This topic of research is one I often get asked about, and one I throw myself at with a bit too much gusto. So much of the time, way more often than you’d imagine, the truth is so much wilder and more unbelievable than the fiction I end up writing. Many times my editors have said ‘this is too much’ or ‘this is ridiculous’ and it has been something that has been hijacked from real life.
The North West is where I grew up, my home town being Warrington, which, for the uninitiated, is between Liverpool and Manchester; two powerhouse cities that have their own industries, histories, identities – and crime. And here, in Warrington, we have a hotchpotch mixture of all these things that has been distilled so finely through time that it is an identity all our own. I’ve always found this completely fascinating. I’m a citizen of these areas, and for want of a better word, I get stuck in.
So much of the information and inspiration I come across is thanks to me being a creature of habit and a ‘yes’ person. I am who I am. I like to pop down the pub and chat with people. I like working in the pub, as I find the setting somehow soothing and inspiring. I’m writing this piece in The Horseshoe in Croft, a Guinness by my elbow. It just works for me.
It’s not just on home turf either. When I travel anywhere, I always search out the local pub or bar, because it’s a bit like a barometer. You can find out so much about the vibe and themes of a place by hanging out in one of its bars for just an hour. The side effect of this is that you see things, hear stuff, and get talked to, while alcohol allows the truth to drift out a little easier.
And people like to talk! When they find out that the guy in the corner with the daft grin, a laptop and a pint of Guinness is a writer, so many make a beeline to offer stories up in a heartbeat. Contacts develop and blossom, and opportunities emerge. This comes back to me being a ‘yes’ person, because if someone asks me whether I’d like to do something, or try something (within reason!), I always try to say yes – because regardless of whether I enjoy it or hate it, I’ll come away enriched in some way, have more experience and more to say. And this helps my writing hugely.
This is how I ended up in a Puerto Rican biker bar, 500 yards from a prison, chatting with a gang celebrating the release of one of their own. This is how I ended up hanging out with (name redacted) who has the doors in (town name redacted), who invited me to his upcoming birthday party, we’d got on that well. And this is how I ended up sparring a guy who’d done a double digit prison stint for something very bad indeed, only to find we weren’t that different after all. I find if I say yes to stuff, go into situations accepting who they are and who I am, and smile, I end up in some wonderfully odd and enlightening predicaments – most of which find their way into my books, and And Your Enemies Closer is no different.
Another thing I make clear, is my confidentiality. I never name names, and this allows conversations to flow. This in turn has given me an understanding of certain mindsets and activities that I ordinarily would have no chance of getting near, and the hope is that this gives my work a degree of authenticity. If you’re ever reading my crime books and think I’ve gone too far, know that there were lots of other very real details that were deemed too outlandish to even put in the book. And some things I get told, or find out, are put in a special box in my head – where the ideas for my next book sit. Forgive me, but, like all ideas, I’m going to leave them to percolate for a while, before I try to find a way to make these astonishing truths work in fiction.
And Your Enemies Closer by Rob Parker is out now exclusively by Audible.
And Your Enemies Closer is a serpentine race against time as retired detective Brendan Foley and DI Iona Madison must stay one step ahead of criminals at every corner, while trying to bring justice - in whatever form it takes, and whatever loyalties it might burn. In the North West criminal underworld, a deal goes tragically wrong, resulting in war between the two main organised crime factions in the region. Shockwaves rock the thirty-mile gap between Liverpool and Manchester - with retired detective Brendan Foley right in the middle of it all. For Brendan, six months after his resignation, life is all different. His marriage is a mess, he’s working as a nightclub bouncer, his brother is still missing, and just he can’t stop searching for the crime family that destroyed his life. And at last, he’s found them - and he’s got them bang to rights. Iona Madison, his one-time partner and now successor as a DI in Warrington Police, is tasked with a body pulled from the River Mersey - a teen-age boy that went missing the previous year, which might bring her own conduct into question. Not only that, Brendan is feeding her information whether she likes it or not - and his unsanctioned activities are causing her headaches. And now, there’s a price on his head. A million pounds, dead or alive.
More information about Rob Parker can be found on his website. You can also follow him on Twitter @robparkerauthor. He can also be found on Facebook and on Instagram.
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