Deadly Friendship, the third booking the DCI Hamilton Series was released July 23rd. To celebrate Tara Lyons has written a guest post about her inspiration for her books and her writing process.
The journey to Deadly Friendship
Deadly Friendship is the third book in the DI Hamilton series, and I’m delighted readers are following the series and excited to find out more about DI Denis Hamilton.
Although this book is the third in the series, it can easily be read as a standalone. In The Shadows, No Safe Home and Deadly Friendship all deal with different crimes, depravities and threats, but the base city of London and the Murder Investigations Team is the theme which runs through them all. Of course, as the series goes on, readers can delve into the character of DI Hamilton, and his team, and discover more about their backgrounds, motivations and hopes for the future. In No Safe Home and Deadly Friendship, I’ve left little hints of something further to come for one of the characters.
The idea for Deadly Friendship came after a trip I took with some friends to Ambleside in the Lake District – where this book begins. While the scenery on a boat trip we took was stunning, there was also something eerie about the way the trees hung low and dark over an old boat house. I snapped some photos and my friends said this would be a great location for one of your books. However, I like writing about London, as it’s where I’m from – and DI Hamilton, of course – so I wanted to write a story which connected the two places.
In The Shadows and No Safe Home focus very much on family, and in both of those stories there’s an element of me – in terms of something I’ve been through, or how I live my life – so, they’re very personal. I knew I wanted Deadly Friendship to concentrate on the different relationships we can have for people, and the difficulties that can arise from them. But, let me stop you there, this is not the personal side of the book – my friendships are not twisted… I did, however, study at Brunel University, which features in this book.
Like the plot ideas, my inspiration for the characters in my books come from everyday life – friends, television personalities, strangers in the street and people I speak to online. There isn’t one character in any of the books who is an exact replica of someone I know, but rather, they’re all amalgamations of these different people.
My writing process has changed dramatically since In The Shadows – which was completed in the evenings while my son was asleep, with me perched on the sofa in my living room. I’ve now made myself a little office nook in my bedroom, with a desk (my lap certainly appreciates the break) and tend to write more in the day, while my son is at part-time nursery. He starts reception in September, so I’m hoping that’ll mean even more writing time to get the next book out.
I’d like to take a moment to thank Juliet for hosting my guest post today, as well as all the bloggers and readers who go above and beyond to shout about my books. Thanks for sticking with Hamilton, and the series, and I hope you enjoy Deadly Friendship.
You can keep in touch with Tara via the following:
http://facebook.com/taralyonsauthor
www.bloodhound books.com
www.taralyonsauthor.blogspot.co.uk
www.authorselectric.blogspot.co.uk
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