Meet the Author: Tom Hindle
Tom Hindle is a crime writer who specialises in writing whodunits. His first book, A Fatal Crossing, was published in 2022 and was followed by The Murder Game. Tom has been inspired by masters of the crime genre, from Agatha Christie to Anthony Horowitz. His latest book, Murder on Lake Garda, is published by Century in January 2024. You can find Murder on Lake Garda and all of Tom's books on our catalogue.
Your books have been described as a homage to the golden age of crime fiction. What was your first introduction to Agatha Christie and the other greats of the genre?
I’ve always loved stories that involve mysteries. Growing up, I can remember veraciously reading the likes of Harry Potter and Anthony Horowitz’s Diamond Brothers. I used to watch Scooby-Doo on Saturday mornings and Midsomer Murders on Sunday afternoons. Stories that involved curious clues, a large cast of shifty suspects and a huge rug-pull at the end would just draw me in. But I didn’t actually read any Agatha Christie until I started writing my own murder mystery.
I was aware of her, of course. Her influence is so far-reaching that I imagine someone who’s never picked up an Agatha Christie novel could still talk to you about poisoned aristocrats in grand libraries or on village greens. But it wasn’t until I was in my mid-twenties, writing the book that would become A Fatal Crossing, that I thought to properly study her work.
If I’m honest, it was a strange moment. Sitting down to read that first Agatha Christie book – Murder on the Orient Express, if I remember correctly – I saw how clearly she had influenced all of the stories I’d loved growing up. So I suppose, in a way, she’d always been there. It was a real lightbulb moment.
Is it true that you originally wrote A Fatal Crossing as a play?
It is! Or at least, it’s true that I started writing it as a play. I was in sixth form at the time, and the idea was to write something I could perform with my friends. The only problem was that I’d woefully underestimated the amount of work this would require, meaning I only made it to the end of the first act before we all finished school and had gone to university. It then proceeded to live on a memory stick for a few years, until I decided to have another go at it as a novel in my twenties.
How much research do you have to do before you can start creating your story?
It really depends on the story. A Fatal Crossing, for instance, required quite a lot, on account of it taking place aboard a 1920s cruise liner. The Murder Game, by comparison, required fairly little, as the fictional village of Hamlet Wick is based heavily on a real-life place that I know very well called Porlock Weir. Murder on Lake Garda was somewhere in-between. Having only been there once, Garda isn’t a place I know terribly well. But I was fortunate in that I had the idea for the book while I was visiting, so I was able to start thinking while I was there about how the location should impact the novel.
Are you a plotter or do you let the story develop as you write it?
If you’d asked me a few years ago, I’d have told you that I was a very rigid plotter. I can remember planning out A Fatal Crossing in so much detail that I had a spreadsheet showing the whereabouts of each character at any given time. But with each book I’ve become less hung up on the finer details and more comfortable going with the flow.
One thing that hasn’t changed – and I can’t imagine ever will – is that I need to know who the murderer is before I start writing. When all’s said and done, with a whodunit the entire book is ultimately building to that one enormous reveal. Aside from that, I tend to have a few beats that I know I need to hit along the way, usually in the form of a fresh clue, a game-changing confession or the discovery of another body. But I now trust myself to fill in the gaps between those moments as I write.
The Murder Game is set at a murder mystery party. Have you ever been to one of those 'Solve the murder' evenings yourself?
The idea for The Murder Game actually came to me while I was taking part in a murder mystery game, not dissimilar to the one we see in the book. It was in Reading, where I was living at the time, with clues and actors hidden all over town that the players had to find. I can vividly remember taking part one afternoon and it occurring to me in something of a flash – what if someone actually died here? What if, midway through this make-believe investigation, one of the players was actually killed? It was a really tantalising prospect, one which ended up snowballing into The Murder Game.
Can you tell us a little about your new book Murder on Lake Garda and how it was to write?
Very much like The Murder Game, Murder on Lake Garda came to me quite unexpectedly. I was on holiday in Italy, and while visiting an amazing castle in the lakeside town of Malcesine, I saw a wedding taking place. It was such a dramatic scene – the landscape, the architecture, the glamour of the ceremony – that it immediately occurred to me I was looking at a fantastic opening to a murder mystery.
The character of Robyn, our hero in Murder on Lake Garda, came to me very quickly, as did the identity of the murderer. But the murder itself was a tricky one to plot. It took a good couple of months to understand exactly how it would take place, and to determine why the murderer I had in mind would commit the crime I was envisaging.
Having been to the location itself and had the chance to soak in the ambience was incredibly helpful. It was such a different vibe to my first two books, and has definitely instilled me with a desire to visit any locations that feature in future novels. I was also due, at the time, to get married myself in just four months, so I was already very much in the headspace of planning a wedding. That was actually quite helpful for pinning down what the chain of events would look like and where certain characters would be at certain times.
Is there anything you can share with us about your latest project?
It’s another whodunit – of course! – set in a location completely unlike any I’ve dealt with before. I probably don’t want to say too much, as I’m still in the process of writing it, but I will say that I recently spent a week in Svalbard to help research it. So readers can expect something considerably colder than an Italian destination wedding.
One book, piece of music or work of art that everyone should experience?
As a huge lover of live music, I would recommend seeing a piece of music that has some kind of meaning to you performed by the person who composed it. For me, personally, seeing Hans Zimmer performing live in London last year was one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had in a long while. He’s composed music for many of my all-time favourite films, so seeing him perform pieces from the likes of Gladiator, Inception and The Lion King was something that’s going to stay with me for quite some time.
What is on your 'to read' shelf at the moment?
So many things... I’ve just received an early copy of Stuart Turton’s new mystery, The Last Murder at the End of the World, which I’m terrifically excited to read. I have Reykjavik on my bedside table, the new Icelandic crime novel co-written by Ragnar Jonasson and the President of Iceland, which I’m fascinated by. And I’ve also been meaning for quite a few months now to get stuck in to The Bullet That Missed, the third in the Thursday Murder Club series. If you look carefully, you might start to notice a slightly murderous theme!
Can you tell us one thing about yourself that your readers may not know?
When I was a teenager, my ambition was to be a rock star. I played bass in a band with two of my best friends, and we took it incredibly seriously, constantly writing new music and playing gigs around Leeds in just about any venue that would have us. I haven’t been part of a band now for quite a few years, but I do still play. Aside from writing, music is probably my greatest creative outlet.