Interview with Harry Navinski, author of The Duty: A not so Scottish Murder
It gives the Indie Crime Scene great pleasure to interview Harry Navinski, whose second novel in the DCI Suzanna McLeod series, The Duty, came out on 30 July.
Tell us something about The Duty and how it follows on from your first book, The Glass.
Your protagonist, DCI Suzanna McLeod, hales from Edinburgh, a city world-famous for its history and annual Festival, but one with a dark underbelly. Tell us something about Suzanna - what makes her tick, and what sort of detective is she?
On her eighteenth birthday, Suzanna was
summoned by a firm of solicitors in London to take a test set by her
great-great-uncle (a Victorian-era consulting detective). Passing the test led
to her inheriting his estate and the one item not sold off when he died – his
magnifying glass (see The Glass and The Test for more on this element of the
ongoing story).
Attacked on London’s underground and
confirmed as an excellent detective by the test, on the same day, Suzanna
decides to study criminology at university and later joins the police. She
marries Callum and settles in Edinburgh and now sees it as her home. Passionate
about catching criminals and seeing justice done, Suzanna’s highly intelligent,
analytical, can put herself in the shoes of the criminal. Leading her team by example, she consults,
coaches, and inspires the best from them. She’s also fighting fit, exercising
regularly, eating healthily, drinking in moderation and still practices judo (she’s
a black belt). Separated from her husband two years back, Suzanna is looking
for a new long-term relationship and she thinks she’s found the right man, but
it’s not a smooth ride…
Tell us about The Test and how it fits into the series.
The Test introduces Suzanna’s great-great-uncle. He is nearing the end of his life and wants to ensure his estate goes to a relative who is worthy of it; he has no children of his own. He writes a Sherlock Holmes-style short crime story, Murder in the Mews, as a test to be taken by descendants as they turn eighteen. Whoever can identify the murderer, their motive and method takes the prize. They don’t get to read the conclusion of the story unless they pass the test.
Murder in the Mews - Consulting detective, Silvester Locke-Croft, is called in to investigate the murder of a solicitor in 1920s’ London, uncovering hidden evidence, and revealing the incompetence of Scotland Yard’s detectives. His investigation concludes with dramatic exposure of the murderer, revealing corruption and collusion along the way.
So, in The Test we discover how Suzanna came to inherit her distant relative’s wealth and his treasured magnifying glass. It’s an important part of Suzanna’s back story. I decided to make this novella free (as an e-book) to anyone signing up to receive occasional updates and offers. Personally, I find some authors email their fans far too frequently. I promise not to do that.
In The Duty, you deal with human trafficking. This is a subject about which you have real-life knowledge. How did that affect writing a novel about it?
My time in West Bengal will stay with
me forever. I heard harrowing, first-hand stories of girls stolen off the
streets, tricked and coerced in various ways into becoming sex-workers under the
control of others who bought and sold them, and controlled every aspect of
their lives. I was in tears many times during the writing of The Duty because
of the memories it brought back. The book does more than entertain; it raises
awareness of this evil trade in women and the organisations doing their best to
counter it. Whilst editing the novel, I decided that profits from its sale
would be donated to the organisations mentioned in the book that continue to counter
sex-trafficking and the abuse of women.
Tell us something about your own experience on voluntary service in West Bengal. What led to you going there?
It was on a trip to Kolkata, with UK
charity Tearfund, just over ten years ago that my wife and I felt drawn to go
to the country to work directly with those less fortunate than ourselves,
rather than supporting the cause remotely. Two years later we went to work with
Freeset – a social enterprise, helping women to exit the sex-trade and
prevent women and girls from being dragged into it.
We went for six months initially and
stayed for six years. Our role was in managing elements of the business that
had grown over the years, from just a handful of employees to a medium-sized
manufacturer providing work for 250+ women. I managed a programme, rolling out
businesses in one of the most prevalent source areas of trafficked women –
Murshidabad District, 120 miles north of the state capital. I later established
and managed a hand-loom weaving unit, producing scarves for export, that grew
to employ fifty women, all of whom were vulnerable to trafficking, because of
their circumstances.
You have travelled extensively while working as an engineer for the RAF. What impact has that had on your writing?
During my time in the RAF, I visited dozens
of countries, saw wonderful buildings, beaches, and landscapes, dived, sailed,
and skied, and worked with peoples of different cultures. These travels brought
colour to my life and now enrich and deepen my writing.
While in the Air Force, you created and edited the RAF’s magazine for sports and adventurous training, ‘RAF Active’. How has that influenced you as a writer, from the journalistic side?
My part-time career as a journalist
started in the 1970s when I was asked to submit a write-up to our
station’s quarterly magazine about the comings and goings and travels of our
flying squadron. My first attempt illustrated my poor command of the English language,
but having received positive feedback, I continued to write and improve. It was
in the early 1990s that I came up with the idea of a magazine to publish the
exploits of adventurers and successes of sports people, to highlight the value
of sports and adventurous activities in developing personnel, improving teamwork,
self-confidence, organisational skills, and the enjoyment of life.
