Lou Gilmond: On researching for PALISADE

 It started with an honourable member: Harry Colbey, although he wasn’t always called that. The member of parliament for Gloucester East had several names before that one stuck, and even then, I had to rob from the grave.

That’s the problem with research. It throws up complications. Neither the man nor the parliamentary constituency exist, but I write political thrillers set in Westminster and like to make sure there are no unfortunate coincidences. No accidental similarities of name that might set tongues wagging and confuse fiction with fact. Particularly since corruption and the choice between right and wrong are major themes of my Kanha and Colbey series of political thrillers.

As I was writing Dirty Geese, the first in the series, I was at the same time digging into MPs connected to scandal. Firstly, to ping out ideas for plot twists for that book and Palisade, the next in the series. But also, to be sure I didn’t use names for my two MP protagonists that were similar to those of anyone who really existed, particularly if linked to disgraceful goings-on or – as it tends to be called when connected to our politicians – sleaze.

Before I turned to writing, I worked for many years in regulatory affairs, which often involved lobbying MPs, ministers, and civil servants. During that time, I visited both the Houses of Parliament and the government departments of Whitehall on a regular basis, and even No 10 on occasion. It didn’t matter how many times I went, I still felt it an honour to be there; to stand, for example, in central lobby, an octagonal room at the centre of the Houses of Parliament and the beating heart of Westminster. Anyone can meet or lobby an MP in this room. It sits at a crossroads, one corridor leading off it to the Lords and another, on the other side, to the Commons. It is a place where members of both sides of the commons and members of both houses meet and mingle, and where the lobby press can interview ministers and backbenchers alike.

From my time visiting Westminster, I had a good grounding on the culture there and of the differing characters of MPs, of ministers and civil servants, but I’m one of those writers who like to be thorough when it comes to research, so I dug on in.

Affairs, theft, bribery, blackmail and sexual harassment: that was just for starters. Call girls, rent boys, aggressive pimps who call late at night, inappropriate content on computers, watching pornography at work, misrepresentation of educations and prior careers, drugs in the workplace, drugs outside of the workplace, vendettas, violence, and fraud.

It seemed that if there was a list of things that MPs shouldn’t be doing, every single item on it had been covered off in some form or other, at some time other.

It didn’t take too long to discover that the name I had chosen for one of my protagonists bore a resemblance to that of a real-life MP connected to one of the more salacious events in my research notes. I won’t say which one. Just a single letter differentiated their surnames. Annoying. The name of my male protagonist had to change. I picked another, and as my research continued, found the exact same thing happened again. Frustrating.

The name of a protagonist is an important cornerstone of any book and as I floundered about, my male protagonist was nameless while that first book, Dirty Geese was written. Then, at the last minute, when the manuscript was due in to my editor, I saw a name on a grave in a little churchyard on the south coast. ’Colbey.’ It was perfect. An honourable sounding name for an honourable MP, and as far as I knew – or to put it more accurately as far as google was aware – there had not been a British MP with that name since Thomas Colby died in 1588, and his version of the name had a different spelling. The given name of Harry came easily after that.

Harry Colbey, a truly honourable member of parliament. A rare and fine thing.

By the time I came to write Palisade, Harry Colbey felt as real as any of the MPs I met with in my time lobbying or in my subsequent research. He was an honest man, a family man, his kids grown up and just recently flown the nest. He had disappointed his wife with his choice of career, leaving his relatively well-paid position at a bank to stand for parliament.

His plan had been to serve his constituents well and represent their interests in the House of Commons to the best of his ability. He had had a brief moment of political stardom, promoted to a junior minister early on, but he wouldn’t do what they told him. He wouldn’t compromise his morals to toe the party line, so he had been kicked back to the backbenches.

There he disappeared from view, working quietly and tirelessly on behalf of his constituents, all ambition for advancement forgotten, much to his wife’s embarrassment and shame. But when Colbey uncovers a corrupt plot between senior ministers and a big tech organisation, he feels he must abandon his hopes of a quiet slide towards retirement and instead stand up and fight for what he believes in, no matter the cost.

