Why do we love a murder mystery? by Jim Ross

©Louise Ross

Earlier this year, I finished writing my first novel, Hawk’s Justice (publishing with Simon & Schuster on 5th November 2026). New writers are usually given the same advice: write what you know. I practised as a barrister in the courts of England and Wales for twenty years, so the legal world was an obvious choice for my setting. I know legal London well, especially the area around the Royal Courts of Justice and the Temple.

Harder to draw from my own experience was the plot. My legal career was serious, even boring. I practised in banking and finance law rather than crime, so I didn’t have much of a ready stock of past cases or real-life courtroom dramas to draw from. Instead, I turned to the stories I enjoyed throughout my childhood: Sherlock Holmes, Hercule Poirot, Miss Marple. Murder mysteries were my favourite, but I realised that forensic science had moved on a fair bit from the times in which those period pieces were set. Was it still realistic to write a whodunnit or locked room mystery in the modern world of DNA and computer science without stretching the reader’s credulity beyond breaking point?

It was whilst researching modern crime investigation techniques that I discovered something that genuinely surprised me: we are currently living in what is probably the safest period in human history. The homicide rate recorded by police in England and Wales last year was the lowest in decades. North of the border, homicides have fallen to the lowest level since modern records began. Police Scotland was established as the single national force in 2013 and claims to have solved every murder they have investigated since that time. That’s a 100% clear-up rate! This figure seems to be based on the fact that Police Scotland believe they have correctly identified the person responsible for every murder investigated during their history, not that they have sucessfully prosecuted every murderer, but it is still a remarkable statistic. As a British observer, the higher levels of lethal violence in the US have always been concerning to me – but even in America, the homicide rate is currently the lowest since national estimates began.

Why are these figures so surprising? Perhaps it’s because they’re counterintuitive to anyone who consumes a modern diet of news and social media. The traditional newsroom maxim ‘if it bleeds, it leads’ will probably never die. From an evolutionary perspective, we’re instinctively predisposed to focus our attention on anything that could constitute a threat. That’s why we can’t help but rubberneck when we pass road traffic accidents. It’s also why finely-tuned online algorithms will keep filling our feeds with crime stories even if the true story of our age is that serious crime has never been lower.

In some ways, the absence of serious crime in our everyday lives could even be seen as giving rise to a perverse appetite for such content – hence the explosion in popularity of the ‘true crime’ genre in podcasts and online streaming platforms in recent years.

Where does all this leave the murder mystery novel? The genre’s traditional inciting incident – the discovery of an unexplained dead body – is still capable of capturing the modern reader’s attention. But attention spans are shorter than they used to be. The key challenge for today’s writer is to keep the reader engaged notwithstanding the temptations of social media and online streaming platforms. That’s where the mystery part comes in. We can’t compete with the tragedies of real life, which will always be more salient and diverting by reason of the fact that they are real. However, novelists certainly can compete when it comes to the twists and turns of a good mystery, especially when unexplained deaths are becoming less common in the real world.

I’ve always found that the ‘whodunnit’ aspect of a murder mystery is the most engaging of all – stories where the reader can travel along with the detective and try to solve the mystery at the same time. That’s what I did with Hawk’s Justice – a man is found dead in the Royal Courts of Justice in mysterious circumstances, and the reader is presented with a series of plausible suspects and clues that will enable them to try to solve the murder themselves whilst watching the protagonist navigate a series of exciting pitfalls along the way.

There is something important missing from the above analysis of a murder mystery. Of course, the ‘murder’ attracts the reader’s initial attention, and the ‘mystery’ should keep them engaged. But the true appeal of crime fiction isn’t the crime as such – it’s the restoration of order. The initial crime temporarily rips a hole in the fabric of a community, and it’s the detective’s job to stitch things back together by finding the murderer and bringing them to justice.

The concept of ‘justice’ being at stake can feel nebulous in the abstract, but in the specific context of a murder mystery it becomes more concrete. In Hawk’s Justice, the victim is a High Court judge, with the result that the justice system itself is under threat throughout the book. In this way, I’ve tried to raise the stakes to the highest possible level, whilst wrapping the murder mystery in a legal thriller to keep the reader turning the pages along the way.

The modern world feels increasingly chaotic and uncertain. Few people would say that there is much justice in the world of politics or international affairs. But a good murder mystery novel can provide a sense of justice being done, the feeling of a satisfying resolution. That is something a bottomless online feed will never provide.