I took a course in creative writing, as
an evening class, and learned how each chapter, each paragraph, needs to keep the
reader wanting to read more. As editor of RAF Active, I recruited and trained a
team of editors and journalists to seek stories, turn these into interesting
and sometimes exciting articles to promote these activities. It was during this
time that I learnt the essential skills of the writing trade.
You have considerable practical experience of adventure and activities that many writers can only read about. Does that affect the realism of your writing and does it make it easier or harder to invent a story?
When readers of my books read about
judo throws, sailing through a Force 8 gale, scuba diving at night, or skiing
down a mountain flat-out, it comes straight from my own store of experiences.
I’ve done these things. I’ve felt the excitement, the fear, the wonder of those
times and I hope I can transport the reader to those places through those
experiences.
Can you tell us about the name of your second novel, The Duty. What is its significance?
The Duty is so called because the
trafficked woman had been doing her duty when she accepted her father’s
direction to go to the city to work and send money home to support the family. In
that part of the world, where too many people try to survive off too few acres
of paddy fields, migration for work is common, and when there’s no son to send,
the girl must fill this role. And the traffickers exploit this vulnerability,
caused by extreme poverty.
Are there any crime writers whose work you enjoy, and is there a particularly Scottish voice in crime writing? (Thinking of Val MacDiarmid and Ian Rankin).
I enjoy reading Ian Rankin’s Rebus
stories, although find the character, frustratingly, to be a seriously flawed, incompetent,
but determined, detective. Suzanna McLeod is Rebus’s opposite.
Are there any particular challenges for a man in writing about and creating a woman protagonist?
Having a female protagonist happened by
accident, not planning, created during another creative writing course. Most
books have characters from both sexes, so whether it’s the protagonist or
another member in the cast, one has to think like each person, male or female.
With the protagonist obviously featuring more than other characters, though, with
emotions and feelings, I imagine what it must be like for her, based on my
observations over my life of the women who have been part of my journey. My
female first-read beta readers have at times told me I’ve got it wrong and how
they believe a woman would have felt or reacted, so I continue to learn.
Are you working on a sequel to The Duty?
I’m currently working on The Grudge. As
the title suggests, at its core is revenge. An apparently affable elderly gentleman,
reliant on carers, is found murdered in his home. Why would anyone what to kill
him? Nothing is stolen. There has been night fight.
The initial clue to a motive is from a
smashed award he’d received three decades before for best employee of the year.
Delving into his past, Suzanna and her team find he was not such a lovely man
after all, with family and employees suffering sexual abuse under his control.
During the hunt for his killer, the team uncover a forced prostitution ring, involving primarily young women from Eastern Europe. MI5 shows its face in this story, and Suzanna now faces a new dilemma. There are various links back into The Duty, and Suzanna’s love life continues to roller-coaster along.
Suzanna’s Chief Superintendent is a “by-the-book meddler”. How does she cope with such interference and steer a path between following rules and breaking them?
Suzanna is hugely frustrated by the Chief Super’s interference and focus on costs, rather than results. She deals with this by taking whatever action she feels is necessary to catch the criminal(s) and deal with the flack later. In The Grudge, the conflict between Suzanna and the Chief Super is healed, with a surprising revelation from her boss.
What writers do you enjoy reading and are there any particular favourites in crime or other genres?
My reading has included many genres. Besides reading many of the well-known crime novelists, I’ve read (I think) every Wilbur Smith novel, and many stories from Jeffrey Archer, and John Grisham. More recently, I’ve also become a fan of Mark Dawson and Stephen Leather. Perhaps surprisingly, for an action man (thanks to my wife’s influence), I also love reading Maeve Binchy.
How do you see the series developing?
I already have ideas for several new
books in the series, with Suzanna tackling some unusual crimes. There’s also a
restructure of detective services underway, with the formation of Major
Investigation Teams, that affects Suzanna and her team. Whether from the
stimulus of creative writing courses, observing current affairs or just my
imagination firing up, the ideas just keep on coming…
About Harry Navinski:
Harry spent most of his working life in the Royal Air Force, involved in aircraft maintenance, from hands-on work to senior management roles. Based in England, Scotland, Germany, and Malta, he also travelled the World with the RAF. During his time in the Air Force, he created and edited the RAF’s magazine for sports and adventurous training, ‘RAF Active’. Harry’s articles, written from his experience of sports and adventurous activities, included: skiing, sailing, judo, and scuba diving, to name a few. After his time in the RAF, Harry spent 6 years on voluntary service in West Bengal (anti-human trafficking work) and it was whilst in India that he made his first attempt at writing fiction. On his return to the UK, he attended a creative writing course that inspired him to write his first novel – The Glass. Harry finally settled near to the UK’s beautiful Lake District National Park. His travels around the world have provided him with a huge source of knowledge and experiences for new books – yet to come – and he looks forward to sharing these
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