Q&A: Stuart Douglas, Author of ‘Death at the Playhouses’

We chat with author Stuart Douglas about Death at the Playhouses, which is a witty, fun, 1970s-set whodunnit in the Lowe and Le Breton mysteries series, featuring two ageing actors attempting to solve a murder after their famous co-star is found dead in a doorway outside the theatre in which they’re performing.

Hi, Stuart! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

Hello! I’m a Scottish editor, publisher and author of detective novels, cosy crime and science fiction. I’ve written four Sherlock Holmes novels for the Further Adventures… series, as well a load of novellas and short stories.

I also run Obverse Books, a small publisher who focus on fiction and non-fiction based around old TV properties – most commonly, Doctor Who, for which we’ve published 75 volumes of the award-winning Black Archive series.

Currently, my ongoing fiction project is the Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries, in which two elderly actors (who might well be familiar to fans of 70s British sitcom Dads Army) investigate crimes in the world of the television, film and theatre.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

In terms of writing, late in the day, actually. I’ve always read voraciously, and always loved books (my house, like most book lovers, is full of heaps of books!), but I never tried to write anything for public consumption until I was almost 40! That was a short story for the very first Obverse Books anthology, and was forced on me when one of the authors pulled out late in the day. And after that, there was no stopping me!

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Doctor Who and the Cybermen by Gerry Davis – a Target Doctor Who book I picked up for 10p at a jumble sale. I must have been about six or so and devoured it in one sitting as soon as I got home!
• The one that made you want to become an author: As I said, becoming an author was forced on me by needing a story for Iris Wildthyme and the Celestial Omnibus Until that point I intended only to do editing work, behind the scenes on the book.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Like everyone reading this, I suspect, I find it impossible to pin down just one book to answer that question. But I have a row of books on my bookshelf which I’ve read multiple times and which live in my head constantly – from very serious, deeply moving novels like The Last of the Just by Andre Schwartz-Bart and famous works like Art Spiegelman’s Maus graphic novel, through the very literary like Samuel Beckett’s novella The Lost Ones all the way to wonderful fantasies like Paul Magrs Hell’s Belles and children’s classics like Charlotte’s Web and Susan Cooper’s brilliant The Dark is Rising.

  But my two (sorry, can’t narrow down it further than that) books are Familiarity of the Kingdom of the Lost by Dumore Boetie, a probably largely apocryphal autobiography of a one-legged black conman in apartheid-era South Africa, and  Lord of the Dance, a historical fantasy by the Scots author Robin Lloyd-Jones, in which a doctor looking for a cure for leprosy and a foolish priest travel across India in the middle-ages. Both are by turn very, very funny and very, very moving.

Death at the Playhouses is the second installment in your Lowe and Le Breton Mysteries and it’s out April 1st! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Old actors hunt mad killer!

What can readers expect?

Hopefully, a murder mystery with enough twists and unexpected turns to keep them interested, but grounded in a very real environment (England and the Netherlands in the early 1970s) and with characters with the flaws and weaknesses you’d expect of a pair of elderly old thespians, as well as the strengths and compassion. Something believable.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

I’ve loved Dads Army since I was a little boy, and the book began life as a much closer match for Arthur Lowe and John Le Mesurier, the two stars of the tv series (as you can see from their names, I didn’t disguise them too much, even in the rewritten version).

The two heroes of my books, Edward Lowe and John Le Breton, are a mix of the actors and the characters they played in the tv show – irascible, impatient, but at core kindly Lowe, and suave, laid-back, and terribly kind Le Breton, and it’s constantly a pleasure to be putting the words in their mouths that I can imagine the originals saying.

What’s your process when it comes to plotting out your story to keep the twists and surprises coming?

Take the dog for lots of long walks!

Basically, once I have a setting and a first murder, I work from there, building up a reason for that death, and adding characters in either to carry it out, or to provide Lowe and Le Breton with red herrings to chase. Slowly, over multiple dog walks (in which I stop frequently to type reminders of new ideas to myself on my phone!) I flesh the spine of the plot out. Then, I open Scrivener and start laying it out in what I hope is a coherent timeline, writing potted histories of all the characters as I go along, with their roles and motivations in the book.

Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?

Time is the main challenge. As well as running Obverse, who publish twenty or so books a year, many of which I edit, and writing Lowe and Le Breton, I also have a rather dull full time job. Luckily, my family are happy for me to give them peace when I need to disappear into my office for hours at a time!

What’s next for you?

I’ve just finished a new Holmes short story for the final volume of the massive MX Publishing series (volume 52, I believe!) and  have just started writing the third Lowe and Le Breton novel.

Lastly, what books are you looking forward to picking up this year?

My favourite books recently have been the Darkland Tales series from Birlinn Polygon, a series of short novels by well known authors, each based round a story or legend in Scottish history. The most recent one, Queen Macbeth by Val McDermid is the best book I’ve read this year, and I’m very much looking forward to the next one in the series.

Will you be picking up Death at the Playhouses? Tell us in the comments below!