Interview with Tom Hindle

It should not surprise followers of this blog to learn that I read a lot of mysteries, both contemporary and historical. Some feature career detectives, others amateur sleuths, and a third group combines the two. I even have a favorite cat detective, although I must admit that in his case it’s his social observations of his human companions that attract me more than his mystery-solving skills. In fact, my current work-in-progress in the Songs of Steppe & Forest series could be considered a sixteenth-century Russian cozy, as indicated by its title, Song of the Sleuth. So I was delighted when Tom Hindle’s publicist agreed to a written interview about his first novel, A Fatal Crossing, which came out in the UK in 2022 but is only now finding its way (pun intended) across the Pond. Read on to find out more.

You mention in your author’s note that all your novels to date have been inspired by “masters of the crime genre.” Agatha Christie’s Death on the Nile certainly comes to mind here, but was that in fact the book behind A Fatal Crossing, and if not, which one?

So, the first thing to understand about A Fatal Crossing is that it didn’t actually start life as a book.

When, at sixteen years old, I first had the idea of a stolen painting aboard a 1920s cruise liner, the plan was to write it up as a play, and put it on with some friends at school. At the time, the stories that loomed largest in mind were probably those of Jeeves and Wooster. I was keen to write something with lots of moving, interlocking parts—a caper that spins more wildly out of control with every passing minute.

The play, I should probably clarify, was never finished. And later on, when I decided in my twenties to write my story up as a book, Anthony Horowitz’s Magpie Murders became the most crucial influence. It was actually while reading that book that I decided to try writing up A Fatal Crossing as a novel. Sherlock Holmes was incredibly important, as well. He always has been, for me. The Hound of the Baskervilles is not only probably my favourite detective story, but one of my favourite books of any genre. I was definitely thinking of the Holmes-and-Watson relationship, when sketching out the dynamic between my own two investigators.

Whatever inspired it, the novel is nonetheless yours. How did you come up with this particular story?

To answer that, we need to go back to the play. I thought—probably very naively—that a caper playing out aboard a cruise liner would be easy to stage. If we could create a cabin and a deck for the actors to move around in, maybe find a way to bring in some sound effects … In my head it would all have been quite straightforward. The idea of a stolen painting was then the springboard for the story itself.

With all of that said, A Fatal Crossing changed quite considerably when I decided to write it up as a novel. The play would have been a comedy. I’d almost go so far as to describe what I’d envisaged as slapstick. The book, meanwhile, went on to be quite a serious murder mystery. One that’s really rather dark, in places. But no matter how many—or how few—of the characters and events from the play made it over to the book, the core ingredients of a 1920s liner and a stolen painting always remained at the heart of the story.

Introduce us, please, to Officer Timothy Birch. He is a rather troubled soul. What should readers know about him?

Troubled is certainly an accurate word for Birch. He’s an officer aboard the ship—a good officer, too, it should be said. He’s diligent and he has a strong sense of how things should be done, qualities which bring him into stark conflict with the book’s detective. What really drives Birch, though, is an all-encompassing sense of guilt. He blames himself for a tragedy that befell his family and is looking desperately for a way to make things right.

And how does Birch become involved in investigating a murder?

When an elderly gentleman is found dead at the foot of a flight of stairs, another passenger—an impetuous young man called Temple, who just so happens to be a Scotland Yard detective—approaches the ship’s captain and offers to investigate. The captain reluctantly agrees that having a police officer confirm that the death was an accident would be no bad thing. However, irked by Temple’s manner, the captain insists that one of his own officers accompany the detective on his investigation. The officer he chooses is our narrator, Timothy Birch.

Tell us a bit about the murder victim—who is, we should mention, not initially defined as a victim of anything but bad luck. I’m asking about initial perceptions, not the eventual identification.

That’s right. At the start of the book, he appears to simply be an elderly gentleman who has suffered a terrible accident. Travelling alone in second-class, there doesn’t appear to be anything particularly suspicious about him. But once they begin their investigation, it doesn’t take Birch and Temple long to suspect that this gentleman’s apparently innocent story might not be as a straightforward as it seems.

How would you describe James Temple, the man who reluctantly accepts Birch’s presence in what Temple considers his own investigation?

Temple is a man with plenty to prove. An English police inspector on route to New York for a reason that he is determined not to divulge, when he hears that a fellow passenger has been killed he wastes no time in approaching the ship’s captain and insisting that he should be allowed to look into it. Smart and determined, but also hot-headed and irritable, he is incredibly resentful of the captain’s decision that Birch oversee the investigation. And as the two men set out to uncover the truth of the elderly passenger’s death, they do so with a rapport that is far from friendly.

Like all the best settings, the Endeavour is, in its own way, also a character in the novel. What does it contribute to your story—other than the obvious facts that it’s a closed space with a limited time frame?

Aside, as you say, from the closed space and the ticking clock, I really enjoyed the opportunity that the Endeavour gave me to explore different classes. We see people from all walks of life thrown together with no escape, from the glamour of first class to the cramped, shabby lodgings occupied by the men who clean the decks and work the engines. It’s a real melting pot, and our heroes experience it all while they hunt for the truth.

And what are you working on now?

I’m just putting the finishing touches on my sixth novel, a whodunit set in Egypt called A Body in the Pyramid, which will be published here in the UK in January. And once that’s done I’ll be straight onto my seventh. As with the others, it’ll be a standalone murder mystery set in a (hopefully) interesting closed location. Where, might you ask? You’ll have to wait and see …

Tom Hindle is the author of five novels to date, of which A Fatal Crossing is now being reissued in the United States. Find out more about him and his work at https://www.tomhindle.com.