Good morning, dear hearts!
I have had a very unique journey into the world of police procedurals & dramatic crime fiction this year! It began in the Spring when I first started to listen to the audiobook versions of Ms Amphlett’s #KayHunter series, wherein I shortly became a part of #TeamKayHunter without realising their was a tag to celebrate this affection on social! (smiles) I would have used it in earnest, had I known!
My journey continued when a new series began on #BritBox – a subscription channel you can see modern & classic British comedies & dramas as well as lifestyle series or documentaries – the new variant of Bletchley Circle began, shifting the focus to San Francisco. When this first began, I hadn’t realised the connection to a prior series but thankfully the bookish & tv serial community in the twitterverse are equally approachable & helpful to one another! This modern adaptation has a lovely cast of women, each presenting their own unique talents for criminological observation, sleuthing and the art of deduction through their mutual passion for ‘codes’ and ‘ciphers’.
Whilst I was enjoying my reprieve between installments, I discovered another lovely for dramatic crime on #BritBox called: Scott & Bailey which aired originally from 2011-2016, marking one of the more ‘recent’ British serials I’ve become attached too! I plowed straight through Series 1 and most of the first half of the second series as well – wherein, would you believe, I came full-circle!? One of the key episodes where we get to peer behind the facades of the detectives in this series involved a case which is nearly word for word the synopsis for ‘Gone to Ground’. There are variants in the case(s) of course, but the stark similarity within them leant me the advantage to realise, I could handle this #KayHunter installment, too! (something I shall expound upon when I share my ruminative thoughts on Friday, the 7th!)
Likewise, when I wasn’t watching wicked good dramatic crime dramas, I was eagerly anticipating reading them and/or listening to them – as I had the pleasure of reading the latest #HiroHattori novel; I grabbed my first pre-order for an audiobook & interviewed the author whilst I am happily retreating back inside both the latest #MarjorieTrumaine & #SamuelCraddock mysteries this [September] in-line with my sixth experience of listening to the life & adventures of Kay Hunter! September is also my first month for participating in PERIL (#perilxiii) wherein I think I’ll be finding myself happily consumed by suspenseful & thrilling reads overall!
My fondness for Kay Hunter and her emotionally gutting back-story was wickedly brought to life by Ms Amphlett’s narrator: Alison Campbell, of whom to this day, I still recognise so readily as ‘being Kay Hunter’ it is hard to distance myself from this role if I try to hear her voice narrating another character (and yes, I have tried!).
It was one of the few times where I had the pleasure of joy of beginning a series and having the ability to ‘continue’ forward with it within a very short expanse of time. With all my health difficulties in the Spring, the Kay Hunter series was a calming balm to my anguish and strife. I vividly remember not feeling like ‘myself’ but putting in my earphones, soaking into the narration of Ms Campbell and feeling as if I had transitioned so wholly into Kay Hunter’s life, my own troubles felt a bit distanced.
I listened to this series in various places – from the kitchen to public libraries – wherever I found myself within the series itself, I felt cocooned away from the ‘outside world’. So much so, one of my most vivid responses is hearing the ending of one of the stories and being emotionally shattered to where I had trouble ‘exiting’ the emotional angst of that ending only to realise I was in the middle of a public library where *everyone!* and their cousin (so to speak) had suddenly decided was ‘the’ place to be at that late hour in the afternoon! I was amazed! All those people – and yet, whilst I was connecting to the emotional bits of Kay’s story, I could have been in an isolated listening chamber!! I never heard nor saw anyone the whole time I was listening to Ms Campbell relate the story into my earphones!
There is a powerful centreing in this series – a credit to Ms Amphlett for her strong intuitiveness about continuity and the backbone of the series being grounded in her research for authenticity – you are presented with a sturdy foundation of a crime drama which gets under your skin and settles inside your heart. The gaps between the installments are an aching loss but one you meet with patience! It takes time to knit out a series like this – especially one which is breathed to life so eloquently by Ms Campbell and heightened in integrity by Ms Amphlett!
Today, I have the joy of welcoming the author to Jorie Loves A Story – sharing a conversation about her series and the ways in which she approached writing it. Remember, dear hearts, there will be a slight gap between the next installments of this series, not just for the time needed for the author’s relocation *but!* because she is also working on other projects, including another rather popular series – whose readers, I would imagine are as itching to see what happens next for their characters as we are for ours within #KayHunter!