Both Palisade, and its predecessor, Dirty Geese, are thrillers that look at corrupt links between politicians and big tech organisations, particularly those who now have advanced AI capabilities at their fingertips. They can be read standalone, or picked up in any order, as each book looks at different aspect of the same conspiracy – although chronologically, Dirty Geese comes first.

I tried hard to make sure that the politics within them is reflective of the way our parliamentary processes really work, or to be more accurate, on occasion don’t work. But both Dirty Geese and Palisade are crime thrillers at heart and they each start with a murder. They both involve jeopardy, deceit, international conspiracy, corruption and a whole catalogue of twists and turns. And they each turn on the hope that there is at least one MP out there who will do what needs to be done, who will stand up and say what needs to be said, and that is the honourable Harry Colbey.

 Palisade by Lou Gilmond (Fairlight Books) Out Now

When opposition Chief Whip Esme Kanha is handed a secret dossier containing evidence of government corruption, she suspects its original owner, a top journalist, was murdered for gathering it. Despite the danger, she feels she must investigate. Meanwhile, lowly backbencher Harry Colbey is working his own leads. A known campaigner against big tech, he is often sent data from anonymous sources and this time round he has something truly alarming. But both Colbey and Kanha must tread carefully in a world dominated by AI, where 'what can see watches, what can hear listens, and what can be followed is tracked'. As Kanha and Colbey again join forces, they are locked into a deadly race against political corruption, no matter what the cost. But when an old enemy returns, it may already be too la

Palisade by Lou Gilmond is published on 21st November and is available to buy in bookshops now.

More information about Lou Gilmond can be found on her website. You can also find her on Instagram @lougilmond

Q & A With Silvia Moreno-Garcia

 

Ayo:- Would you like to tell us a bit about yourself?

Silvia M-G:- I’ve been a writer for about 15 years. I started writing short stories in fanzines and semi-pro zines, then eventually published my first novel in 2015. I’ve written seven novels so far, including Mexican Gothic and Gods of Jade and Shadow.

Ayo:- Who or what made you want to be a writer?

Silvia M-G:- I said I would be a writer since I was a kid. I loved books and movies rather than people. I wasn’t social at all. 

Ayo:- Who or what was the inspiration for Velvet Was The Night?

Silvia M-G:- A real incident. In 1971, the Mexican government sent a paramilitary group to attack and kill students who were marching down a large avenue. It was a peaceful protest but the government was intent on sowing fear. 

Ayo:- Loneliness is a big thread that is running through this book what made you decide to do this as it could equally have worked solely as a historical political thriller.

Silvia M-G:- I wrote this as a noir and my go-to definition of noir comes from Nino Frank who says noirs are "essentially psychological narratives with the action—however violent or fast-paced—less significant than faces, gestures, words—than the truth of the characters.” You have to dig into the minds of the characters, it’s not about the action. 

Ayo:- Why is music also so important in Velvet Was the Night?

Silvia M-G:- Political repression was taking place in Mexico in conjunction with musical repression.

Ayo:- Is there any true life element to your book.

Silvia M-G:- The whole political background of it. My mother remembers the opening incident of the novel. She remembers gunfire and having to hide for hours in a loading dock. 

Ayo:- How much were Elvis and Maite based on real people?

Silvia M-G:- I don’t carbon copy people. Elvis is dyslexic and I’m dyslexic. I read comic books when I was a kid, like Maite does, albeit I read horror ones. But neither one of them is templated after a particular person. 

Ayo:- Book titles are always very important how and why did you decide on Velvet Was The Night? Was this the only title you had for the book?

Silvia M-G:- It was called A Dangerous Eagerness originally, which was a phrase I got from some declassified government documents where functionaries discussed the incident. But my publisher didn’t really like that and pushed me to look for something else and I picked a line from “Blue Velvet.”

Ayo:- How important is politics to you in your writing?

Silvia M-G:- The Dirty War had a profound effect on Mexico and Mexicans and the aftermath is still being felt to this day. 

Ayo:- Can you talk about the significance of The Dirty War?

Silvia M-G:- In general, the USA intervened throughout Latin America, sponsoring and backing coups and destabilizing countries in an effort to impede communist activities. The result is the region that was shredded to pieces. All the undocumented immigrants from Central America who try to make their way north are doing that because their countries were destroyed with the aid of American forces.

