The Crossing was launched yesterday in Bookmark, a wonderful independent bookshop in the South Lincolnshire market town of Spalding, where the novel is partly set. Bookmark is owned by Christine Hanson. Sam Buckley manages the events.

Christina James

Christina James

I signed books during the day and had a great audience for the evening event. Some of them were members of Bookmark's reading group, others who had heard how well the shop runs events and wanted to attend one. There was a howling gale outside and still they came, some from long distances! I felt both humbled and very grateful. It was a lively, inquisitive audience. One man had spent the whole day reading the book so that he could ask questions about it!

The opening chapter of The Crossing was based on a railway accident that happened when my great aunt was the crossing-keeper at a remote hamlet called Sutterton Dowdyke. The Peterborough to Skegness train, in heavy fog, ploughed into a lorry on the crossing, derailing some of the carriages, which crashed into my great aunt's tied lodge-house and turned it round on its foundations. She was physically unhurt, but her mind was affected for the rest of her life.

In the novel, the accident is the catalyst for the whole chain of events that follows. One strong theme of The Crossing is imprisonment and how a person's character is affected when they're completely subjugated to someone else's will: what compromises with their own integrity they have to make in order to survive.

The Crossing is the fourth in the DI Yates series. Tim Yates is a young, energetic, imaginative policeman who tries to think outside the box. I wanted to avoid the usual stereotype of an overweight, alcoholic middle-aged copper with several broken relationships behind him and a jaundiced view of the world. Another stereotype I try to avoid is the 'blood-and-guts' thriller. I don't like sensationalism for its own sake.

Although the books form a series, and Tim's personal life develops over time, each of them can be read independently of the others. I think it's completely unfair of the writer to try to hold the reader to ransom by writing books that can't be properly understood unless he or she has invested in the whole series.

Place is very important in my novels. I chose the Lincolnshire Fens because they're so atmospheric and also because I know them well; not too many modern crime writers set their work there (though some very distinguished crime writers have been inspired by Lincolnshire in the past: Dorothy L. Sayers, for example). However, the novel I'm working on at the moment is also set in London.

I'm very proud to be published by Salt Publishing. Salt is an edgy publisher with a great list. All the books are beautifully-produced and edited. Salt publishes between 25 and 30 books a year and I try to read all of them. There's never a dud!

I've had a number of previous lives, as a bookseller, a teacher and an independent researcher, and I still run my own business. I didn't come to writing late: most writers will tell you that they've been writing all their lives, and I'm no exception. But my first crime novel, In the Family, was only published three years ago. I've enjoyed all the things I've done with my life, but I feel exceptionally lucky that I'm now able to fulfil this ambition.

I'm grateful to everyone who's helped. In order for any writer to be published, let alone succeed, a whole army of selfless supporters has to swing into action. The list of people I should thank would probably fill a book in itself, but I can't not mention Jim Bennett, my editor, and Annika Bennett, my reader, and Chris and Jen Hamilton-Emery, of Salt Publishing, who have shown such unshakeable confidence in my work.

The Crossing, by Christina James, was published on 15th November by Salt Publishing. More about Christina James and her books may be found at www.christinajamesblog.com