‘Watching You Fall’ is a crime novel set on the Lizard Peninsula in Cornwall. The author’s detailed knowledge of the area, and love for it, come across strongly in the text, making you feel as if you are there. The protagonist, Anna Maybury, is the vicar of a small parish and when she meets the local architect’s wife one rainy night, little can she know how significant the encounter would turn out to be. Her thoughts are too preoccupied with another of the locals, an intriguing character by the name of Simeon, who I found to be particularly well-drawn.
Editing in this genre needs to be done very carefully, because if you remove the wrong piece of text you could end up taking out a vital clue that holds the whole story together.
The first thing I did when approaching this manuscript was to go through to check whether there was anything that gave away whodunnit too early in the book. Remaining objective, whilst getting caught up in the story, is a tricky balance and required copious notes to keep track.
Next, it was a matter of getting to know the area, to understand a bit about where the characters were and what they were doing. Since a trip to Cornwall wasn’t on the expenses (shame!) it was a matter of taking a virtual drive down the country lanes courtesy of Google.
I love the challenge of working on this kind of book. It’s so intricate that as an editor it gave me a lot of satisfaction to go through Kirsty’s text, which she had clearly worked hard on, and bring it to the stage where it was ready to be published.
I wish Kirsty every success with her book.
‘Watching You Fall’ can be purchased via this link: http://bearpress.uk/project/bp10102/
Bridget Scrannage 