Q&A with Simon Toyne

 

 

 

 

Simon Toyne is the author of the new novel The Black Highway, the third in his Laughton Rees series. 

 

Q: What inspired you to write The Black Highway, and what inspired the plot of this new Laughton Rees novel?

 

A: The inspiration came, as often happens for me, from a few seemingly unconnected things that came together and created a spark.

 

In this case I read somewhere about how they built an open-air morgue into the foundations of London’s famous Tower Bridge because of all the bodies that washed up on that particular stretch of the river. The morgue is called “Dead Man’s Hole” and they used to prop the bodies up on planks and invite the public to parade past and see if they recognised them.

 

The other piece of the puzzle was a true-life case where a headless, handless body washed up in the heart of the city and no one could identify the person, and no one came forward to report anyone missing. It’s pretty hard to identify someone with no fingerprints or dental records so his identity and the reason for his grisly death remained a mystery.

 

In the book I solve the mystery, or at least provide an explanation of what may have happened.

 

Q: Do you think Laughton Rees has changed over the course of the series?

 

A: The Black Highway is the third book featuring expert criminologist Dr. Laughton Rees and the plan from the outset was for her to grow in each book. Each book stands on its own in terms of the central mystery, but I always enjoy a series where the main character grows and changes with their experiences.

 

In the first book, Dark Objects, Laughton is a struggling single mom and a buttoned down, OCD academic, who never works live cases because of something terrible that happened in her past: but she gets unwillingly drawn into an ongoing murder investigation after the killer deliberately leaves one of her academic books on police procedure at a bizarre, forensically cleaned crime scene.

 

This prompts her to realise that the quickest way to get back to her quiet, bookish life is to break her golden rule, solve this case as fast as possible and get on with her life.

 

But the more she investigates, and the closer she gets to lead detective Tannahill Khan, the more she realises the killer seems to know all about her troubled past and is talking directly to her through their murders.

 

In the second book, The Clearing, Laughton has acquired a taste for working live cases and heads to a rural, forest community to help investigate the disappearance of a young woman on midsummer’s eve, an event the locals are putting down to a folklore, forest demon known as The Cinderman.

 

This brings out Laughton’s maternal side as she works with the sister of the missing girl to try and get to the bottom of what’s going on in the secretive forest.

 

In The Black Highway, things are getting more serious with Tannahill and Laughton’s daughter Gracie is not happy about it, especially as her biological father reappears unexpectedly after being released from prison saying his life is in danger, and maybe Laughton’s too.

 

When his headless body washes up on the banks of the Thames, Laughton has to catch the killer in order to salvage her relationship with her grieving daughter, and ultimately save her own life.

 

By the end of this book Laughton has gone through a complete change, from fairly passive onlooker on life and the world of crime to proactive mother, lover, and crime fighter.

 

All three books are like an extended origin story with The Black Highway ending on a scene showing exactly where she is going to go next with her newfound confidence and resolve.

 

Q: Did you need to do any research to write the novel, and if so, did you learn anything that especially surprised you?

 

A: The best thing I found out during the course of writing The Black Highway was the existence of an artists’ commune on an island in the middle of the Thames called Eel Pie Island, a name that’s so great it almost feels made-up (it’s not).

 

It was a famous venue in the swinging ‘60s and people like the Rolling Stones played at the jazz club there. Now it’s populated by artists and oddballs, and was home to Trevor Bayliss, an inventor who came up with the clockwork radio.

 

I based a character on him in the book, only instead of inventing radios my guy dresses dead pigs as people then throws them into the Thames so he can plot the movement of the tides on a floating body.

 

Fun fact, pigs have a similar density to humans. They apparently taste the same too. In Papua New Guinea, where cannibalism was traditionally part of the culture, humans are known as long pigs.

 

Q: How was the book’s title (a phrase referring to the Thames River) chosen, and what does it signify for you?

 

A: The title came from something I read about how Victorian rivermen referred to the Thames as the Black Highway, because it was basically a river of sewage that everyone nevertheless used as the main route of transport through the city.

 

It was also incredibly dangerous and, traditionally, a great place to dump a body. Most of the mystery and action in the book takes place close to, and even in, the river, so it seemed like a perfect title for the book.

 

Q: What are you working on now?

 

A: I’ve almost finished co-writing a book with an incredibly famous author who I can’t name because the whole project is shrouded in secrecy.

 

I had to audition for the job by writing the opening of a novel in the author’s style and the great man then picked me as the one he wanted to write with, so that was exciting and is now slightly nerve-wracking.

 

It’s a murder mystery set in Sicily and I went there on a research trip just before Mount Etna erupted, so that was also exciting. I came home 10 pounds heavier because the food over there is simply to die for and I have no idea why all Sicilians aren’t the size of houses.

 

Q: Anything else we should know?

 

A: I’m also working on a classic ghost story with my wife set in the mid-‘80s in Brighton on the South coast of England. She helped me write the outline for the story and was so helpful that I suggested she write it with me acting as editor, so that’s proving fun.

 

I’m also writing a pilot script for Dark Objects, the first of the Laughton thrillers, and finishing off book 3 of my Solomon Creed series, which I set aside during Covid and am only just coming back to now.

All information on these and other projects can be found on my website simontoyne.net.

I’m also on Facebook and Instagram. Please pop over and say hello. :)

 

--Interview with Deborah Kalb