Broadchurch Beacon Blogger Tour - How I brought Broadchurch to your bookshelf

I have loved British crime dramas for as long as I have been allowed to watch post-watershed television. As a young teenager I bonded with my dad over a shared love of Taggart, Wexford, Prime Suspect and Cracker (my dad’s one of those annoying people who can spot the killer the second they appear on screen). These days, I love Silent Witness, Scott and Bailey and The Line of Duty. My favourite television detective of all time is the enigmatic, wonderfully arsey genius DCI Peter Boyd from the Cold Cases unit. I don’t think I will ever get over Waking The Dead being cancelled.

In April 2013, I settled down to watch a new ITV show. My hopes were high for Broadchurch; for a start, it starred David Tennant and Olivia Colman, two actors whose presence I use as a hallmark. From the first shot, the camera panning slowly down the empty seaside high street at night, I was hooked. Broadchurch had reeled me in, like it did so many others. Of course, at the time I had no idea that it would have any impact upon me other than as a viewer, but after the second ad break my sister sent me a text. ‘Are you watching ITV? This show feels like one of your books.’

She was right, there were obvious similarities; like my own books, Broadchurch was big on atmosphere, character and sense of place. Those luminous amber cliffs watch over everything, almost a character in their own right. a similar a sense that this story could only happen here is fundamental to my own books. I write psychological thrillers rather than detective novels, and although Broadchurch is technically a police procedural, it is very strongly rooted in character.

It would be months before I got the email from my agent saying that the Little, Brown publishing group were looking for an author to turn Broadchurch into a novel but when I did, that text from my sister chimed in my mind. I already had a fan’s keen sense of possessiveness; now I felt very strongly that this project was mine. But it wasn’t going to be that easy; I had to ‘audition’ for the role, turning the first act of the drama (the fifteen minutes before the first ad break, ending on the heart-breaking scene where Beth Latimer finds her eleven-year-old son’s body on the beach) into a novel. I hadn’t wanted anything so badly since I was angling for my first book deal. When I got the call to tell me I had been chosen, I actually sang with happiness.

I wrote the book with a strange mix of liberty and pressure. Liberty, because as someone else had already laid the plot for me, and provided me with reams of flawless dialogue, I was free to indulge my favourite aspects of writing; getting the language and the characterisation spot-on. Pressure, because I knew that there was an army of fans out there who would not forgive a single slip-up. Broadchurch geeks (‘Broadies’, as some of them refer to themselves) love with depth as well as breadth. The internet is awash with conspiracy theories, fan sites, even fan fiction (some of which makes Fifty Shades of Grey look like a Ladybird book, but we won’t go into that here). Whilst this hunger for all things Broadchurch was occasionally intimidating, I had to ignore it. My responsibility isn’t to the fans, or the actors, it isn’t even to the series creator Chris Chibnall. It’s to make sure the novel makes sense and is compelling even for readers who (by some miracle) haven’t seen the TV show. A friend of mine –a big hairy bloke, who’d never seen a single episode of Broadchurch – read an early draft and cried his eyes out twice. I have never been so delighted to see a grown man cry. 

More information about Erin Kelly and her books can be found on her website. She can also be found on Facebook and you can follow her on Twitter @mserinkelly. 

You can buy Broadchurch from Amazon.co.uk

Criminal Splatterings!

According to Digital Spy, the BBC released a picture  (see  left) of Merlin star Colin Morgan in his new role on the three-part series Quirke, starring Gabriel Byrne as a Dublin pathologist who solves crimes in the 1950s.  The series is based on characters from the crime thrillers of Booker Prize winner John Banville (a/k/a Benjamin Black) and has been filming since November 2012.

If you have not listened to it yet, then there is an excellent podcast with the likes of Gillian Flynn, Michael Koryta and Joseph Wambaugh who talk about their writing and their books.  The podcast can be heard here.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, Johnny Depp is due to star as gangster thriller Black Mass, which recounts the real-life story of South Boston criminal mastermind Whitey Bulger.  Bulger is considered to be the most infamous criminal in the history of South Boston.  He became an FBI informant in order to take down a rival Mafia family, only to be double-crossed by the government and prosecuted himself.