If you’ve been seeking a police drama series with an incredibly layered strong female lead at the heart of the series, look no further! You might be happily surprised and charmed by how easily you become addicted to reading and/or listening to the Kay Hunter series! Then, again, I’d be the first to give you a warm welcome into #TeamKayHunter!
As always, my conversations are best enjoyed with your favourite cuppa, a comfy place to sit and a curiosity about the series at hand! IF your cuppa involves tea, kindly let me know what your current favourite brew is below the conversation!
While attending a crime scene on the outskirts of Maidstone, DI Kay Hunter makes a shocking discovery.
The victim has been brutally cut to pieces, his identity unknown.
When more body parts start turning up in the Kentish countryside, Kay realises the disturbing truth – a serial killer is at large and must be stopped at all costs.
With no motive for the murders and a killer who has gone undetected until now, Kay and her team of detectives must work fast to calm a terrified local population and a scornful media.
When a third victim is found, her investigation grows even more complicated.
As she begins to expose a dark underbelly to the county town, Kay and her team are pulled into a web of jealousy and intrigue that, if left unchecked, will soon claim another life.
As you’ve built the Kay Hunter series through influences of your favourite crime novelists as well as serialised crime dramas – what did you immediately want readers to connect with when they first ‘met’ Kay Hunter? Was it something specific about her you hoped would shine through or was it a sense this is a complex character who slowly reveals more of herself as the series progresses?
Amphlett responds: When I began to develop the structure of the first book, Scared to Death, I knew right away I wanted a series with the character of Kay Hunter – I started with a resilient female detective in mind before the actual crimes came to fruition.
I made a conscious decision to create her character differently from a lot of my favourite detectives I’d been reading about. A key part of this was giving her a safe home environment – anyone who works within the emergency services has a stressful enough time in their role, so her home is a safe haven, and one she retreats to in order to make some sense of the dark crimes she finds herself investigating.
As the series has evolved, so has Kay’s character – in the first books, she’s fighting back against the Professional Standards investigation that wreaked havoc on her professional and personal life and so as that progresses, we see her gain confidence in her own abilities as a detective.
I thank you for giving Kay such a ‘safe zone’ of comfort in Adam and the life they’ve pooled together – as despite their personal anguish and tragic loss, what is comforting is that Kay has someone she can turn to when the horrors of her job become too much for her to carry alone. Not that Adam can know everything (of course) but just to have a supportive spouse and one who can uplift her when she’s down has been an incredible asset I felt to the series – as too often you find dramatic crime series are showing an absence of this kind of support; of where the detectives have to bolster their own courage or live within dysfunctional families.
The ways in which you’ve allowed her the dimension to grow and to breathe as a character is also inspiring – I’ve loved watching her progress through this trying time in her life (professionally) but also how as she grows in confidence as a detective how this also puts a stress on her relationship with Adam who despite his earnest support sometimes falters when he realises for Kay, the job and the career are her personal ‘calling’ inasmuch as his is to be the saver and protector of domestic pets and wildlife.
The ways in which you’ve handled the subplot of the Kay Hunter series referring to the struggles Kay and Adam have had with child-bearing have been dealt with compassionate insight. How did you decide to have this emotional anguish at the forefront of their marriage and have you foreseen a resolution for them or are you letting that part of their lives have a resolution which would organically feel fitting for the story?
Amphlett responds: That concept came as a surprise to me, actually. I knew I wanted Kay to have that safe home life but I also wanted her and Adam to have been through a phase where they’d had to retreat from the outside world and rely on each other for a period of time. I read a lot about miscarriages but could only imagine the heartbreak involved. It was really important to me to show how it affected Adam as much as Kay, though. Their lives will continue to grow organically with the stories in the series – characters often surprise me, so I don’t like to plan everything.
Ooh, this delights me immensely to hear you write your stories organically as it is a method I use myself when I am writing. Not many authors allow themselves this kind of room to let the narratives and character evolve as their writing though I must admit, as I was listening to the series, it felt dearly organic in nature – as there are a lot of natural moments within the series – moments where you can almost mistake the characters for real-life composites of themselves due to how compelling real they sound and how instinctive they are reacting to what is happening to them. Equally – the whole back-history of the miscarriage and how you dealt with the layers of what this involved – shifting POV between Kay, Adam and even Kay’s family – showed how layered the series is on a personal and professional level as your never sacrificing one view of Kay’s life for another.
