Writer, Retired Detective, Columnist for The Scotsman

Website:- tomwoodwriter.co.uk

Twitter @TomJWood25

Introduction

Tom Wood was one of Scotland’s most senior and experienced operational police officers. He is an authority on serious violent crime, the policing of large-scale events and a noted authority on the police perspectives on drugs and alcohol. He was Deputy Chief Constable and Director of Operations of Lothian and Borders Police and Officer in Overall Command of the linked murder investigation into the deaths of a number of young women including Helen Scott and Christine Eadie (The World’s End Murders). His current book is Ruxton: The First Modern Murder.

Current book?

I am currently reading Max Hastings expansive history of The Vietnam War - Vietnam. I am currently writing a book about prostitution ‘A public service, stories and voices from the sex industry’ - wonderful subject. 

Favourite book?

Robert Louis Stevenson’s ‘Treasure Island’ fascinated me as a boy and gave me a love of the sea. 

Which two characters would you invite to dinner and why?

As a former detective it would have to be Sherlock Holmes and for pure entertainment it would be GM Fraser’s great anti-hero Harry Flashman - whatever else it wouldn’t be dull! 

How do you relax?

I’m an outdoor person, sailing, fly-fishing, motor cycling. 

What book do you wish you had written and why? 

I wish I had written ‘The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner’ - which was written by James Hogg (The Ettrick Shepherd). This novel influenced Edgar Allan Poe, Wordsworth and Robert Louis Stevenson. A wonderful study of human nature. 

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer?

‘Get a move on’ I won a pretty big essay competition when I was at primary school then wrote nothing except police reports for fifty years! 

How would you describe your series character?

Since I write about real crimes I don’t have a series character as such- but I do like to draw forgotten heroes back into the light. I am fascinated by histories partiality- who is forgotten and who and why others are remembered. 

My two historic crime novels would be - 

‘His Bloody Project ‘completely different, fresh and compelling (Graeme M Burnet) and ‘The Suspicions of Mr Witcher ‘A police procedural with a difference - wonderfully interpreted. (Kate Summerscale)

Ruxton: The First Modern Murder by Tom Wood (Published by Thomas J Wood)

Two dismembered bodies discarded in the borderlands of Scotland, hideously mutilated to

avoid identification.  Forty-three pieces of rotten flesh and bone wrapped in rags and newspaper.  A jigsaw puzzle of decomposing human remains. A glamorous young wife and her dutiful nursemaid missing.  A handsome, mild-mannered town doctor insanely jealous of his wife’s friendships with other men. It is 1935 and the deaths of Isabella Ruxton and Mary Rogerson would result in one of the most complex investigations the world had ever seen.  The gruesome murders captured worldwide attention with newspapers keeping the public enthralled with all the gory details. But behind the headlines was a different, more important story: the ground-breaking work of Scottish forensic scientists who developed new techniques to solve the case and shape the future of criminal investigation.   With access to previously unseen documents, this book re-examines the case and reveals for the first time the incredible inside story of the investigation and its legacy.  This is the first modern murder.