4.2 Craig Robertson

By the very nature of writing a crime novel, we are raising moral questions. As crime writers, we have various tasks, the first one being simply to entertain the reader. We have to have them coming away having enjoyed the book, to have been thrilled or scared or amused. But we’d like also to pose questions about society. That is a large part of what drives us to do what we do.

And by the very nature of that, we’re at the edges of it. And we need morally questionable acts in the book. And so people have to commit these. So it’s an imperative that we have people behaving in morally dubious ways. And the book would not work without that.

So it’s down to us to explore why they do them. And that’s maybe the key part of our books as much as a reveal, as much as a twist or some big action scene is we know why these things are being carried out. And our job is to explore them. Let the reader ask questions.

So we need people who are on the edge. It may be the ultimate sin of committing murder. It may be behaving badly, deception. Whatever it is, we need a reason for it. I think it’s important to us the readers identify with their characters. Again, whether they’re the good guys or the bad guys, they have to identify with them. They don’t always have to like them or love them or support them. But they have to have a connection with them.

To do that, again, the important thing is to make them as real as possible. Most people come in shades of grey. And so characters in a novel should as well. I never had much fun reading characters who are all good or all bad because I don’t think that’s particularly realistic. So I want mine to have faults, and I want them to have positive elements to their character.

And if readers can buy into that, then it will work. And if they don’t buy into it, then I’m not doing my job, and they’re not going to enjoy the book. So it’s about making them relatable, impactful, as much as being likeable. Likeable is a secondary thing. In many cases, we don’t want them to be liked because they are doing terrible things, but as long as there’s an understanding of why they’re doing it.