I love how Adam is a Vet and how his ‘patients’ become fixtures of the background in the series. In many ways, the animals themselves become a bit of comic relief. Of all the animals he brings home to nurse or give a bit of extra TLC too – which one(s) were your favourite to insert into their lives? And, what are your favourite kinds of pets in real life?
Amphlett responds: My favourite so far has been Sid, the snake in Scared to Death – especially Kay’s reaction to having a snake in her house. I think it helps to push the boundaries of tolerance she has for Adam’s work and his insistence on bringing his patients home with him, and I love to hear readers’ reactions when a new book comes out and they find out what animal he’s got next.
I grew up in a household with a menagerie of small animals such gerbils, guinea pigs, rabbits, a rescued duck – we even ended up with a homing pigeon at one point that refused to go home! My parents drove it out to the fringes of the town we lived in and released it in the hope it’d find its owner but it beat them home to our place instead!
I have a dog these days, a Saluki called Floyd but I have a soft spot for all animals.
Ooh my yes! Sid was a stand-out by far! I felt this worked well for building that kind of tension in their marriage – not that it was always tense, most of the animals have drawn them closer together rather than pushed their boundaries too far askew! lol I just meant by having this element which is dearly unexpected (as Kay never has prior knowledge of which animal is inbound) knits out a lovely ‘home life’ for Kay and Adam. They both have difficult jobs (hers moreso but still) and it is nice they can have down-time which takes their minds/hearts off their professional lives.
The story about your pigeon left me in a fit of giggles imagining the scene of seeing the bird back at your house before you even reached the door! lol Reminds me of why I love watching the feeds on ‘The Dodo’ on Twitter!? I love positive and affirming stories – these all centre round animals – from farm to wild to domestic – from the love we share with them to the harrowing survival stories to acts of random kindness or the joys of inter-species friendships – there is truly a unique story to be learnt everyday! Thanks for giving us a glimpse into one of yours!
The dynamic of the team of police detectives and officers in the series holds well to what I have seen in other police procedural dramas – as I have the tendency to watch more of them than I prefer to read. Including the latest find ‘Scott and Bailey’ – you’ve mastered a way to give each of the supporting cast members a solid foundation. Is there one in particular you particularly love to write more about and do you think they might get a story-line focused on their life moreso than the others in the installments yet to come?
Amphlett responds: Thank you – it was important to me that the supporting cast were as well developed as Kay. They’re just as important to her in the stories and in the investigations, and it was vital to me to ensure that I showed them all working as a team – you wouldn’t get far in real life police work if you acted like a lone wolf!
I find all the other supporting roles in an investigation interesting, too – by not focusing on one main character, I get the chance to see how the crimes affect different personalities. For instance, DC Ian Barnes will react differently to DC Gavin Piper in any given situation. DC Carys Miles is phenomenally ambitious, but conscientious too, and they’re all affected by what they see and do.
Of course, then there are the peripheral experts around the team – the CSIs, the pathologists, the digital forensic team, etc. That’s always fun to research and find out how they would work with the detectives during an investigation.
I try to keep it balanced within the investigation, giving each of them a chance to shine and I’m reluctant to give over a whole storyline to one of them in particular because again, they work so well together as a team. I do tend to go with the flow of the storytelling, though so never say never.
I believe this as well – too often the supporting case in police procedurals can take a back-seat to the leads – I always felt that was a disservice to them, as like you said, their just as integral to the stories as any lead character! Thanks for including how to spell your character names – I’ve struggled with ‘hearing’ the right ways to pronounce their names but also, how to spell them has been a bit difficult as well. I hear words differently than most and add that to being dyslexic – I know my spellings might have been the more creative to be seen. This is one reason I wish audiobooks had a ‘cast list’ to help those of us out who are keen on knowing who is whom and the proper ways to talk about them when we go to spell their names.
I never felt you overshadowed one team over another – in fact, you give such equality of presence to the whole team supporting Kay, you gather a better sense about what is involved from the investigation side but also, the Forensics and trace elements angles, too. There is a lot of working components to sleuthing and without each person on the team represented you only get partial views of what a lead detective job would entail. Quite smashing and you’ve maintained the flow of continuity brilliantly towards this end as well.
