Anna Smith - from investigative journalist to crime writer

As a frontline daily newspaper journalist for more than twenty years, I encountered at first hand dozens of characters that could have walked into any crime novel.

From Glasgow hard men ruling their criminal empires, to Loyalist and Republican paramilitaries on the streets of Belfast; from gangsters living the champagne life on the Costa del Sol, to young female heroin addicts propped up in shop doorways selling their bodies for sex. Throw in a few dodgy cops and lawyers and you’ve got a raft of material that might make a novel. 

I worked at the Daily Record for more than 20 years – ten of them as Chief Reporter, travelling the world to cover conflicts from Rwanda to Kosovo. So many of the stories and the harrowing cruelty I witnessed have stayed with me, so whenever I’m writing about the struggle of refugees fleeing their homeland, I can call up so many haunting images. 

It was these images and memories of my days as a reporter that compelled me to embark on my first series of crime novels, featuring the Rosie Gilmour character, a gritty Glasgow journalist who tears down the walls of corruption to get her story in the newspaper. 

When you write from your own experience like that, basing the character on many of your own traits, you are forced to expose yourself in ways you wouldn’t have to when you are reporting for a newspaper.

Although writing fiction was a departure from what I did as a reporter, I wasn’t really fazed by having to create a character a bit like myself—though not exactly like myself, I should stress! I write as honestly as I can, and I hope it comes across in my novels. 

The method of creating the Rosie Gilmour novels had to be different from a police procedural crime novel, where the objective of the story is to nail the criminal and put him/her behind bars. But for a journalist, the procedure is to investigate the story, follow the leads, gather the evidence, and finally expose the perpetrator on the front page of the newspaper. I approached each novel as I would a newspaper investigation, only the aim here was to create a work of fiction that would resonate with readers.

I rested Rosie for a bit to shift into the gangland genre and created a reluctant woman gangland boss in the shape of Kerry Casey, who takes over the reins of her Glasgow crime family. I really enjoyed the characters who walked into these novels and have been delighted at how popular this genre is. 

My latest series features Glasgow ex-female cop turned private eye, Billie Carlson, who’s half Swedish, half Glasgow-Irish, with a haunted backstory that makes her a desolate kind of figure. The novel is told in the first person, so I hope it pulls the reader in from page one. I’m really enjoying exploring the characters Billie meets as she takes on a case, and she doesn’t always use conventional practices. She has her own moral code that doesn't always match the police's. Billie is her own woman and if she thinks the end game is worth pursuing, she will always do it her way.

Until I Find You by Anna Smith (Quercus Books) Out Now.

When you've lost everything, you'll stop at nothing Billie Carlson left the police force under a cloud. Once a promising young officer she now works as a private investigator, rooting out insurance scams and spying on cheating spouses. One morning a distraught young woman comes into her office saying that her baby has been stolen. Her story seems unbelievable, yet something about her makes Billie want to help - Billie knows what it's like to lose someone too. To get to the bottom of the case Billie must rattle some dangerous cages and rely on old police friends for inside help. Soon she discovers a network of crime deeper and far more twisted than she ever could have imagined. But is she in way over her head?

More information about Anna Smith and her work can be found on her website. You can also find her on Twitter @annasmithauthor You can also find her on Facebook.