Ayo:- What was your research process like?

Silvia M-G:- Secondary sources are relatively easier to obtain in Canada, but primary sources are a pickle. I can’t just walk to an archive and get newspapers from 1971 with any ease. It’s a lot of making do and seeing what I can scrounge. For this, I actually do have a lot of photocopies of newspapers and magazines of the time period. 

Ayo:- What is the more important for you characterisation or plot or do you try and have a happy medium between the two?

Silvia M-G:- I think characters are the backbone of noirs, but it depends on the genre. 

Ayo:- Do you plot before hand or do you just let the writing flow?

Silvia M-G:- I had a calendar of the month of June that I used to determine what happened in each chapter. 

Ayo:- Is there anything you found out whilst writing the book that surprised you?

Silvia M-G:- Some details about the music scene. I hadn’t realised the level of censorship there was. 

Ayo:- Is there anything you wish you hadn't found out? 

Silvia M-G:- No, although it’s never pleasant to look at photos of people who died in a conflict like this. 

Ayo:- Mexican Gothic is about gothic horror. This is a total departure from what you usually write. What made you want to write a noir novel.

Silvia M-G:- I switch between genres. Last year saw the release of two books. The more famous one is Mexican Gothic, but I wrote a noir called Untamed Shore which is very different from this book. There we have a sleepy, coastal village. 

Ayo:- You are also well known for writing short fiction. Which do you prefer?

Silvia M-G:- Novels these days. They pay more, for one. 

Ayo:- Writing is very solitary. How do you maintain that creative process and what advice would you give someone thinking of becoming a writer?

Silvia M.G:- I like being alone. Writing is freelancing, so you need to know there are years of plenty and of famine, and plan accordingly. Most writers have multiple income streams. Don’t expect to live off only one book and one advance check. Learn about the industry, including contracts and taxes. 

Ayo:- Do you have any favourite noir books or films and also historical books. If so which ones are they and why?

Silvia M-G:- I wrote a piece for the Criterion Channel about Le Samourai, which is a magnificent, restrained, French Western with one of the coolest assassins on film. 

Ayo:- Your earlier books have tended more towards Science Fiction and Fantasy this is a dramatic departure. Will you continue to write similar books?

Silvia M-G:- I don’t want to be beholden to one genre. 

Ayo:- What are you working on at the moment?

Silvia M-G:- I have a new novel out next year called The Daughter of Doctor Moreau.

Velvet is the Night by Silvia Moreno-Garcia (Quercus Publishing) Out Now

1970s Mexico City: while student protests and political unrest consume the city, Maite escapes from her humdrum life in the stories of passion and danger that fill the latest issue of Secret Romance. She is deeply envious of her neighbour, Leonora, a beautiful art student who lives the life of excitement and intrigue Maite craves - so when she disappears under suspicious circumstances, Maite jumps at the chance to uncover Leonora's secrets. Maite is not the only one searching for the missing girl. Elvis, a goon-for-hire who is longing to escape his violent life, has been assigned to find the student. Like Maite, he loves old movies, comics and rock 'n' roll . . . and he's beginning to be interested in the mousy secretary who is fast becoming involved in a world of political intrigue. As Maite and Elvis follow Leonora's trail, they journey deeper into a world of student radicals, hitmen, government agents and Russian spies, who are all determined to unearth Leonora's secrets – at gunpoint.

More information about Silvia Moreno-Garcia and her work can be found on her website. You can also find her on Twitter @silviamg and on Facebook.

Crime Fiction - Exploring tomorrow’s politics, today. by Jem Tugwell

No Signal is the second book in the iMe series, and is set a year after Proximity introduced the world of iMe, where crime is eradicated and your health is managed through embedded technology.

No Signal’s crime thriller plot is extended with the politics, technology, religion and the environment of tomorrow.

Crime Fiction as a lens

It’s often stated that crime fiction is an effective lens through which to view contemporary society.

While it is true that crime fiction allows the author to put political issues and ideology into their characters’ lives, readers of the genre have an expectation that they will be entertained. In a plot-heavy crime story where the detective is racing against time, is it plausible that they are, for example, mulling over the claims and counter-claims around the environmental crisis? Or are they going to be worrying about who the killer is?