Hawk’s Justice by Jim Ross (Simon & Schuster) Published 5^th November 2026

A killer in the courts. When High Court judge William Ryland is found dead inside the Royal Courts of Justice, it seems like a tragic accident. But young, high-flying lawyer Tom Hawk suspects there's more to his death than meets the eye. When he takes over Ryland’s final case – a battle between two Russian billionaires – he’s thrust into a murky world of deception, where nothing is quite as it seems... An international conspiracy. Inside the courts, the body count begins to rise. And as evidence disappears, Hawk finds himself wrapped up in a much darker game: one that goes to the very heart of the justice system. A man who breaks the rules. When tensions arise between Hawk and the beautiful but uncompromising Detective Inspector Kate Black, he realises that he’ll have to take the law into his own hands – but at what cost? Murder and intrigue combine in this fast-paced adventure, set against the iconic landscape of legal London

 More information about Jim Ross and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook and on Instagram @jimrossauthor.

James Buckler on his inspiration for The Simple Truth

I was at work one day, day dreaming of new ways to kill people, as you do. It struck me that one of the big problems with writing crime novels is that all the best killing methods have already been used. Shooting, stabbing, strangling. All are too well used to have any profound impact anymore. I knew that I needed something brand new to kick start my second novel, The Simple Truth, in order to give the reader a real jolt in the opening pages. 

During my lunch hour that day, I was idly scrolling through a news site when my eyes were drawn to a story from the East Coast of America. A series of unusual deaths had occurred that had shocked the public. I can’t tell you exactly what the news report entailed in any more detail as I don’t want to spoil the narrative of The Simple Truth. Suffice to say, the story was really unusual in quite a disturbing way. This was something I hadn’t ever come across before, and believe me, as a crime writer I read about a lot of murder and death.

Secondly, I needed a hero. I had forbidden myself from creating a main character who was a police officer. I really like police procedurals but inherent in choosing to write about this world, a certain set of limitations are immediately placed on a book’s structure that restrict the choices the characters can make. Procedure has to take priority for the police officers’ actions to be believable. Hey, even maverick cops have to obey the rules sometimes. 

Instead, I decided that my hero was going to be a lawyer. This would grant the character an ability to investigate and probe the circumstances of any case, but still be able to improvise. I really like legal thrillers such as The Firm and The Lincoln Lawyer. I love the way they reveal people at their most vulnerable and unguarded whilst also showing the shady tactics that people employ to secure wealth and power. This allows the reader an insight into the motivations of a whole host of different characters from all walks of life. My wife is a lawyer, as are most of her friends, and subsequently I spend a lot of time around them, listening to their legal conversations, picking up juicy snippets of information I can use in my writing. One such topic of conversation was the current campaign against the use of Non-Disclosure Agreements. These confidentiality clauses are increasingly seen as an unfair tool that the rich and powerful use to protect themselves. I researched the misuse of NDAs and a story started to take shape in my mind and with it some more characters began to emerge in my imagination.

Now I needed a reason for at least one of the characters in the story to kill another. Bloodthirsty, I know, but without this any crime novel ends up being a bit limp. A crime story without a murder is like a football match without a ball – just a lot of pointless running around. So I needed a backdrop to the entire novel, an activity where the stakes are a matter of life and death. Something that people care about to such a degree that they would kill for it. Again, my salvation lay in reading newspapers. 

My interest had long been piqued by environmental issues and I was keeping tabs on the volatility in the international energy markets. This was back in 2019, way before the current craziness in the price of energy had made its way onto people’s actual household bills. It was apparent that a battle was going to be fought between fossil fuel companies and green energy developers. The financial stakes in this battle are frightening. Hundreds of billions of pounds will be won and lost in the struggle over how our future energy needs will be met. Lives will be changed in unimaginable ways. Technology that seems to come straight from science fiction will soon be mainstream. One of these new technologies is hydrogen energy. I began reading about the amazingly simple chemical process that turns water into hydrogen gas, a gas that can be used for almost anything. Hydrogen energy looks like the future – one that fossil fuel companies will do practically anything to stop becoming a reality. Would they even kill for it, I asked myself? With this, the story of The Simple Truth had fully emerged into the light.

The Simple Truth by James Buckler (Transworld Publishers) Out Now

A young woman is dead. A very wealthy client needs a favour. You're newly qualified as a lawyer and this could be your big break, so you jump at the chance. The case is about to be closed. All you have to do is talk to a family, ask them to sign some papers. How difficult could it be? Their daughter was found dead at a beauty spot on the outskirts of London in what you're told was a tragic suicide. Only you can uncover what really happened. But the truth is never that simple. And this case could cost you your life...

