What Inspired The Doom Murders?

The Doom Murders, my second novel  represents a dramatic change of genre from my first novel, Fallen Men..  It is basically a murder mystery set in Belfast. Echoes of ‘the Troubles’ and their lingering aftermath are never far from the surface but these echoes are just background. The story, the themes and the plot have a much more general appeal.

What triggered The Doom Murders? Among my various interests, I like to read about art and have many books on artists from all over the world.  I was browsing through one of these books and spent some time contemplating a painting of The Last Judgement by a fifteenth century artist, Rogier van der Weyden.  For some reason, a piece of advice to writers from Stephen King came into my head.  King said, “Always ask ‘why?’, or ‘what if?' ". I was studying the distorted figures of the damned souls hurtling down into the abyss and wondered: “What if a Chief Inspector was faced by a series of gruesome murders and found the bodies posed in strange and grotesque shapes identical to those on this Doom?”  And came the next question, “Why would anyone want to do that?”

From these two questions came the inspiration for a new story and The Doom Murders was written. Dooms are mediaeval paintings of The Last Judgement.  The killer in this novel has been inspired in his “work” by the painting of The Last Judgement by Rogier van der Weyden.

This “work” comes to the notice of Chief Inspector Jim Sheehan when a number of high profile figures in Belfast are brutally murdered. The bodies are left naked and oddly distorted. No clues are left at the forensically immaculate crime scenes except seemingly pointless theatrical props and some random numbers and letters. Sheehan is baffled. How are the victims linked?  What message is the murderer trying to send via the vaguely religious symbolism of the killings?  Faced with one of the most complex cases of his career, the Chief Inspector turns to an eminent Professor of Psychology at Queen’s University and a senior cleric who is a biblical expert. With their help, he begins to piece together some understanding of the killer’s psychopathy but can he learn enough to identify the killer and put an end the murders?

The Doom Murdersis now available from Amazon Kindle Books and will also be available in paperback from Crimson Cloak Publishers late in 2015.

Interesting Developments: Two Awards! The Doom Murders was awarded the IDB Award for valuable contribution to the Indie writing community in March 2014. The book was also chosen for the Official Selection Award  for the 'Mystery' category of the 2014 New Apple Book Awards for Excellence in Independent writing.

Added Note:

In January last year, The Doom Murders climbed to #3 in the Top 100 British Detectives rankings.  It would hardly have done so were it not a reasonably enjoyable book. 

If youare reading this blog and have not yet ordered your copy of The Doom Murders yet, why don’t you give it a try?  It costs only a little over £1 and less that $2. Read some of the 36 reviews (average4.4 stars) using this link:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Doom-Murders-ebook/product-reviews/B00AL4LI24/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

Why Did I Write Fallen Men?

Some time ago a very nice lady asked me to write her story for her. She told me that until her late thirties she had a complete belief that she had had a wonderful childhood and a most loving mother. She was very successful in her job (manageress of a large office), Lady Captain of the Golf Club, and very much the life and soul of any gathering she found herself in.

Then out of the blue she was attacked by some very debilitating symptoms - first her shoulder, then her neck and, finally, most of her body… aching pains for which the doctor could make no diagnosis and for which he could prescribe no successful remedies.

This phase of illness was followed by a very severe depression which could not be explained by the physical symptoms alone. She could no longer function normally, had to give up her job and began to lock herself in her house. But counselling, followed eventually by hypnotherapy, revealed that she had for most of her life been blocking out memories of most horrific abuse (sexual and physical) by her mother and that the life-long memories of a wonderful mother-love had been a mental sham.

I spent a number of hours (over several interviews) talking with her, hearing details that froze my blood, details about what the mother herself did to the child at home, details about how she hired out the four-year-old child to local paedophiles. The more I heard, the more I did not want to write this book. It came as a huge relief to me when the lady lost her nerve and asked me to abandon the project.

The lady did find some sort of healing and still receives counselling but she remains very fragile mentally, insecure, and still unable to hold down a job. The book will never be written now, but the awful story continues to remain stuck in my head.

Then came the terrible revelations in Ireland about paedophile priests and the resultant fall-out on perfectly innocent priests, about the clerical ambition and cover-ups that made matters worse… and a story started to form. I wanted to write about priests who were good, men who were solid, but men who had flaws that were simply human. I wanted to show that good men can fall and that good men can find redemption I wanted the ‘good-looking young priest’ to have an affair with one of the choir girls…but how to do that and still preserve the character’s essential integrity? It would only be believable if he had somehow lost control of his will, of his spirituality.

And then I thought about the lady’s story…..and…

….Father Ray was born and Fallen Men came to be written. It’s a rather strange sort of book. I think the idea that it is religious fiction (it is actually a lot more than that) puts people off but those that actually read it are giving it 5* reviews …even a self-confessed atheist. Go figure!

JANUARY 2013

Interesting development re Fallen Men. On January 16th, 2013 this book was awarded the IDB Award. It's an award that is given to 240 authors each year out of the million plus independent books that are published each year. Not the Booker...but it is a recognition of sorts!

The curious can find "Fallen Men" on Amazon Kindle books.


AUTUMN 2015

I have just heard that Fallen Men has been awarded Top Medallist Honours in the 2015 New Apple Summer Awards for Contemporary Fiction.