Inspiration

Technology, and especially emerging technology can provide vast possibilities for story lines. A writer can look at an existing technology and explore its impact on the book’s characters, or extrapolate into future technology and future worlds.

Any book’s era frames it and the technologies and politics have to match the period. Obviously, in an historical crime story there can be no wristwatch for your roman gladiator. Crime writers setting their stories in the contemporary world have to have plausible reasons for a mobile phone to be flat or left at home.

As with a crime thriller that puts too much emphasis on politics, a technology-based story has to get the balance right so that the reader understands the technology, but is entertained by the plot and not swamped by the detail.

The hacker and the evil corporation

Of course, hacking takes place, and it makes plotting easier to write a hacker character who can break into every system and do anything, but IT companies invest millions in firewalls and other defences. Even if your hacker can get in and make a change to some software code, companies have complex version control systems that let them see any changes that are made. They can rollback to a specific point in time or version, or restore an off-site backup for both code and data. Like the research and accuracy challenges that authors face with forensics or police procedure, technology and technology practices need thorough research to be plausible.

The evil corporation plot is very common, but I would argue that, even in a technology setting, a reader will relate to the issues more if the motives are personal. Getting two protagonists to argue about the pros and cons of a technological or political stance allows the underlying social impact to be drawn out but keep the story moving.

But doesn’t all that technology make it science fiction?

Yes, if the characters are zooming around in spaceships, but not if the main plot is a crime story and the technology is part of the ‘setting’. Not if the world is still recognisable as ‘today’ and the technology transitions are plausible.

A smart phone, Apple watch, or wearable fitness tracker would look like sci-fi to someone from the 1980s, and when you start researching for story ideas, it’s amazing what is already available today: robotic contact lenses that react to eye movement; the use of microprocessors in the control of some prosthetic knees; implantable devices that aim to be personal blood labs.

Try typing ‘body augmentation technology’ into a search engine and prepare to be inspired.

Exploring tomorrow’s politics, today.

Any technology that is used has a social and political impact. Just look at how smart phones have changed the dynamics of groups in a restaurant. How much communication is between the people physically there, and how much time is devoted to screen time and communicating with virtual friends?

In May 2019 there was a legal challenge against the Welsh police’s use of facial recognition software where it was argued that facial recognition ‘makes a mockery of our right to privacy’. In our Covid-19 world, how many would sacrifice the right to privacy if it was used to track the infected and help the health service control the virus?

When the author pushes technology into a different use or timescale, a new set of future political issues can be explored.

Only as technologies evolve and are fully embedded will we see their true political and social impact. Until then it’s left to fiction, like No Signal and the world of iMe, to imagine what might be and explore our future today.

No Signal by Jem Tugwell (Serpentine Books)
Can a game change the world? The Ten are chosen - they are reckless, driven and strong.  They are tested. Ten become Four. In a country where everyone is tracked, how can the Four hide from the police? DI Clive Lussac hates the system that controls everything, but he's ill and it's helping him.  He must decide; conform or fight. As Clive's world unravels, he and his partners DC Ava Miller and DS Zoe Jordan can't believe the entry  price to the game. They strive to answer the real questions. Why does the ultimate Augmented Reality game has four different finishes? And how is a simple game wrapped up in politics, religion and the environment?

Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction

Today’s guest blog is by Barbara Pezzotti, PhD, an Honorary Research Associate of the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS). She has published a number of articles and book chapters on Italian crime fiction, and the figure of the detective and the serial killer in New Zealand crime fiction. She is the author of Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction. An Historical Overview (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2014), and The Importance of Place in Contemporary Italian Crime Fiction. A Bloody Journey (Madison, NJ: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2102). She has also published an e-book in Italian entitled  I luoghi del delitto. Una mappa del giallo italiano contemporaneo (Florence: goWare, 2014). She is co-editor (with Jean Anderson and Carolina Miranda) of The Foreign in International Crime Fiction. Transcultural Representations (Continuum, 2012). She is currently working on a monograph on historical crime fiction provisionally entitled Murder in the Ages of Chaos: Italy’s Past in Historical Crime Fiction and Films. She lives in New Zealand with her husband Martin and her cat Garibaldi.   She is a blogger for The Australasian Centre for Italian Studies.

