The first in my series of crime novels, Jack of All Trades, was published at the end of September 2015. And now the fourth is out. Don’t panic. I didn’t write four in six months, but began writing them in 2013. The first three were published more or less at the same time. And now there’s a fourth out. They are:

Jack of All Trades
Jack of Spades
Jack o’Lantern
Jack by the Hedge

The main character is Jack Bell, a builder, an unusual character for crime stories. Such novels most often feature the police, or those associated with the police like lawyers and forensic pathologists. Then there are the private eyes, and the amateur detectives like Miss Marple. But every writer has to decide where to place themselves. I didn’t want to write a police procedural and get drawn into the science of crime scenes and the politics of the police station. So I could have gone for the private eye, as JK Rowling has, writing as Robert Galbraith, with Cormoran Strike (which always makes me think of a diving seabird), but I rejected that too. I might rethink that track, but not for the next year or so.

I went for a builder, a working class hero you might say. He gets around, and that is the point. I needed someone who could come across murders in different settings. The first book is set in a large house owned by a millionaire couple, the second in a house with apartments, the third at a private school, and the fourth in a park.

I am not a builder so I lack Jack Bell’s skills. From time to time, I get envious of Charlayne Harris whose main character, Lily Bard, is a cleaner. Everyone knows what a cleaner does, why you can even practise with the vacuum cleaner at home and claim it’s research! But a builder, that’s a whole range of skills. I’ve had to research bricklaying, fitting windows, working on roofs, and dry rot. Fortunately, the internet is a brilliant source of tradespeople and their videos, showing and explaining the skills, tools and materials of the trade. A few videos I’ve had to replay many times over to fathom out some detail in, for instance, making a soundproof wall. It’s necessary for me to understand what Jack is doing, but I have to bear in mind that I mustn’t bore my readers with the technical aspects. This is a narrow line as my reader must believe Jack is a builder. He has work to do, with all its associated problems: customers who can be difficult, snags he didn’t anticipate, and the needs to cost a job and be paid. For each book, I have to know exactly what he’s doing, even though I may not use half of it. .

A character though is more than a job. Jack is divorced and has a ten year old daughter, Mia. She ages through the series, by the fourth she is 12. Jack has a difficult relationship with her mother, Alison. They divorced when Jack had problems with alcohol. Now he doesn’t drink at all, as his heavy drinking in the past landed him on the streets. Building helped him put his life together.

In each book, there is romantic interest. As a rule in crime fiction, happily married main characters I find somewhat boring. There are notable exceptions, so I won’t damn them all. But I have decided to give Jack a hard time in the romantic stakes. Girlfriends end up as murderers or victims, they try to kill him, they set him up as the killer. They are not all nasty by any means, but somehow Jack loses out.

What pleases me is that the series has been well received by both men and women. Jack is not an unbelievable he-man or a wimp either. He is a parent as well as a builder. I am aware, from beginning to end, that I have to tell a compelling story, with tension, surprise and good characters. That’s how you hold readers.

I plan each book as a stand-alone novel. I think this is important in a series. There are those who will devour the series in a week or so, but others might read one and the next not for a year or more and won’t remember any plot that feeds through from the last novel. Little things will go from book to book, like Jack’s daughter is growing up, but nothing major. This means new readers can come in anywhere.

I have written seven of the series so far, the fifth will be published in October, entitled Jack in the Box. It features a siege with Jack at the wrong side of it. All the books are set locally. I live in Forest Gate, in East London, and Jack lives down my road. He has a van with Jack of All Trades painted on the side. The first three books were launched at Forest Gate Library in October 2015, and I hope the 5th will be launched there this October. Presently, I am trying to come up with a plot for the 8th. I need a setting, a job for Jack, and a suite of new characters, though his daughter and ex will continue in his life. So I shall walk the local streets and muse.

Good Reading!

DH Smith