Dolores Gordon-Smith

Biog
I live in Greater Manchester, with the city one side and the Pennines on the other I'd like to say that I do lots of healthy hill-walking, but I don't. I'm married, with five teenage children (all girls) and assorted dogs and cats, which stops life being dull. I've had a variety of jobs; teacher, civil servant, Christmas pudding maker at Robertson's jam factory, cinema projectionist and sticking the brushes in the tops of Tippex bottles.
I've always loved writing and have written for as long as I can remember. I love detective stories, especially those of Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers and thoroughly enjoy working out a proper detective story plot and making it all come to life on the page.


Contact Details
Website: www.doloresgordon-smith.co.uk/

Latest Release

Interview

Can you give some background details on your crime series?

The background to the Jack Haldean books is the early 1920's, with the war a recent memory.

Can you tell us about the characters and where they came from?

There's two great traditions in crime stories -Chandler's mean streets and Christie's country houses and both make for great stories. I'm a country house type, mainly because to be poor in the 1920's was so awful that any other s

Characterisation or plot, which do you think is more important?

They tend to go hand in hand. I tend to think of the plot first, then - say I want a character who can happily blackmail their neighbours without being suspected - think of the sort of person that's likely to be. I like "village" types to

Do you have a clear structure or plot development when you are writing or are you sometimes surprised by who the killer turns out to be?

I start off with a very clear idea of where I'm going, but the route there changes along the way! It'd be very hard to work to too strict a plan - it needs to be ordered enough for guidance and loose enough to be creative

Do you have trouble letting go of your characters when you have finished a book?

The honest answer is yes. Jack, the hero, is the series character, so he's all right, but some of the other charcters crop up again too. You see, you really get to know and like these people and I can understand why some authors don't want to

Do you stick to a strict routine when you write?

I like to, unless life (take the kids to the dentist, dog to the vets, my sister rings "to catch up" etc.) intervenes. Routine is important though - writing's actually quite hard work and a routine helps to conceal it. You really have to

Do you think the Crime Fiction genre is in a healthy state?

I'd think so! It seems to be able to incorporate a huge variety of styles, subjects and themes. I really think there's a different sort of crime book to suit every reader.

How much research do you do in writing your novels?

Shedloads, is the quick answer. When I started to think about the 1920's, I wanted the period to be "mine" so I looked for a way in and found it in cars. There aren't many petrolheads in classic detective fiction. I ended up doing a

Is there a book out there you would have liked to have written?

Harry Potter and the...
Yep, that would be good.


Is there a particular book or author that inspired you to be a writer?

This is quite a difficult question, but a real "writer's writer" is, I think, PG Wodehouse. In his best books, the language is perfect and the plotting flawless. Oddly enough, it's sometimes not the perfect books which are inspiratio

What are you working on at the moment?

I'm very happy with the way the third book in the Jack Haldean series is shaping up. It's wonderful when you know you've got a good, fire-proof plot, characters who you enjoy spending time with and the story starts to really gel.

What do you want your readers to get out of the book?

First and foremost, enjoyment. I suppose enjoyment is last and least, too! (And all the stages along the way.)

What is the best advice you could give to a future writer?

Finish what you're working on. An unfinished work can have tremendous promise but unless it's finished, you'll never know if that promise can be fulfilled. It's only when a work's finished you can look at it critically and that

What was the main challenge you faced writing the book?

1920's crime is a well-known genre so I wanted to make it alive, fresh and exciting, without resorting to wildly eccentric characters or outragous plots. I wanted to make my people as "normal" as I could and yet still interesting. Normali

What was the inspiration for your leading character?

The inspiration for Jack came from a few places. Perhaps the most important one was my aversion to spending months writing about some sad bloke with issues. I wanted someone I could support, cheer for, want to win - someone who I'd admire in real l

What was your inspiration to write your latest book?

The third book in the Jack Haldean series has aircraft as its background, mixed in with a good few other elements. I wa rooting round in a second-hand bookshop when I found a wonderful book published in 1923 called "All About The Aircraft of Today&q

View the whole Jack Haldean Murder Mystery series.