Books: Enter a criminal underworld – in Regency Cambridge
Making her name with seven-book Regency crime series the Sam Plank Mysteries, novelist Susan Grossey is now on volume two of the Hardiman Mysteries. Set in 1820s Cambridge, they tell the story of a University constable who finds himself policing both town and gown, as Susan tells Velvet
In this one, we actually go to Newmarket as well as Cambridge. The vice chancellor put out an edict saying that members of the university were not permitted to even look at a horse race, for fear of the dangers of gambling. So, of course, it instantly became the thing everyone wanted to do. That was the start of my story: who was gambling, why, and what was the fallout from it. Cambridge was also the forerunner in England for mathematical studies, and I thought there was a nice link there - between gambling and maths.
The series is going to be a book a year, both in the writing and in chronology; the last one took place in 1825, so this is 1826. Our hero, Gregory Hardiman, has settled into life as a constable, although he’s still learning the job, and into life in Cambridge, as he’s quite new to the city. This one is him finding his feet, I would say.
I was very attached to the central character in my previous series - the Sam Plank books, set in the same period but in London - and was very aware of making the two men sufficiently different. They do pretty much the same job; inevitably they have a lot in common. I’ve differentiated partly through their personal histories: Sam is very urban, whereas Gregory is a country boy; Gregory is on his own, Sam is a family man. Gregory also speaks directly to the reader, which Sam never did. And then there’s his enjoyment of words: he collects words, recording them in his vocabulary book, and he enjoys poetry. There’s a suppressed anger in Gregory too; he’s got PTSD and that comes out at different points, making him a bit more impulsive than he might otherwise be.
As a reader, when I was a young child, my first series was Poldark: my mother had them all and I went through them about four times. As I got a bit older, I moved on to the Forsyte Saga. Because I’m a fast and greedy reader, I just want more and more and more of something I’ve loved, so as a writer I’m the same. They always say you should write what you enjoy reading, so for me a standalone is just not enough; it’s a starter only!
Oddly enough, that said, I’m not a great crime reader - though I do love our new crime bookshop in Cambridge, Bodies in the Bookshop, and am a member of their monthly Crime Crackers book club. The things I’m interested in are justice, policing and finance, and the only way to bring them together is through crime, so the crime aspect of my books was sort of accidental. It’s really the historical aspect I love as a reader: Poldark was my gateway drug; as an adult, it’s C. J. Sansom.
I do research for about three months before I write anything. The first thing I do is go to the library and read an awful lot of newspapers from the year I’m writing about. I go into the Cambridgeshire Collection in the library and sit with the enormous volumes of the Cambridge Chronicle and Journal. There will be all sorts of things happening - like the first balloon flight in the city - which will then appear in my story at some point.
Inevitably I need to know more about certain things, usually rather arcane things, like how horse races operated in 1826. That’s where I call on an expert, in this case a gentleman at Newmarket’s National Horseracing Museum, who in turn put me in touch with someone who has records of every race meeting held; people are so generous with their time and their knowledge.
I did read somewhere that, as an historical novelist, you need to wear your research lightly; what I’m striving to do is to make the reader feel secure that they believe me, that they know I know, without me having to tell them every single thing I’ve learned. It’s my poor husband who gets the brunt of that; he’s the one that gets the lectures. . .
About the Book: When, in the spring of 1826, an undergraduate is found hanged in his rooms at St Clement’s College, the Master asks Gregory to find out what could have driven the seemingly happy young man to take such a drastic step. A second death at the same college suggests something altogether more sinister, and Gregory sets out to discover whether a love of illegal gambling on horse races could lie at the heart of the tragedies. . .
Sizar, book two of the Cambridge Hardiman Mysteries, is out now in paperback. Available from Bodies in the Bookshop, Botolph Lane, Cambridge and at susangrossey.com, it’s priced £8.99.
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Alice Ryan