I am glad that my new book “Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction. An Historical Overview” is finally out. This marks the end of a long story that started many years ago when I resigned from my job in Italy and moved to New Zealand to marry a nice kiwi bloke, Martin. Having a lot of time up to my sleeve, I decided to go for a PhD in literature. I was then told that my university years would be very challenging and I had to choose a topic I really liked if I wanted to keep my sanity. At that time, feeling nostalgic about my hometown, I was reading crime fiction set in Milan. I thought, why not? I did some research and I realised that in spite of being a very popular genre in Italy and notwithstanding the fact that some Italian crime fiction writers, such as Andrea Camilleri and Massimo Carlotto were very famous internationally, very little study had been done on Italian crime fiction. I jumped at the chance. The topic of my dissertation was the representation of city and regional identities in Italian crime fiction or giallo (yellow, from the traditional book cover for crime fiction in Italy) as we call it in Italian. I thoroughly enjoyed my postgrad years: I read tons of crime books, wrote about them, discussed them with a small bunch of academics who were doing similar research in different parts of the globe, and participated in crime fiction conferences. I also managed not to go nuts; at least I think I did. At the end of my PhD studies, my thesis was finally published in 2012 under the title of The Importance of Place in Contemporary Italian Crime Fiction. A Bloody Journey.

During the work on my thesis and then on my manuscript, I became increasingly intrigued by the way the giallo had been used for political reasons. I also noticed that a history of Italian crime fiction in English did not exist. I therefore decided to explore this topic further, embracing a wide temporal frame, from the end of the nineteenth to the twenty-first century. I was lucky enough to convince a publishing house, McFarland, that my project was worth pursuing and I started working on it at the beginning of 2011. I re-read some contemporary novels and classics, and I read old gialli (giallo in the plural) for the first time, discovering a new, exciting world of fiction. Through the analysis of writers belonging to different and crucial periods of Italian history, my ambition was to explore the different ways in which individual authors exploited the structure of crime fiction to reflect the social transformations and dysfunctions of Italy of their times. By investigating in particular the works of seven writers (Augusto De Angelis, Giorgio Scerbanenco, Leonardo Sciascia, Loriano Macchiavelli, Andrea Camilleri, Massimo Carlotto, and Marcello Fois) in the social and political context in which they were written, my book has ended up becoming an investigation into Italy’s recent history, too.

My “time travel” with Italian crime fiction highlights a characteristic that the giallo shares with many other Southern European, Latin American and Scandinavian crime novels: this genre has become a militant vehicle for social and political commentary. Important political and social themes have been present since the beginning of the genre in Italy: not only the hard-boiled formula, but also the traditionally reassuring whodunit in Italy shows a close relationship with Italy’s political and social environment. Among the issues tackled by the giallo are: pollution and a progressive and merciless industrialization of the countryside; consumerism and loneliness in the urban environment; criminal organisations; the North and South divide; a clash between regional and national identities, for example local dialects versus Italian; political instability and corruption and unresolved questions of democracy, freedom, and illegality.

It can be fun, it can be exciting, and it can be scary, but there is little comforting in reading most Italian crime fiction. It’s not an exercise for the faint-hearted, or for people who like to indulge in a postcard image of the country. Forget Venice and the gondolas, the Renaissance art and romance: the giallo is for tough guys and girls who like to be challenged and turn the last page of a book feeling a mix of emotion, uneasiness, and a desire to change the status quo.  

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Politics and Society in Italian Crime Fiction

This book comprehensively covers the history of Italian crime fiction from its origins to the present.  Using the concept of "moral rebellion”, the author examines the ways in which Italian crime fiction has articulated the country’s social and political changes.  The book concentrates on such writers as Augusto de Angelis (1888-1944), Giorgio Scerbanenco (1911-1969), Leonardo Sciascia (1921-1989), Andrea Camilleri (b. 1925), Loriano Macchiavelli (b. 1934), Massimo Carlotto (b. 1956), and Marcello Fois (b. 1960).  Through the analysis of writers belonging to differing crucial periods of Italy’s history, this work reveals the many ways in which authors exploit the genre to reflect social transformation and dysfunction.