Filming has just started on the BBC 1 legal thriller The Escape Artist.  The Escape Artist is an original three-part suspense thriller set in the world of criminal law.  David Tennant plays Will Burton, a talented junior barrister who specialises in spiriting people out of tight legal corners, hence his nickname of “The Escape Artist”.  Will is in high demand, as he has never lost a case.  However, when his talents acquit the prime suspect in a horrific murder trial, that brilliance comes back to bite him with unexpected and chilling results.  The Escape Artist features David Tennant and Sophie Okonedo.  A three part series The Escape Artist is due to be shown in 2013.

In what could be said to be serendipity according to the Guardian Agatha Christie was once investigated by MI5 who feared that she had a spy at Bletchley Park.  Their reasoning is because she named one of her characters in her wartime novel N or M Major Bletchley.

Whilst not strictly crime fiction related, I am pleased to learn that Thunderbirds is due to return to the small screen in 26 half-hour episodes fifty years after the first episode was shown.  Thunderbirds Are Go has been commissioned by ITV and will be shown in 2015.  The full article can be read here.

Interesting article in the Independent on Lynn Shepherd’s new novel A Treacherous Likeness which sees her Victorian private detective Charles Maddox delving into the outrageous and early life of Mary Shelley, the creator of Frankenstein.  The full article can be found here.

In the Independent Jane Jakeman interviews Gold Dagger winner Belinda Bauer who talks about setting her latest novel Rubbernecker in Cardiff.  The full article can be read here.

The always-interesting Lynda La Plante in the Telegraph claims that the criminal justice system favours criminals instead of victims.  The full article can be read here.

Hodder are due to publish the psychological thriller Under Your Skin by Sabine Durrant in April.  The trailer for the novel can watched below.

According to The Bookseller, Quercus have bought a new crime series set in Hong Kong by author Duncan Jepson in a two-book deal.  The article can be read here.  The first book in the series Emperors Once More is set in 2015 and follows detective Alex Soong as he investigates a conspiracy, which dates back to the Boxer Rebellion.

Interested in learning more about Italian crime fiction?  If so then join Ilaria Meliconi founder of Hersilia Press and writer, journalist and editor of Crime Time Barry Forshaw as they discuss all things Italian and crime.  Where?  Belgravia Bookshop, When?  21 February 2013.  Time?  6:30pm. More information can be found here.

According to Deadline.com Bradley Cooper has signed to star in and produce the upcoming adaptation of James Renner's novel The Man From Primrose Lane.  Southland writer Chad Feehan is adapting the story, about a true-crime writer who finds himself at the centre of a chain of serial murders and "must look outside the parameters of what he believed to be true about time and space" in order to solve the mystery. 

Also according to Deadline.com Nikolaj Arcel and Rasmus Heisterberg, who are the screenwriters behind the Swedish adaptation of Stieg Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo are due to adapt The Power of The Dog the thriller by Don Winslow.  They will be joined by Shane Salerno who was also co-wrote the screenplay of another Winslow adaptation, Savages.  The Power of The Dog is the story of a 30-year struggle between a hardened agent and a family of cartel kingpins in Mexico.  Shane and Winslow are also teaming up on the screenplay adaptation of Winslow’s Satori, which is in pre-production at Warner Bros.

According to Digital Spy, it looks like Tom Hardy and Noomi Rapace have signed on to star in spy thriller Child 44, which is based on the novel by Tom Rob Smith.  Child 44 is about a 1950s-era Soviet police officer who tries to solve a string of child murders.  The script has been penned by The Wire writer Richard Price.  Child 44 won the 2008 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller and also the Waverton Good Read Award for first novels and the Galaxy Book Award for Best Newcomer with Child 44.