ED CHURCH
Raised in Birmingham, Ed Church left Edinburgh University in 1999 with an MA in French and Swedish before studying print journalism and writing for the Press Association’s International Sport desk. In 2005 he joined the Metropolitan Police, going on to serve for a decade as both a uniformed officer and detective.
Post-police, he has renovated a 200-year-old cottage in Yorkshire and, most recently, a 57ft Durham Steelcraft narrowboat. While he shares Brook Deelman’s appreciation of a game of rugby and a good pub, Ed decided to spare his protagonist the ups-and-downs of following Aston Villa.
Q: Who is your favourite fictional detective?
A: In literature, Philip Marlowe. On screen, Columbo. Both characters have a gift for laconic humour, which I love. I find it much harder to feel a connection with a humourless detective.
Q: How did your time in the police help with writing the Brook Deelman books?
A: Having some realism around procedure can lend credibility. But, more than that, I wanted to capture the “feel” of being a detective in London, or, at least, as I experienced it. The thought processes and behaviours, the friendships, the pub culture, the tiredness. I thought that was more important. With some decent procedure in the background, of course.
Q. Do you have a writing routine?
A. Not exactly, though I always write with a pen and paper first, then type it up later. I also need to map out the plot and its pivot points before I start a book, even if things might change along the way. For Operation Echo, I found 6am to 8am was a productive time, which was unusual, as the other books were largely written in cafés and pubs.
Q. Where did the love of dual timelines come from?
A. I think Birdsong by Sebastian Faulks first made me realise the extra suspense and emotion that can be generated by telling a story across two time periods. It created a strange kind of urgency in me as a reader. In terms of weaving a detective story across two timelines, I thought the first series of “True Detective” was really clever, so that might have been a factor too.
Q. Any other favourite TV series?
A. A few that come to mind would be The Night Manager, Breaking Bad, Ozark, The Queen’s Gambit. Cobra Kai is also a guilty pleasure for anyone who grew up in the 80s.
Q. Who would play Brook Deelman on screen?
A couple of readers have mentioned Tom Hardy. I have another, slightly left-field idea, but I’ll keep that under my hat…
