The latest overnight success story in the twilight world of the murder-mystery novel is none other than regional journalist Stephen Booth.

The deputy editor at the Worksop Guardian sold his first novel to HarperCollins and it went on to become one of the hottest pieces of work around.

Mhairi McFarlane, of the Nottingham Evening Post, found out what sparked his success – and how to pull off the perfect twist!

---

For a would-be novelist, it’s a scenario you might dream about on the bus home from the nine-to-five job.

Stephen Booth sold his first novel in an auction for a five-figure sum to publishers HarperCollins earlier this year.

It went on to be printed in America, Japan and Europe. TV companies are hovering in the wings, poised to snap up the rights to develop scripts based on the book.

Never mind critical appreciation or the sense of satisfaction at having finally set that good idea down on paper, what could beat the thrill of a phonecall from Hollywood?

Then comes the praise of famous novelists you have admired for years, and entry in the list of WHSmith best-sellers.

All this became reality for Stephen Booth this year. Although in fairness, he had waited until he was 47 years old to be an overnight sensation in the literary world.

Stephen, (left) deputy editor of the Worksop Guardian, has unveiled his murder-mystery book Black Dog to the kind of fuss craved by every first-time novelist.

He has been hailed as the new star of the genre by Dalziel and Pascoe creator Reginald Hill.

“I’d dreamed of this all my life,” he says, “I still can’t believe it when I see my book on the best-seller lists.”

The story is set in summer-time in Derbyshire’s Peak District, where a community is thrown into confusion by the disappearance of a teenage girl.

“The idea for the book came from a story at work, actually,” Stephen explains. “It occurred to me that in searches for a body, the police always seem to draw a blank and you always hear it was found by a man walking his dog the next morning.

“It just sparked something in my mind.”

Stephen describes Black Dog as a “traditional murder mystery”, but with strong characterisation which is as important as the resolution of the plot.

The narrative follows a young local policeman and an ambitious female officer drafted in from another division. Their interplay makes the book not only a whodunnit, but a will-they-won’t-they?

The male and female cop partnership has attracted the interest of TV and film companies, who see its screen potential.

“It is about the relationships between people, and this makes it attractive to women as well as men, who are usually supposed to read books with killing in them.

“It would be great if someone wanted to put it on TV, and I think especially with Inspector Morse being killed off there is an opening for it.

“I’ve even had an approach from an American film company in Hollywood asking for a copy of the book!”

Stephen, who has no children, lives with his wife in Retford and is quietly tapping away at the word processor for hours after work every night to produce the sequel to his debut.

HarperCollins paid for two books up front and Stephen acknowledges the pressure which inevitably follows success.

“They always said the second would be the hardest and it’s absolutely true. I had to come up with something the publishers would like, and my agent sent back the first draft asking me to improve it! But it’s coming.”

Stephen has had a passion for putting pen to paper since he was young. Born in Burnley, he wrote a science fiction novel aged 11 and journalism seemed a natural career.

He has been at the Worksop Guardian for 14 years, during which time he took the tentative steps of drafting three or four chapters and sending them off to agents and publishers.

He heard nothing until his current agent found his manuscript three years ago.

“She steered me into writing the kind of thing which I could sell. I realised that my work up until then had been not quite fantasy, not science fiction, not quite horror. My agent said she thought I could write a really good crime novel and everything just came together.”

And many people want to know: how do you pull off the perfect twist?

“You have to give the reader all the information they need to work it out, but take their attention away from this so they don’t notice it until you want them to.

“I always feel cheated if an author just pulls something out of the bag at the end of a story, to show how clever they are.

“Reginald Hill said to me that he once told the readers who the murderer was in the first line!”

Stephen will be appearing alongside local authors Paul Adam and David Belbin at the Crime Writers’ Evening at the Lowdham Book Festival at Methodist Hall, Main Street, Lowdham, Notts, on Tuesday, July 11.”

Do you have a story for us?
Ring the HoldTheFrontPage newsdesk on
01332 291111 x6022, or to e-mail us now – click here