BOOK CLUB
CAMBRIDGE EDI T ION Boo k Clu b BRINGING YOU TOP NEW FICTION PICKS, AUTHOR INTERVIEWS, DISCOUNTS AND LOTS MORE BOOK CHAT, THE EDITION BOOK CLUB IS A PARTNERSHIP WITH CAMBRIDGE LITERARY FESTIVAL AND HEFFERS
INTERVIEW BY CHARLOTTE GRIFFITHS
THE MATHEMATICAL BRIDGE , BY J IM KELLY CAMBRIDGE FINALLY GETS THE DETECTIVE IT DESERVES IN THE SHAPE OF EDEN BROOKE T he second book in Jim Kelly’s Nighthawks series, The Mathematical Bridge is a pacy detective thriller which – as Val McDermid herself says of Kelly’s writing – is intelligent, and leaves you hungry for more. Set in Cambridge in 1940, the book follows detective inspector Eden Brooke in pursuit of a deftly-woven mystery involving a missing evacuee, Irish Republican bombers, a royal visit to the city and international espionage. It also contains the beautifully drawn human moments that define excellent crime writing: a family member presumed lost at sea, the torture of sleeplessness, and the painful agonies of doing all that one could, but still falling short. One of the particular joys of reading The Mathematical Bridge as a Cambridge resident is picturing Eden’s walks around the city and tracing his path through the familiar streets – until he suddenly disappears off into a space of Jim’s own creation. “I really like making up places that don’t exist,” the writer says from his home in Ely. “Cambridge is wonderful, but it doesn’t have that maze-like quality: you just run out of city. So it’s quite nice to have the ability to add bits on. I’m really proud of the Jewish Ghetto – it’s in that tiny little area opposite the front of Trinity, where the craft fair is, but it’s a bit like the Tardis: once you walk in, it’s limitless, and that gives you something to play with...” The book is peppered with gems of historical information about our city that add to the richly textured landscape, and Jim’s experienced hand at weaving them into the plot is evident in every chapter. “Anything that goes into the story has to
but not quite in the way you’d expect. “Whenever I see anything interesting, I just take a picture and tweet it – and then when I’m looking for ideas, I look back at my Twitter stream,” he says. “It reminds me of the landscapes, of what I’ve seen – those tiny details. I think really good stories come from very small details.” One of the challenges of talking about crime novels is discussing the book without giving away the plot: but it isn’t revealing too much to say that the detail which sparked The Mathematical Bridge was archive photos of evacuees. “They all had labels attached to their clothing – and I thought there had to be something in that,” Jim says. “For my annual book launch, I collect some pictures and talk about where the book came from. For this one I talked about the IRA campaign; I’m an Irish Catholic so we talked about my own childhood – and my brother was an evacuee…” The book’s echoes of Jim’s own experience doesn’t end with family history: Jim can often be found wandering our city just like his detective – though by
fit: you can’t let research appear on the page,” he says. “You’ve got to find a way of threading them into the story and then threading them out again. The bits of research that don’t get in just sort of pile up,” he says. “One day there’ll be a whole book of them…” Jim’s current regime sees a book delivered every year before an annual holiday in the summer months. “It’s a bit of a scrabble sometimes, but that’s fine,” he says. “That’s the thing about crime: if you get one book out, and if they like it, they want another one, and quickly. Having been a journalist I don’t think if I was given longer, the books would be greatly better,” he laughs, “I quite like having the year.” “I try to collect ideas throughout the year and put them in an ideas book, and then take the book on holiday with me, and sit down to think of a way forward and see if there’s anything there, any beginnings of a plot,” he says. “So by the time I come back, I’m sort of ready to get started again.” Another source of ideas comes from the phone in Jim’s pocket,
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