Author Interview

Crime writer Peter Ritchie tells Caroline Lindsay about his varied career path

When Peter Ritchie was just 15, he followed his forefathers and started his working life at 15 as a deep sea fisherman.

“It was a tough life and I had to grow up quickly,” he recalls.

Eventually joining the police service, he moved through the ranks of CID, serious crime squad, murder squad and regional crime squad in Scotland.

“From there, I went on to manage the organised crime (OC) unit in the National Criminal Intelligence Service in London, and subsequently appointed as the UK liaison officer to Europol in The Hague, where I spent five years supporting operations against international OC and terrorism,” he continues.

It was only after retiring from the police service that Peter could fulfil his ambition to write, self-publishing before being signed up by Black & White.

Specialising in crime fiction featuring Detective Grace Macallan, his latest book Our Little Secrets was inspired by two cases he worked on earlier in his police career.

“In both cases the accused men were pillars of society – one was a policeman – and led what seemed like the most normal lives.

“One set up the murder of his wife to look like a break-in, and the policeman attacked women over almost a 10-year period,” he explains.

“It was that idea of the secrets that we all hold, so in this one everyone, including Grace Macallan, has a secret they have to live with.

“I think you can do so much in crime fiction. Anyone who reads my books will know that a regular theme is the abuse of women in the sex industry and trafficked women,” he muses.

“I worked on a lot of cases including murders in this country and abroad and the scale of the problem is enormous.

“As other crime writers have said before me crime fiction can be a powerful comment on the times.”

Peter has just finished a play based on the local fishing and mining community in East Lothian.

“I’m going to do another one about a true crime and then finish the next Grace Macallan book which is about a third done. I’ve got a novella coming out any time and another one in the autumn,” says Peter, who also enjoys painting, writing poetry in his spare time, as well as doing voluntary work.

Perhaps oddly for a crime writer, he doesn’t read a lot of crime fiction. “My favourite books are still Catch 22 by Joseph Heller and the The Master and Margarita by Mikhail Bulgakov – I’ve read them again and again.”

Peter has trained himself to write anywhere and everywhere and carries his iPad with him wherever he goes.

“If I’m having a coffee - out it comes. I write a lot in the cafe at my gym. There’s no set routine but that kind of sums me up as well,” he smiles.

“I love discussing my books with people who appreciate my work. I enjoy public speaking too so I never refuse an offer, and was one of the speakers at a charity dinner with Ian Rankin last week. It doesn’t get any better than that.”

Our Little Secrets by Peter Ritchie is published by Black & White, £8.99.