Bestselling author Maeve Haran on making the switch to crime writing while retaining her strongest theme of female friendship in The Campervan Detectives.
I’ve had a fascinating career as a writer. It started in 1991 with the worldwide bestseller Having It All. Since then, I’ve written another twenty-one books, including two historical novels and one about life’s small pleasures. And then, two years ago I had a blip. My beloved editor, Trisha Jackson at Pan Macmillan, retired and I thought my career might retire with her, so I decided to have a go at crime.
Crime seemed very much the flavour not just of the month but likely to keep going pretty permanently. After all Agatha Christie started in 1920 and is still one of the bestselling authors in the world.
I did a crime-writing course with Curtis Brown which provided me with some insights into the grammar of the crime novel as well as some useful feedback and my son gave me Agatha Christie’s autobiography for Christmas. From this I gleaned her – rather surprising – recipe for a successful crime novel: some farce, some tension, good twists and a happy ending!
‘I could do that,’ I thought.
Female Friendship
My beloved editor took me out to lunch and told me firmly: ‘Crime might be a vogue but hang on to what you do best – female friendship!’
At about the same time my very good friends and neighbours in Sussex, where I have a small cottage, got into campervans and by a crazy chance Pia Jewellery, who I buy the occasional thing from, sent me their catalogue featuring an orange campervan key ring with the message LIFE’S AN ADVENTURE – ENJOY THE RIDE.
Writers are odd people and that message took root in my brain. I decided to create a heroine whose life had become suddenly very unhappy and she sees that message outside a Campervan dealer and on the spur of the moment blows her savings on an iconic orange campervan.
She returns in the van to where she was happiest as a child – a small seaside in Sussex and there meets three other women who for various reasons are all living in campervans.
A Campervan Mystery Adventure
Sadie has only just arrived when she visits the allotment where her mother had longed to have a plot and not only discovers a dead body but also sees a suspicious character in a balaclava disappearing from the scene.
When Sadie discovers that the body is that of her old headmistress she can’t resist getting involved and trying to solve the mystery with the help of her three new friends.
Creating characters is probably the single thing I enjoy most about being a writer. When you do talks people often say ‘I could never write a book,’ and my reply is always ‘You could if you can create good characters!’
Sadie’s friends are a case in point – Amanda is an ex-actress, very funny and determinedly non-PC, she sees the drama in everything; Rose, an ex-cleaner is a wonderful counterpoint, down to earth and cynical; and Tina, the youngest member of the group, a criminology grad who used to be a detective, at a time when the police were hiring detectives straight from university, but who fell out with her bosses over their misogynistic attitude, but of course still has useful contacts!
And so The Campervan Detectives were born.
The Campervan Detectives
I love these women, they make me laugh and are such good company, and now that I am starting Book 3 in The Campervan Detectives mysteries, I realise what a help it is to have my characters to help me write it.
And I mustn’t forget Sadie’s comical mini-schnauzer Sam Spade, who has his own views on catching baddies.
It’s a very enjoyable cocktail. And that’s what I’m aiming for, a series that is intriguing but also a lot of fun.
I was delighted when Bookouture commissioned three, even though I’m an unknown in this field, as they’re such successful publishers and obviously know what to look for. And already they’re selling them into foreign markets successfully. Who knows – what about a TV series? I worked as a TV producer in a previous career and can definitely see the potential.
Isn’t Life Funny?
Isn’t life funny? Here I am, someone who doesn’t really like opening the bonnet on my own car, subscribing to VWt, the trade magazine for VW’s and being knocked out by the creativity some owners show in decorating the inside of their campervans like tiny palaces.
People ask if I have one, but as my children would testify, the roads are safer without me behind the wheel of VW Transporter!
So, for the moment I’ll stay behind my desk (shocking to admit I still write on a PC in my study and keep my laptop for Zoom calls.) I recently went to Jilly Cooper’s’ thanksgiving service as Jilly used to give me wonderful quotes for my books (she was longing to read the mysteries she said) and I gather Jilly still used a typewriter called Monica!
The first Campervan Detective story is out now so it’s a very exciting time. I so hope my readers have as much enjoyment in reading them as I have in writing them.
About The Campervan Detectives:
Fearless, feisty and at the wheel of her bright orange campervan, newly-single Sadie is about to enter a new era… as a detective?!
It’s never too late for a second chance, and when Sadie Sutton’s marriage implodes spectacularly, she jumps into her vintage VW campervan and heads for the twisty cobbled streets and sea views of her childhood in the little seaside town of Winching. But her fresh start comes to an abrupt stop when she trips over a dead body, turning an ordinary walk with her faithful dog Sam Spade into a murder investigation!
Having failed to stop a balaclava-wearing suspect disappearing from the scene into the night, Sadie can’t help but take matters into her own hands. The victim, retired headmistress Charlotte Woolf, was well known around Winching for her sharp tongue – rumours suggest she was particularly disliked by her own husband! But he swears he doesn’t even like killing snails by mistake…
With the enthusiastic help of three women at the campsite who have all embraced Van Life, Sadie starts sleuthing. Who was sending Charlotte anonymous bunches of flowers that had her rattled? Do the members of the local sea swimming club hold a vital clue? Sadie and her friends are on the right track… until their prime suspect ends up dead in his garden shed!
Can Sadie get to the root of the problem and stop the killer before the next person is buried? Or will her fresh new chapter end with her driving her campervan back the way she came?
First in a brilliant new series from bestselling author Maeve Haran, this warm, witty and absolutely unputdownable cosy crime novel is perfect for fans of Agatha Christie, The Thursday Murder Club and Robert Thorogood.
Order your copy online here.
And read more Meet the Author articles on Writing.ie here.
