Good morning Martin, Finished the 2nd novel of DI Ridpath last week, reviewing for a blog tour in due course upon your release. Found the painting of Manchester was very well done, how much research was involved in mapping out this? And are you a red or a blue - the recurring theme of football fandom ending with a Macclesfield shout out was funny Many thanks

M.J. Lee Sorry Jamie, just spotted this. I'm so glad you enjoyed the DI Ridpath novels. I originally come from Manchester and return home every year. For some reason, the city keeps drawing me back. These are the places I grew up knowing and I usually revisit them as I'm writing the book. It occasionally gives me problems. For instance, I wanted the lake in the book to be one in Poynton that I knew well, but after I did the first draft, I realised Poynton was in Cheshire and so not part of Greater Manchester Police or a Manchester coroner. So I changed it to another place which exists and is actually called the Secret Lake by the locals. All the places are accurate and I use Google Earth as I'm writing. I don't know what I'd do without these maps. All my books have a strong sense of place. For me, it's another character.
I'm a Red, attending my first reserve game at Old Trafford when I was 7, such a long time ago. But I think every football fan has a second team they support. I have two; Rochdale and Macclesfield. I was so glad they managed to stay in the league this year and Rochdale survived in League One. I wanted the consultant in the hospital to have a bit of character - too often doctors are written as lifeless, medical robots.

Thanks once again for the questions and so sorry for the late reply. I promise I'll get to it quicker next time.....

best regards

Martin

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