Leanne Kendall asked Bruce Beckham:

Hi just want to say I am loving your books. I got 1-4 for free on amazon then bought the rest!! A question as I am half way through #6 now and timewise almost 2 years has past but you don't appear to be aging the characters at all, ie DI Skelgill is still 37 ??

Bruce Beckham Hi Leanne - you are quite right (and thank you, by the way). There is probably a literary term for this form of character time travel - it might be something like 'the eternal present'. As a big fan of of Agatha Christie I was influenced by her regret that she allowed Poirot to age; it has been calculated that he was over 140 by the time of the last novel! And Ian Rankin was obliged to retire Rebus and bring him back in some improbable capacity. The method appears to have worked for James Bond - so, it's just me that's ageing!

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