Eastbourne proves "irresistible" location for crime novel

It comes from Charlie Hodges, aged 69, who couldn’t resist the location.

“For a long time I’d thought that Eastbourne would be the perfect setting for a private investigator story. It’s a place I’d got to know well over the years as my wife’s parents lived there and we were frequent visitors.

“On the one hand it’s a beautiful town, perhaps the most beautiful on the south coast, and the fact that it’s a magnet for the elderly gives it a gentle, innocent quality that I find incredibly soothing.

“On the other hand, it does have its dark side, perhaps no more than anywhere else in the region, but it’s that contrast between outward respectability and hidden goings-on that attracted me.”

Charlie, who lives in Tunbridge Wells, added: “At the time I was writing for television, mostly children’s animation shows like Shaun the Sheep and Dennis and Gnasher. So originally, out of habit more than anything, I thought of it as a TV project.

“But then I decided that I wanted to produce a piece of original work that would be complete in itself (I was already into my 60s) rather than a proposal or a script that probably wouldn’t be made so I changed my mind and thought I’d try to write it as a novel. I never seriously thought it would get published. I just wanted to see if I could write one.

“The question was, who would this private investigator be? I knew that old age would be one of the main themes so he had to be fairly elderly, but age alone doesn’t give you a character. I was casting around in the usual fog when I realised that the answer was staring me in the face in the form of my very dear friend Gervase Bradford, now sadly deceased.

“We met at Cambridge where has was a mature student, 20 years older than me, and I was a very immature one. We remained the closest of friends for the rest of his life.

“Basically, he was the framework over which the character of Tom Knight slipped – with his blessing I hasten to add – requiring hardly any alteration to make it fit. They share a fair bit of backstory, including the army, the SAS and time spent as a mature university student. They also share a deep sense of honour, formidable moral courage, a tendency to recklessness and a taste for weed.

“I didn’t originally intend it as a comedy but given the nature of the main character it quickly acquired a comic life of its own. I think the appeal of the book is the appeal of Tom Knight himself – formerly a high-stakes commercial spook, now a 73-year-old private investigator who can’t afford to retire. More to the point he’s also a courageous, accident-prone, romantically-inclined widower who is determined to wring every single drop of life out of however many years he has left.

“He lives in a penthouse apartment overlooking Eastbourne pier – actually based on my in-laws flat in Sovereign House.

“Vanishing Act wasn’t written with a particular audience in mind.

“I would say its appeal will be to readers who like an absorbing, funny character in addition to exciting action and a tight plot.

“From friends and family feedback I’ve noticed that women like him a lot, though again the book wasn’t intended to have any kind of gender-based appeal.

“The writing fell into two main phases. I started doing it in between other writing work, mostly animation scripts, but then when I’d reached about 50,000 words I decided it would be my full time job until it was finished. So altogether that was four to five years. The process I used was similar to writing scripts. I built up an outline so that I knew what had to happen in each chapter and didn’t starting writing until the structure was robust enough to give me confidence. I absolutely loved the writing. As a beginner, every sentence felt like a minor miracle, especially the good ones!

“With animation scripts everything is very compressed, every moment has to count in supporting the story. It’s a great discipline to have in terms of pace and economy, but it does mean you can’t stop and smell the roses.

“So it was a real treat to have the space to do that occasionally, to include insights and descriptions, especially what’s going on in Knight’s mind.”

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