Was it a challenge to build interest around such a subdued character as opposed to one like Vera who's all over the place?

I like writing Matthew.

When he first came into my head when I was talking to my friend about somebody who'd lost their face and joined the police service then, because in the UK we do call it the police service, not the police force.

Then the people who, in my head, the people who looked after me most when my husband died were a gay couple, Martin and Paul, and they were the people.

My daughters were grieving terribly too, but Martin and Paul scooped me up from the hospital and fed me wine and fed me tea and let me cry on their shoulders.

So they were in my head when I was dreaming up Matthew.

And because of that, I think he became gay.

So how much work have you done in your research and the past with the police? How do you know so much about police procedural?

the

opening for you? No, I started with the house.

I had an image in my head of that white Art Deco bungalow at the top of a coombe looking down at the sea in North Devon.

And then I had to find people to go in it.

And so there is lots of resentment in the West Country for people who come in and buy second homes or holiday rentals and resentment because then local people really struggle to find somewhere to live.

And I can't be holier than thou because I've got a cottage up in the hills in Northumberland.

But there is local resentment in Devon, I think, because there are so many.

Do you think if you were publishing now as your debut, it would be different? Because it just feels like the book market is different these days.

I want to hear more about that.

Yeah, I think I just needed some time on my own.

And Tim had so many friends.

His legacy to me really is all the friends that he had.

And I just wanted to be on my own or just in a different place.

So I grew up in North Devon.

I was a very good school friend there.

So how does that collaboration work?

[laughs]

Um, and so af- and, and I really thought I'd said all that I wanted to say about Shetland, and I was getting a bit bored with Jimmy.

He's quite dour and not very interesting at the end, so I had him sail off to the sunset.

We last see him with his new partner, who's pregnant, going to Fair Isle, which is where he grew up, the island, the Shetland island where he was born, and I thought that was a lovely way to end it.

And in the mail boat sailing with them is a young assistant cook, and that's how I first went to Shetland, was as a young assistant cook going into Fair Isle.

But then I got a bit homesick for the Northern Isles, 'cause I do love- Orkney and Shetland.

And I thought, "Well, it'd be quite fun to go back, see if he's mellowed a bit, see if family life has made him easier to get on with.

So did you feel as you, as you wrote this, that you were getting a bit more color back into his cheeks?