People ask how I got started writing detective fiction. My job as an economist led me to publish a number of scholarly articles and several books. After I retired, I looked for a way to continue writing, which I enjoy, and I decided to try penning mystery novels.
Writing fiction posed different challenges from the type of analytical and descriptive writing that I was used to, but I welcomed the opportunity to learn something new. I first took a series of courses on Coursera under the Creative Writing specialization. The subjects that were covered included: how to craft plot, characters, scene, and style, with a final module on how to get published. The courses were intended to be taken sequentially, but by mistake I registered for the first four courses simultaneously, so I had to do four writing assignments a week rather than one! It was fun getting up in the morning and dashing off another story, and I learned a lot.
I’ve always enjoyed reading detective fiction, and as a teenager I read all I could find by Agatha Christie, Erle Stanley Gardner, Georges Simenon, and many other writers. One of the things I like about detective novels is that there is some structure to them. They usually involve a crime or mystery to be solved by the protagonist, and hopefully, by the reader. Authors typically use the same protagonist in a series of novels, so that their books contain familiar characters like Hercule Poirot, Perry Mason, or Inspecteur Maigret. And many novelists exploit the contrast between idyllic surroundings and a horrible crime. Writers of English village mysteries are masters of this.
I decided to try my hand at the genre. The two most important choices I had to make were: Where to set the stories? Who should be my protagonist? I decided to have my detective be someone older, a retired person like myself. I felt that there were issues relating to seniors that were not given the attention that they deserved. But I chose to make my detective a retired judge, not a retired economist. I didn’t want him to be too close to me. As for the location, I wanted my stories to be set in a small town in Canada which was not too obviously patterned after Niagara-on-the-Lake. I chose to create a fictional town called Ashcroft-by-the-Sea on Nova Scotia’s Atlantic coast south of Halifax. Being on a body of water is an important ingredient of some of my stories. I am a member of the NOTL Sailing Club, which shares some features with the fictional Ashcroft Yacht Club.
The first novel in The ABC Files, entitled Hamish Cameron Investigates, begins with my hero in an upscale retirement home, New Dawn, located on the outskirts of Ashcroft. When one of his friends dies, as does a nurse employed there, Hamish is suspicious. He enlists a volunteer at the home, Sean Carroll, to help him investigate what is going on, and what they discover puts them in danger. Later, Hamish gets involved in a conflict over development in Ashcroft, and is hired to investigate sabotage at the yacht club. This is the origin of their collaboration in a detective agency, Cameron and Carroll, Investigators.
