Crime fiction is the fiction of social history. Societies get the crimes they deserve.

To have a very strong opinion all the time is corrosive to a person's intellect. It becomes your default position.

We don't really go in for big family dinners, but Scottish people are famously confrontational. It's a cultural thing, so maybe we don't need to have them to clear the air. Also, traditional family food isn't as nice here so there's no payoff for traveling hundreds of miles.

Usually when I'm trying to establish character, I try and find out where they live.

Novelisation doesn't imply the truth. Readers are sophisticated enough to know that.

Crime fiction is the fiction of social history. Societies get the crimes they deserve.

None of us know what is going to sell or what people want to read.