Being a series in-progress – how many stories do you feel are warranted as we move forward from ‘Gone to Ground’ after you’ve had a chance to re-settle after you relocate and walk back into the series? Do you see this extending past 12 stories or 25?
Amphlett responds: I don’t have a number in mind, to be honest. As long as readers enjoy reading them and I enjoy writing them, I’ll keep going.
I do have another series in mind that I want to start publishing, and there are writing projects associated with existing series I need to be mindful of, so I am planning to release two Kay Hunter books a year from 2019 just so I can play around with those other ideas and keep stretching my writing skills as a storyteller.
I look to my writing heroes such as Peter Robinson, Peter James, Lee Child, Robert Crais and Michael Connelly – their series characters endure because they and their readers love them. I hope to have that sort of relationship with the Kay Hunter series and my readers.
I’m thankful to hear this – it is wonderful to have had the grace and joy of securing a tight hold onto the #KayHunter series this Spring. I am not always able to carry myself through a series I love reading (or listening) with such intensity as most series do not go on blog tours so it takes a bit to gather all of the installments. This Spring, the timing of the audio tours and the ways in which my health affected me were perfectly timed as I felt Kay Hunter helped me get through a very adverse season where a distraction like this series was rightly needed.
Having said that – I was worried slightly that perhaps as so many have been released they might either slow down a bit or they might be capped at a limited few to come along next. Finding out the end is not yet in sight is wicked wonderful! I do hope more readers who find the series are as excited about it as I am (and the others on the tours, surely!) – as they’re so enjoyable to be involved inside, even if sometimes the story-lines themselves push and pull you round a bit for what is comfortable to ‘hear’ or read depending how you devour them.
I am dearly patient when it comes to sequels – two a year is very generous and I look forward to hearing announcements for the new stories. In regards to your other series, I never had a chance to get involved with them, as Kay Hunter has truly become my main focus. I was on #TeamKayHunter long before I knew you had established an appreciation society for your readers!
I had to smile when you mentioned the Jack Reacher novels (as I saw the first of the films without reading the stories; though for me, I hadn’t realised they were novels) – as even in the film adaptation I could understand what you meant about ‘short descriptive passages’ and a blunter way of giving the audience enough girt and grit to hold onto until more of the story evolved. What has been the most challenging aspect of plotting the Kay Hunter series – of keeping us entranced by what we see ‘here and now’ but with the forethought of what is still yet to come? In other words, how did you utilise what the author of Jack Reacher did as it parlays back to Kay Hunter?
Amphlett responds: I think it’s because I started out writing spy thrillers before I wrote police procedurals, and my Dan Taylor series is particularly fast-paced. Usually those characters are shouting instructions to each other while in the middle of a firefight :)
It’s important to me that readers get caught up in the story and have that “just one more chapter!” every time they pick up a book of mine, too. People don’t talk in convoluted sentences on a daily basis – they interrupt each other, are interrupted by events going on around them, and are usually juggling a multitude of tasks. Having those shorter passages, to me, make the stories more realistic.
The challenge, as you say, is in the plotting – if my characters suddenly tell me something I hadn’t planned for then I update my notes to avoid plot holes and take into account how that dialogue might impact the outcome.
They surely do! The realism in the Kay Hunter series is one reason I felt glued to my earphones – the material you left for Ms Campbell to portray is simply #awesomesauce! I can see why she has loved working on the series as a narrator as the source material is incredible. I do dearly feel that way myself – even though I’m an audiobook listener of yours – the ‘just one more chapter’ still takes effect. Though I generally think in frames of time or sequences rather than strictly chapters when I’m listening to audiobooks – it is the same sentiment.
Love how you address your plotting challenges – I think it is wonderful you’ve shared such keen insight into your writing process – both on this question and one below. It is a credit to how writers can offer insight into others who are following after them, writing their own stories in their chosen genres of interest but can pull inspiration out of all writers who give a bit of themselves to the community at large.
One credit I have for you is how you’ve developed the suspension of suspense throughout the series – how even when you can realise your invested into a ‘red herring’ type of segue, there isn’t enough to merit not following where it leads – as you’ve brought an intricate plotting into the continuity of the series. In fact, it is your continuity I especially love the most! What is your secret for knitting up the complexities and of having a rock solid thread of continuity between installments?
Amphlett responds: Well, we were talking about plotting before, and I have to be honest there have been a few stories where the ending has been as much of a surprise to me as my readers because I’ve had my eye on one suspect since the beginning and then it turns out to be someone else entirely!
