|
||||||
|
||||||
|
||||||
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
||
| REVIEWS | BY EWEN MACLACHAN |
 Maureen O’Brien: “He has become a real presence in my life. I was once asked if I was in love with him.” |
Detective Inspector Bright, based at Kentish Town police station, turned up as the hero of Ms O’Brien’s first novel, a role he has repeated in her five subsequent books. The coming of John Bright, and indeed Ms O’Brien’s career as a crime writer, happened quite unplanned. A successful actress, Ms O’Brien, though she had always liked writing, had never aspired to being a novelist. “A couple of my poems were published in the local paper when I was a child,” she says. “Then I went on to write plays. But novels seemed to demand skills which I didn't t think I possessed. “I think that was probably due to my background. I come from a working-class family in Liverpool. People like us didn’t write novels.” Then one night, she continues, she had a dream. Three people, a place and a body. Next morning she wrote it down. It was to be the first page of her first novel. Some time later, John Bright joined the cast and began to take over the story. “John Bright came to me with a single phrase – ‘light on his feet’ – and just grew from that,” Ms O’Brien says. “Since then he has become a real presence in my life. “I was once asked if I was in love with him. I wouldn’t go as far as that. But I do like him. He is not charming, but I don’t like charming people. He can’t stand injustice and has innately good, qualities I admire. He’s also sexy and very good at his job.” A lot of research has gone into trying to turn Bright into a convincing policeman, including stints at Kentish Town police station, where a succession of real-life detective inspectors have helped Ms O’Brien with her inquiries, chatting and taking her along when they investigated crimes. (Ms O’Brien, who likes to get her facts right, also spent a few days in the offices of the Camden New Journal while creating the character of a local paper journalist for one of the novels.) This desire for accuracy extends to a concern for creating a convincing sense of place. So, Ms O’Brien, who lives in Lady Margaret Road, Kentish Town, opted to make her hero a local man, not only based at her neighbourhood police station, but with a flat in Hornsey Lane and a girlfriend in Kentish Town. Ms O’Brien’s home patch became Bright’s. In his latest adventure, however, Bright strays far from the streets of Camden, with unfortunate results. Unauthorised Departure sees her hero and his girlfriend venture into France to the remote and mountainous district of the Jura. Supposedly on holiday, the couple have at first little to contend with but the cracks in their own relationship. Soon, though, a more urgent problem appears: not only a corpse, but a strange belief among the local police that Bright might in some way be responsible for it. From then on, Bright, who hates holidays and has been in an almost constant state of bafflement ever since crossing the Channel, might seem to be seeing his deepest prejudices confirmed. Wracked by jealousy, he discovers that his girlfriend has disappeared, possibly with a handsome young lover. More grisly deaths occur and an increasingly unpleasant succession of characters make themselves known. Interestingly, however, the nastier it becomes the more Bright feels at home. Slowly turning from prime suspect to chief investigator, he proves to be adept and relentless in tracking down the villains. Emotionally devastated long before his ultimate return to London – and, on the basis of this novel, something of an emotional retard in his intimate relationships – Bright thrives as a kind of blunt instrument when confronted with the forces of evil. To sophisticates rather a buffoon, his grappling with the French language ludicrous, Bright finally triumphs through raw energy and an intuitive understanding of the darkest and perhaps most basic aspects of the human psyche. This is an intriguing theme. Though some elements are less well-handled – the hero has a curiously outdated style of speech and the dialogue tends to be rather clunking and awkward – Bright is an interesting and complex character, a touching blend of vulnerability and vigour, a good man at home with the wicked. Knotty, stubborn and valiant, he is, without doubt, a real creation. |
|