More information can be found on his website. James Buckler can also be found on Twitter and Instagram @Jamesbuckwriter

Olly Jarvis on Using His Expertise

 

How thriller writer Olly Jarvis drew on his expertise as a criminal barrister to write his latest thriller

Like most people, I knew something about the famous characters in history and their accomplishments – from Boudica to Napoleon, Plato to Isaac Newton. All from different places in the world, and in time. What if there was a link, a common denominator that could explain their exploits? 

In my other life as a criminal defence barrister, my job is to persuade juries. To give them an interpretation of the facts that fits with my client’s case. It’s not easy, particularly when the evidence is stacked against the defendant. And of course, there is always prosecution counsel, presenting his or her own spin on the evidence. It’s not a perfect system, but the jury, in my opinion, gets it right 99.9% of the time.

There are similarities between the court process and writing a novel – can the writer persuade the reader to come on a journey through 100,000 words? When defending a trial, the case can be lost with one ill-judged question in cross-examination. With a novel, one illogical action by a character, or a clunky piece of dialogue and the author can lose the reader. This challenge goes to the heart of what I have tried to say with The Genesis Inquiry – not to persuade a jury, but the reader, of something extraordinary in our history. A whole new way of looking at the world. Something that I found more staggering, the deeper my research went. 

There are some remarkable patterns in the history of humanity, inevitably culminating in invasions and clashes of cultures, all based on some perceived difference between peoples. We still see it today.

When I was at school, I learnt about various religions, but not from the perspective of their similarities. It seems to be a human characteristic that we spend so much time focusing on the differences between us. Populations so often obsess over what they see as crucial distinctions between cultures and creeds. As I looked more deeply at ancient manuscripts and books, I learnt of so many forgotten links that join us together. The threads of history began to intertwine the further back I went. I had to unlearn what I had been taught and look at the evidence afresh, just as I would approach a new brief. 

A picture began to emerge that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up. I had the premise for an international thriller. Could there really be one undiscovered truth that links everything in our past, and provides the key to our future? Is there one critical place in time that set the tone for our epoch? A starting point. To my astonishment, I found such a place. I will leave it to the reader to decide if I’m right.

Who is Ella Blake?

The central characters in The Genesis Inquiry go on a life or death journey to uncover the truth about our past and ultimately, who we are and where we came from. 

The heroine, Ella Blake, is a top barrister with a PhD in history, but not the typical high-flyer one might expect. She’s battered and bruised from a long career of fighting trials. I wanted a modern-day protagonist that I recognised from my own experience of courts and robing rooms. Many criminal lawyers’ mental health is hanging by a thread. It’s only recently that the legal profession, like many other sectors, began to recognise and address issue of wellbeing. It’s not easy to manage the daily stresses and challenges of life in the courtroom.

Ella is a great lawyer who has given her life to her job, but at a cost - mental health, family relationships and more. Deeply flawed, but a good person with an innate sense of right and wrong. The dysfunctional relationship with her daughter, Lizzie, a headstrong student is another layer of conflict in the novel. 

The Genesis Inquiry is crime/mystery thriller but it’s also a story of redemption, of second chances, not just for Ella, but for all of us.

I hope you enjoy the ride…

The Genesis Inquiry by Olly Jarvis published by Hobeck Books (Out Now)

Is there one last undiscovered, great truth? A moment zero, a place in time that links all cultures and creeds? A revelation that will unite us all and change the way we see history forever. Brilliant but burnt-out barrister Ella Blake accepts an apparently simple brief: investigate the mysterious disappearance of an African American polymath from his rooms at Cambridge University. The Inquiry quickly becomes the greatest challenge of her life – solving the mystery of Genesis. Facing danger at every turn, can Ella find the answers to the riddles and clues left by the missing genius? Reunited with her estranged daughter, the Inquiry sends them on a quest across the world and through ancient texts. What is the secret that binds us all? Who is behind the dark forces that will stop at nothing to prevent the world from knowing the truth?

Olly Jarvis is a novelist and criminal defence barrister, originally from London but now based in Manchester. Drawing on his experiences he writes both fiction and non-fiction with a particular understanding of the pressures and excitement of life in the English criminal courtroom. His debut novel, Death By Dangerous was longlisted for the CWA 2016 Debut Dagger. He went on to write the acclaimed Jack Kowalski series, set in Manchester. Cut-throat Defence and Unconvicted. For more information about his books visit his website.

Olly is also the creator of The Crime Hub, a website that brings together the different mediums of crime fiction, true crime and the realities of the Criminal Justice System. Contributors include Ann Cleaves, Stephen Fry, Alfred Molina and many more.