Bringing characters to life in fiction

[John Dean]

A recent review of The Railway Man on Amazon stated: “I really like the character of DCI Blizzard. The interaction with other colleagues and staff is very good. I like the humour in the books and often find myself laughing out loud. Blizzard has his faults and can be quite set on his ideas but I think that's what makes him more interesting.”

I was delighted to read that because for books to work, characters must be real. As a writer, you want your readers to forget that they are reading a novel and instead be transported into the world of your characters.

That was brought home to me a few years ago when a reader approached me at an event and told me off because Blizzard had been unpleasant to one of her favourite characters!

That pleased me because as a writer you spend so much time focused on the techniques of writing and perfecting your craft (a constant process) that you sometimes forget that for your readers these are real people.

Book details:

Few tears are shed when an ex-boxer and local hard man is found dead in a disused railway signal box.

When DCI John Blizzard is called in to investigate, he discovers no shortage of people who would want the bully dead. But getting any of them to come forward proves difficult.
Having interrupted the opening day of the public display of a steam engine that DCI Blizzard lovingly helped restore, few are keener than he to see the perpetrator under lock and key.

It transpires that the victim once gave a man life-changing injuries with a cruel sucker punch, thus Blizzard’s colleagues think they’ve found a likely suspect. But the veteran detective is not so sure. In fact, the real culprits might be much closer to home.

Set in the fictional port city of Hafton in northern England, THE RAILWAY MAN is a traditional British whodunit with a thrilling contemporary twist. The novel is the third title by John Dean to feature the burly, no-nonsense detective, John Blizzard, a man who refuses to take no for an answer. All the books in the series, in order of publication, are:
1. THE LONG DEAD
2. STRANGE LITTLE GIRL
3. THE RAILWAY MAN
4. THE SECRETS MAN

You can buy the book in ebook or paperback format at

https://www.amazon.co.uk/RAILWAY-MAN-Blizzard-murder-mystery-ebook/...