Lynne Marie Taylor

Inspector Sam McQueen is soon to step on the stage and for me this is the best thing about getting published. I am excited for people to meet him. I have long had a fascination with Victorian detectives and was inspired by the real-life character of Jonathan Whicher, immortalised in Kate Summerscale’s account of the Murder at Rode House, The Suspicions of Mr Whicher. McQueen shares with him a dogged determination to keep going until the case is solved, even when everything seems to be going against him.

McQueen is, of course, from Scotland. Somewhere in my early research I found a reference to the Maltese police being moulded on the Edinburgh police force. I later found this wasn’t the case, but it was too late. I had set my heart on a Scottish detective. With my murder mystery being set in Malta in 1880, it seemed natural to send a detective there who would be deeply uncomfortable. So who better than a dour Scot from Edinburgh, hating the heat and distrustful of the dominant Catholic church?

Death in Valletta is publishing on 29th April – there’s still time for you to pre-order Inspector Sam McQueen’s first adventure.