Background to the story

The Edge

This was, in many ways, a strange novel to write.
Parts of the plot had been floating around in my head for a while, waiting for the right story to come along.  Without giving too much away, that includes the elusive egg-collector who, DI Spicer believes, is key to the investigation.
Egg-collectors – those strange individuals who scale trees and cliffs to strip the nests of rare birds – are a peculiarly British bunch. (A hang-over, apparently, from the days of empire when oologists would scour the territories collecting samples.) My research into these people led me to the RSPB’s chief investigation officer. He enlightened me as to how what often starts as a boyhood hobby often comes to exert a dark and all-consuming power over the collector’s life.

Part of the plot that evolved as I wrote the story was the plight of Zoe, the murder-victim’s girlfriend. I really liked the idea of having Jon believe there was a second character out there, who also appears key to the investigation. In Zoe’s case, she is trapped in a flat high up in a derelict tower block. With no phone, no neighbours and the estate’s gang trying to hunt her down, she is effectively a prisoner.
I called the book The Edge to hint at a central theme of the novel: heights. (Although the title also refers to DI Spicer’s increasingly precarious mental state as the pressure of the investigation builds.) Much of the action takes place dangerously close to some very big drops - and I hope the sense of vertigo leaves you hanging onto your seat as you read!