Crime writer Brian Freeman talks about the creative process behind his acclaimed debut novel IMMORAL:

I often hear from readers who wonder what’s the bigger challenge in writing a crime novel – developing a suspenseful plot or creating realistic characters.

For me, the character psychology is the heart of the book. I don’t want to say that writing action is easy, because you have to think in a cinematic style and ‘direct’ your scenes as if you were making a movie, in order to build suspense. Do it right, and your readers can’t put the book down.

But a truly great crime novel lives inside the minds of its characters. A book with lots of action will be a good beach read, but a book with lots of action and deep, haunting characters will linger in your mind for a long time.

That’s true of both your heroes and your villains. No one is all good or all bad. This is what I have tried to achieve in IMMORAL. I hope readers will be attracted to Lieutenant Jonathan Stride because of his complexity and flaws. Some readers have also suggested that my victim may be the most ‘immoral’ character in the book.

It’s true that many of the characters in IMMORAL have guilty secrets, and many do some very evil things. But unlike suspense novels where the dark characters seem to have no believable motivation, I want readers to realize that these are ordinary people who were tempted across a terrible line. If you put yourself in the same situation, you have to ask, what would you do?

IMMORAL is published by Headline on 3 April. Brian Freeman’s second novel featuring Lieutenant Jonathan Stride, STRIPPED, will be available this Autumn.