The New England Connection by Alex Caan

Today's guest blog is by debut author Alex Caan who discusses the influence New England has had on him and his debut novel.

New England. Ivy League universities, dazzling autumns, the rich history. I’ve never been, and yet when it came to picking a place for my American heroine to come from, I chose this North Eastern corner of the United States. Growing up in a tiny terraced house in a deprived area of Manchester, there weren’t many ambitions around. It was to books I turned, reading fiction to escape my tough reality and to live the wider world. It made the future fill with possibilities, and so naively I chose the biggest ambition of all: I would go to Harvard University. A fascination then started for all things related to that place, and for America itself. I never made it to Harvard, but my fascination for the politics and law enforcement of the country was already engrained. In fiction, I thought they did it with a touch of glamour, and who can’t get excited by Washington and the power that it wields? So Kate Riley is running from a past, one that includes a New England childhood, an education at Brown University, and a successful career with the very best agencies in Washington. My influences such as Homeland, 24, Silence of the Lambs and especially The X Files are very much apparent in her make-up.  I wanted her past to be complex, and with enough surprises that I could keep them coming throughout the series. Cut to the Bone only touches on parts of her history, and I want to explore these in much more detail in future novels featuring Kate Riley and her team. I also like the identity that someone like Kate would have. On the one hand Boston is where the Tea Party kicked off the revolution, where movements to abolish slavery took place, and yet there is a puritanical thread that led to the Salem witch trials. And someone growing up, imbibing all of that would choose to hide in London. Why? Well you’ll have to read the novel to fully understand. Suffice it to say, Kate lived a life that I dreamed about in my little bedroom, staring out at other terrace houses and their gothic chimneys. And in a similar vein, she dreams of her own life before she had to leave. And it’s the pursuit of protecting her secrets that threatens to distract her from the case to find Ruby, a vlogger who has been kidnapped at the start of Cut to the Bone. And it’s her experiences, which means Kate is reluctant to trust those around her, it seems with good reason though, and not to be cowered when faced, with corruption and men in positions of power.

Cut to the Bone by Alex Caan in ebook 14th July (£4.99, Twenty7) and released in paperback in November.

Ruby is a vlogger, a rising star of YouTube and a heroine to millions of teenage girls. And she’s missing. She’s an adult – nothing to worry about, surely? Until the video’s uploaded. Ruby, in the dirt and pleading for her life. Who better to head up the investigation than the Met’s rising star, Detective Inspector Kate Riley? She’s leading a shiny new team, high-powered, mostly female and with the best resources money can buy. It’s time for them to prove what they can do. Alongside her, Detective Superintendent Zain Harris – poster boy for multiracial policing and the team’s newest member – has his own unique contribution to make. But can Kate wholly trust him and when he’s around, can she trust herself? Ruby’s millions of fans are hysterical about what may have happened to her. The press is having a field day and as the investigation hurtles out of control in the glare of publicity, it becomes clear that the world of YouTube vloggers and social media is much, much darker than anyone could have imagined in their worst nightmares. And the videos keep coming....

I didn't choose the story, it chose me ......

My debut novel, The Dark Inside, should probably not exist.

Loosely-based on a real life serial killer case from 1946, it follows disgraced New York City reporter, Charlie Yates, as he's sent to Texarkana, a small town on the Texas/Arkansas border, to investigate a series of brutal attacks on young couples. In the face of hostile cops, secretive reporters and terrified citizens, Charlie quickly realises there's more to the murders than anyone is willing to admit - and his pursuit of the truth could cost him everything.

When people hear what it's about, the question I'm most commonly asked is why I chose to set my novel in such a distant time and place. There's no straightforward answer.

