Kate Charles crime-fiction writer
By Rachel Harden

The Church is the perfect backdrop for crime novels’

In my mind, the Church is the perfect backdrop for crime novels — just read the Church Times. Seriously, in an institution that promotes ideals of behaviour, yet is made up of fallible human beings, most people have things they’d rather keep to themselves. Those secrets are the motivation for all sorts of crime.

Evil Intent is my ninth crime novel with the Church of England as a backdrop. The first, A Drink of Deadly Wine, was written in 1990. I’d always known that I would write books one day, but it wasn’t until a group of characters took over my brain and demanded to be written about that I was finally motivated to do it.

It usually takes about a year to write a book. I find that, as I get older, the longer each book takes, which doesn’t seem fair. I hate deadlines, and have very rarely accepted a contract before I had a book to deliver; so the pressure is largely self-imposed rather than coming from my publishers.

So many clergy have been wonderfully helpful in getting things just right. I shadowed Canon Bill Ritson at St Albans for a week some years ago; and the Bishop of St Albans, the Rt Revd Christopher Herbert, has always been more than generous with his help.

Getting the details right is very important to me. I think it’s what sets my books apart from those of other writers who use the Church as background. It gives my novels a sort of universality, at least in church circles: readers are always recognising people and situations they’ve encountered themselves.

Some people wouldn’t begin writing a crime novel without plotting it from start to finish. I prefer to write organically, surprising myself as well as my readers as the story unfolds. My books are really about people, not about crimes — the crimes are more of a framework to hang the story on, and an excuse to explore motivation.

The gay issue comes up in virtually all of my books, in one way or another. My very first novel was about “outing”, before that term was invented. I’ve felt for years that the gay issue was the ticking time bomb that would confront and define the Church well into the 21st century. Pig’s ear is a good way to describe it.

As a committed church member, I felt from the beginning that it would be wise to use a pen name. I would hate to upset people in my local congregation, and my books can get a bit close to the bone sometimes.

I’ve always been a huge reader — which is a good thing for a writer. I grew up reading mysteries and fantasies. I’ve just finished reading the fabulous “Merrily Watkins” series by Phil Rickman — brilliant books. Now I’m re-reading Barbara Pym’s Civil to Strangers, and looking forward to the new Harry Potter.

I’ve never had the experience of a large, close family. My family is important to me, of course, but so are my friends. I think that true friendship is desperately underrated as a force for good in people’s lives. My friends are essential to me, and I try to cherish them.

My childhood ambitions were to be a writer, and to live in England . To my great joy, I have achieved both. I was lucky in choosing the best husband in the world.

I still regret that I didn’t listen to my mother when she told me I should study Latin. I did at least listen to her when she said I should learn to type. My mother has been a great influence, from my earliest childhood, when she read to me.

I would like to be remembered for writing books which linger in people’s minds long after they’ve read them, and which touch them personally in some way rather than just entertain them — books no one else could possibly have written.

It probably says more about me than about anything else, but of the thousands of sermons I’ve heard over the years, I only remember a handful — and most of those for the wrong reasons. Among the honourable exceptions, I must mention Jeffrey John on the raising of Lazarus: personal, powerful, and resonant.

The Psalms — BCP — never cease to delight me, with their poetic imagery and their depth of emotion. Most of my book titles come from the Psalms.

Parochial church politics make me very angry, especially when they’re self-serving. I was furious recently about something that happened in my church at the expense of a vulnerable person.

I feel my happiest at the Edington Music Festival every summer . We’ve been going for years, and I look forward to it as a music-soaked spiritual retreat.

I’m a tea person rather than a coffee person; so Clipper Tea is my favourite fair-trade product.

Cities are what turn me on: galleries, theatre, concerts, churches. Fortunately, my husband and I are in agreement that holidays are for sightseeing, not for lounging about on the beach, or huffing up and down mountains.

I’d like to get locked in a church with Merrily Watkins, Phil Rickman’s marvellous woman-priest character. Really interesting things happen to her in churches at night.

Evil Intent is published by Allison & Busby £18.99
(email Church Times Bookshop £17.10) 0-74908