In 1972, I joined the Foreign & Commonwealth Office and worked as a British diplomat in embassies across the world. Now, I've started a second career by writing a series of 'diplomatic' crime thrillers. Here are 10 ways I believe being a diplomat affected my novels.
Jean Harrod
The single job that influenced me. In the 1990s, I was the British Consul in Indonesia and responsible for British citizens there. I dealt with a terrorist kidnapping, missing backpackers, boats capsizing, planes and trains crashing, murder, fraud, and other crimes involving Britons. Liaising with Indonesian police, I learnt about their investigations, forensics, and even found myself in the morgue identifying bodies from passport photos. That's when the idea of writing diplomatic crime thrillers began.
Plots. I draw on my knowledge of the people of a country, their culture and problems to come up with plots. My first novel, Deadly Diplomacy, was set in Australia, around the murder of a British businesswoman negotiating a multi-billion dollar deal with the Chinese. My second, Deadly Deceit, is set in the Caribbean Islands of the Turks and Caicos. It tells a dark tale of illegal migration and Haitian voodoo.
The opportunity to really get to know a country. My plots and characters are fictional, but I bring my knowledge of a country to the story, and what it was like to be a diplomat there at a specific time in history. Each novel has a different plot and is set in a different country, but the main characters run through the series. Whenever my heroine, diplomat Jess Turner, turns up, murder and mayhem follow.
Characters. I met many interesting people of all different nationalities, from Presidents to road sweepers, to teachers to nurses. My characters are a mix of all those people.
A unique series. I thought creating a heroine, who is a diplomat, would bring a completely different angle to the crime genre. It hasn't been done before, as far as I'm aware.
An international dimension. I learnt how different Governments and countries worked, and about international organisations. I bring this international knowledge to my novels.
I take my readers into the Foreign Office to explain how things work in London and our embassies overseas to give them a different perspective.
Novel writing is not easy. It requires much re-writing and editing. My diplomatic career of writing reports, speeches, press releases, and briefing for Ministers, gave me the grounding and self-motivation to write my novels.
Confidence. My diplomatic training as a spokesperson, Deputy High Commissioner, and Deputy Governor, has given me the confidence to take on public speaking. Now, I give talks about my life as a diplomat, my travels, and my second career as a novelist.
Time to read. Back before the internet, good TV and global communications, we had to amuse ourselves in far flung embassies. I'd loved crime thrillers since my teens, having been brought up on Agatha Christie, and spent my evenings reading. The course was set for my crime writing future.
Deadly Deceit, will be available from 16 June from High Street bookshops and Amazon Books. E-books for Kindle, Kobo and I-tunes are available for pre-order now.
Please visit my website www.jeanharrod.com for more information about my novels.