I always had it in mind for my David Good books to be a pretty light and entertaining read.

I have tried a few times to come up with something that has a harder edge to it, though is still not overly aggressive or unpleasant. I know I have something inside me of the sort, just waiting to get out; something more serious and sombre.

But I also know that when I do write such a piece, it won't be devoid of humour. For one thing, real life isn't devoid of humour, so you couldn’t write such a book without it’s presence.

Visiting the darker side of humanity isn't out of the question, it just needs, it seems, to be a step or two removed from what we see as real life. It can be fantastical or perhaps veer towards horror; that seems to me to be OK, in part because it isn't real.

Oddly, I don't mind too much reading or watching the harder edged, unpleasant stuff (a little Scandi Noir is OK). I just don't want to write it. The difference? When you're writing this sort of thing, you are drawn in very deep, for an extended period of time, months even. You are not just an observer, you are more like a participant. That matters. It makes a difference.

So, there we go, I like to entertain readers with my books and I also like to entertain myself when I am writing them, which, for now at least, seems to mean no heavy-weight, grisly, gritty stuff from me.


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Crime fiction with attitude and humour from 1980s London.