I manage the continuity throughout the series using a story bible, very similar to what television producers and screenwriters use to keep track of each story, the characters, setting, etc. The story bible has files for each main character so I can update that as they develop – there’s even a section for all the animals Adam brings home!
This means that I’m not struggling to remember things like which side of the front door the security panel is located in Kay’s house – I can simply keep writing knowing I have all that information to hand.
The story bible also helps me to ensure I don’t use similar character names for anyone (including minor characters) and that I have a sense of what comes next. I always have three or four ideas going around in my head for future books in the series, and of course as soon as I’ve written those it frees up some space in my brain for new ideas!
This is the bit I felt was the most helpful and beneficial to know about how you’ve mastered the art of continuity and the sequencing of everything which happens within the Kay Hunter series! It actually made brilliant sense to me you were using this technique as serial fiction is oft-times overlooked for being as intensive as a proper television series – the intensity of the plots, the cast of characters and all the little intricate threads of where the series has gone before and might return again – it makes sense how this particular technique helps maintain writerly sanity!
You’ve tucked a lot of scientific research into the backbone of the Kay Hunter series – including aspects of Criminology, Forensic Science, Forensic Psychology and of course, the procedures of investigating these kinds of crimes. Which three resources have been your favourites to refer to as you’ve written the series this far along? Are they persons you’ve interviewed, books you’ve read, films / series you’ve watched or places you’ve visited or a mixture of all of this combined?
Amphlett responds: It’s a combination of all of the above. I love learning, so writing crime fiction is like going to school every day. I have a stack of books on various subjects, and then I work with a team of experts who are always on hand to discuss police procedure, post mortem processes, etc. In addition, I’ve taken courses in forensic science and witness interviewing and I’m always soaking up information I find online.
My favourite type of research is hands-on – I’m hoping to do more of that now I’ve returned to the UK to live. While I was living in Brisbane and writing my spy novels, I did some pistol shooting and even flew a Black Hawk helicopter simulator – it helps make the storytelling as realistic as possible.
I had a feeling you might use a combination of the ideas I was speculating about as each of your stories are so lovingly conceived and have such a large conceptional awareness of their world – it felt like you had gone further than using just one method of research as it is the kind of research which benefits knitting out the layers you’ve put into the Kay Hunter series. I agree with you on the IRL experiences which can give insight in a way book and conversational research cannot for it is limited than being present and aware of how whatever activity your undertaking has ‘affected’ you and thereby giving you a better clue into how to ‘write it to be inclusive to your character(s)’.
This author interview is courtesy of: Audiobookworm Promotions
Be sure to follow the blog tour route to see what else awaits you!
I’d like to take a moment to thank Ms Amphlett for taking the time to answer some of my questions regarding the #KayHunter series and for providing all of us with specific insightful clues to how writing a thrilling dramatic crime series like this one evolves through dedication notetaking, keen observational research and a tenacity for seeking out ways to draw a backbone of reality into the threads of where the series overall can take her readers! It was a wonderful conversation & one I thoroughly enjoyed!
Order of the Kay Hunter Detective series
as I listened & reviewed them:
Scared to Death | Book One (see also Review)
Will to Live | Book Two (see also Review)
One to Watch | Book Three (see also Review)
Hell to Pay | Book Four (see also Review)
Call to Arms | Book Five (see also Review)
Similar to blog tours where I feature book reviews, as I choose to highlight an author via a Guest Post, Q&A, Interview, etc., I do not receive compensation for featuring supplemental content on my blog. I provide the questions for interviews and topics for the guest posts; wherein I receive the responses back from publicists and authors directly. I am naturally curious about the ‘behind-the-scenes’ of stories and the writers who pen them; I have a heap of joy bringing this content to my readers.
{SOURCES: Book Covers for “Scared to Death”, “Will to Live”, “One to Watch”, “Hell to Pay”, “Call to Arms” & “Gone to Ground”; the biography and photograph of Rachel Amphlett as well as the blog tour banner for the Kay Hunter series, teaser banner for “Gone to Ground” and the host badge were provided by Audiobookworm Promotions and are used with permission. Post dividers by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets embedded by codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Conversations with the Bookish, Quote banner from my review of “Call to Arms” (Kay Hunter, book five) by Rachel Amphlett, and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2018.
Leave a Reply