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Diane O'Toole
I was born in Gorton, and grew up in Longsight, Manchester into what was to become a large family of seven brothers and five sisters.
As a child my playground was Belle Vue, one of the largest amus...ver maisI was born in Gorton, and grew up in Longsight, Manchester into what was to become a large family of seven brothers and five sisters.
As a child my playground was Belle Vue, one of the largest amusement parks in Europe in its day. There are many stories I could tell about those days, and maybe one day I will. I have always been known as a storyteller.
As a young girl, I had a passion for books, and I read all the classics. George Eliot, Anthony Trollope and, of course, Thomas Hardy. During my teens Stephen King and James Herbert were amongst my favourite authors, and then I got a taste of the political thriller with Daniel Silva’s “Moscow Rules”.
For my first novel, Rings of Smoke, I drew on real life experiences, particularly in respect of the protagonist Erin Fallon. With stalkers, a runaway mother and abduction, I had the bones for what I believed was a good story. It took almost four years to write, as I had a full time job.
In many ways, I picked a hard subject to write about. Although I have read many crime thrillers, this one is set in the north of England in the 1970’s and with the help of my husband we had to research policing methods, ranks and other aspects of criminology of the day. No mobile phones, no DNA testing and profiling was relatively new in the UK. We also had to do a lot of medical research as neither of us has any experience in that field. The fact that none of the reviews so far have pulled us up on anything suggests we did a good job in that respect.
I am currently working on the sequel, but I can’t say much about that without giving away the plot of this one. Look out for it in 2013.ver menos