I'm a lifelong Londoner, born decades after the murders took place. I've visited the USA more than twenty times, but before I started writing the book, I'd never been to Texarkana, or either of the states it straddles. Moreover, my previous attempts at writing - one completed novel and tens of thousands of words of false starts - were set in London in the present day - taking 'write what you know' at its most literal. When I stumbled across the case the novel is based on, I was thirty-thousand words into writing a different manuscript. I dropped it immediately, to start researching the book that became The Dark Inside.

The Texarkana Moonlight Murders, as the case became known, gripped me from the second I started reading about them. The facts of the case, while tragic, horrifying and not to be trivialised, were not extreme by serial killer standards: five dead, three more seriously wounded; the victims mostly young couples, attacked in lovers' lanes. The killer was never caught, but the attacks stopped after several months, and life slowly returned to normal. Nonetheless, I felt an incredible nervous tension as I read what took place.

The terror was in the details. The first couple attacked survived to tell their story: they were parked up on a rural lane after a date night - like all kids their age, the only place they could get some privacy. Without warning, a flashlight beam came on. Someone shone it right in their eyes. Alarmed, but not yet knowing the source, the couple peered out into the darkness. It was then that the young woman saw a man standing a short distance away, a hood over his head with holes for his eyes and mouth, and a gun in hand.

It's the stuff of nightmares - an armed man stepping out of the darkness. Coming for you. Isolated; vulnerable. Terrified.

It went on like that, and as I read, I began to understand the climate that developed in Texarkana. Fear, mistrust, paranoia. Disbelief. Helplessness. This was the start of it, for me; a sense of the atmosphere that would form the backdrop of story - if it could be recreated in print. At the same time, I could hear the voice of the protagonist coming together in my head. Charlie Yates didn't arrive fully-formed - like any character, he grew over time and as the writing progressed - but his voice, the voice needed to tell the story, was there from the start. A certain tone; a man with too many bad miles on his clock, who thinks he's experienced the worst of humanity - but who's about to be embroiled in a nightmare that

makes everything before it pale.

I guess what I'm saying is that, in some senses, I didn't choose the story I wanted to write - it chose me. That sounds wishy-washy, but what I mean is that the starting point for this novel wasn't me sitting down and planning where and when I wanted it to be set, who the characters were, what the plot was. I'd done that with my previous books, and it led me to the same place each time: London, present day, characters who were a lot like people I knew. This was different; it was being gripped by a feeling, and a certainty that there was no other book I wanted to write. If I'd thought too hard about the challenges of setting the story in such an unfamiliar place and time, I might never have had the guts to try. As it was, none of that mattered to me - I had the story I wanted to tell, and nothing else was going to interest me until it was done.

I had a blast writing The Dark Inside, and equally its sequel. I've learned to trust my instincts in the process; I'd encourage any aspiring author to do the same.

You can follow Rod Reynolds on Twitter @Rod_WR

The Dark Inside by Rod Reynolds is out now (Faber & Faber, £12.99)

1946, Texarkana: a town on the border of Texas and Arkansas. Disgraced New York reporter Charlie Yates has been sent to cover the story of a spate of brutal murders - young couples who've been slaughtered at a local date spot. Charlie finds himself drawn into the case by the beautiful and fiery Lizzie, sister to one of the victims, Alice - the only person to have survived the attacks and seen the killer up close.  But Charlie has his own demons to fight, and as he starts to dig into the murders he discovers that the people of Texarkana have secrets that they want kept hidden at all costs. Before long, Charlie discovers that powerful forces might be protecting the killer, and as he investigates further his pursuit of the truth could cost him more than his job...

Watchman Movie to proceed

The legal argument between 20th Century Fox and Warner Bros Movies appears to have been resolved and it looks as if the much awaited movie Watchman will be released as scheduled on 6 March 2009 in the USA

Based on the graphic novel by Alan Moore it has not been without its problems with some fans feeling that it is an impossible graphic novel to film. The film charts the fortunes of a group of crime fighters struggling for justice in an alternative 1985, where Richard Nixon is still US president and the Cold War is raging.

Further information can be found here:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7832719.stm