The Darker the Night, published earlier this year, is a dark political thriller set during a referendum on Scottish independence. The nationalists appear to be on the verge of victory. Then senior civil servant, John Millar, is shot dead in a Glasgow alley on a rain soaked night and a political scandal brews. This is just a few days before the vote. Suspicion falls on the nationalist First Minister, Susan Ward – is her past catching up with her or is someone out to discredit her? The deeper journalist Fulton MacKenzie digs into the death the murkier everything appears, not everyone wants him to uncover the truth. Is someone trying to manipulate the outcome of the independence vote?
Paul Burke: Hello Martin and welcome to Crime Time. Reporting from some of the world’s news hotspots over the years many stories must have had fictional potential. Your debut, The Darker the Night, is a political thriller set around the Scottish independence debate. It couldn’t be more in the zeitgeist could it?
Martin Patience: I guess being a journalist I’ve always covered the big issues of our time – and Scottish independence is certainly one of those issues for the UK. But I really saw the book as more than that – it’s really about how fragile societies can be and how things could change very quickly in ways that we’re not expecting, especially when there’s a lack of trust in our politicians and institutions. And I think we’re experiencing one of those great moments of historical upheaval in the West and beyond.
PB: So digging into that upheaval you describe, this is the landscape of your news reporting, that’s it’s real world grounding. What was it like creating a fiction from fact? Very different to the journalistic approach I’d imagine.
MP: It was wonderful not being constrained by the facts and allowing my mind to roam wherever took my fancy. But it was also a huge challenge: Writing for TV or radio is very different to writing for the page. In TV, for example, you describe to the viewer what they’re seeing on the screens whereas in fiction you have to create those scenes – so I was having to exercise very different writing muscles. Interestingly I found writing dialogue a lot easier than almost anything else. I think part of the reason for that is I’ve spent so much time listening to so many folk from all walks of life. Overall though the whole experience was a lot of fun and immensely liberating.
PB: The novel is set mid-campaign for a vote on Scottish independence but the inspiration for the thriller plot actually comes from an incident in central America I think, emphasising what you were saying about fragile societies and shared experience, tell us about that please.
MP: I read an extraordinary article in the New Yorker magazine about a decade ago about a political murder in Guatemala and like an annoying fly it buzzed away at me for years. I knew pretty quickly that I could use these true events and set them in the UK. And I knew I needed a dramatic backdrop and a second Scottish referendum seemed to fit the bill.
PB: This is a thriller not a polemic, you don’t come down in favour of, or against, Scottish independence. The views in the novel are those of the characters. Were you aware of the reader in this? Fiction’s role is maybe to ask questions not necessarily answer them.
MP: I was very conscious that my book was going to be picked over by both sides so I guess my BBC training of impartiality kicked in! But in the book some of the characters were pro- independence, others were against, and some were ambivalent – and that’s a reflection of Scottish public opinion at the moment. I think what the independence referendum in 2014 exposed was the deep divisions in the country and the growing political polarization. And that polarization is often ripe for exploitation by politicians, hostile countries, pushing their own agendas.
PB: Hence the need for someone to uncover what’s really going on. Your protagonist Fulton MacKenzie is a journalist, he writes for Siren and he investigates the death of senior civil servant, John Millar. He has a great battle with his editor and his own personal foibles that make him an everyman. So I’m not asking if he is you, but in what ways does he represent the kind of traits a good journalist needs? The things you think are important in your own work.
MP: I think the great journalists can be extremely cantankerous at times and I believe that’s not a bad thing. If you’re going to dig out the truth, challenge the powers-that-be, you’re going to upset people and you need to be steely. There is often a tension between journalists who want to go after great stories and editors who think that’s all very well and good but what am I going to put in the newspaper or website – that tension has always been there but I think has been exacerbated by the devastating cuts to newspapers.
PB: Those cuts are clearly a concern for you. One of the roles for the fourth estate is to hold power to account. These are tough times for a host of reasons, declining newspaper sales, fake news etc. Do you worry about corruption and the lessening of checks and balances on those in government if journalism, for whatever reason, isn’t part of the process? I see this as implicit in the values of the novel.
MP: Yes, I think the demise of local newspapers in particular is deeply unhealthy for democracy. You need a check on power and journalists play a big role in that. But if people think nobody is going to look into their behaviour or dodgy deals then it allows a culture of impunity to take hold and that’s dangerous. It breeds mistrust and polarisation.
PB: Perfect for the conspiracy thriller element of the novel. People will be aware that Scotland has had prominent female politicians recently. Regardless of your political viewpoint Nicola Sturgeon has been a force to be reckoned with as First Minister. The leader in your novel is Susan Ward, a woman, is there any relevance to that, or just a reflection of modern society?
MP: It was a consideration because I thought readers would, perhaps inevitably, think that my First Minister was based on Nicola Sturgeon. But in the end I thought I’d be silly to change the sex for that reason alone. A few years back the three leaders of Scotland’s main political parties were all women. In Scotland having a female leader is something that is completely the norm now and it’s remarkable how much things have changed in the last decade or so.
PB: Did you enjoy the whole idea of creating a thriller, the tropes and clues for example? The stuff that makes this a page turner.
MP: I loved it. But with your first book there is a huge amount of learning to do – it’s not easy! And as my agent told me, plot is important, but the only thing readers ever remember is the characters. It took me a long time to get the characters right – that was the hardest part of the writing process for me.
PB: Yes, characters drive good thrillers. A lot of the book is set in Glasgow, do you see the city as a character?
MP: I do. It’s a city that I love. I grew up in a small village just outside of the city but would go “into town” most weekends. I then went to college and university in Glasgow and it’s shaped me in a lot of ways – I think chiefly that you shouldn’t take yourself too seriously. And the humour, I love and miss the humour. I’ve lived in Cairo, New York, Damascus, Jerusalem, Kabul, Beijing, Lagos, Beirut and now DC (it’s an epic list and I count myself so lucky) but Glasgow will always be home.
PB: Is independence a good idea? Joking. A broader question that I think your experience can speak to. You are clearly worried by the increasing extremism and polarisation that seems to be going on around the world. Are we a bit complacent in our sense of democracy? Big I know!
MP: Things can change in an instant – our societies are fragile. My outlook on life has been shaped by conflict and the fact that I’ve seen countries that I love collapse in the most horrific ways – Syria, Afghanistan and Lebanon. I think in the West a lot of people think these things can never happen to them. But when my dad was born in Glasgow it was getting bombed by the Germans – 80 years later my brother became a German citizen. The world is always in flux.
PB: So what’s next, you have your day job but do you have plans for more fiction, more crime thrillers perhaps?
MP: I left the BBC after more than 15 years as a foreign correspondent. In all honesty, I had burnt out, I needed a change of lifestyle. I’m now working as a senior producer for NPR in Washington and manage to write for an hour or so in the mornings before taking my wee fella to school. My second book is well underway – it’s another political thriller which involves the UK and China and I hope it will be out in the world in another year or so.
The Darker the Night is available in paperback from Polygon Press.
