CRIME reporter turned crime novelist David Mark is a self-proclaimed “deeply-twisted” person, harbouring a fascination for all things macabre.

“My job is to put myself in the mind of a serial killer,” David said.

“I have to think about their psychology, their weapons of choice and most importantly, their motivation.

“I feel like I have to know my characters, the good and the villainous, inside out to make my novels believable to the readers.”

David, who lives in Blanchland, has no shortage of believable cases to draw inspiration from, having worked as a crime journalist in Hull for many years, which also became the setting for his DS McAvoy series.

“Most of my writing is heavily influenced by the cases I worked on whilst I was a journalist,” David said.

“Writing crime became cathartic for me, because it gave me a sense of control which I never had as a reporter. Many of the cases I reported never reached a conclusion, there was no conviction, no closure for the victims’ families.

“Creating my own crime cases meant I could always write a just ending.”

Hull also provided David with what he describes as “the perfect blank canvas” for a fictional setting.

Taken with the city’s winding alleys, bustling ports and spit-and-sawdust pubs, David knew Hull would make the ideal setting for a murder, or 10.

“It really was a case of writing what you know,” said David, “and I knew Hull and crime.

“Whenever I put pen to paper, I can smell the cocoa from the chocolate factory down Southcoates Lane, or see the rotten timbers and hanging tapestries of green slime on St Andrew’s Dock.”

It wasn’t just Hull’s architecture and landmarks which inspired David, but the people he met there too.

The lead in his series, detective Aector McAvoy, is a representation of the real-life detectives David worked with, who he got to understand as family men, striving to find a balance between their difficult work responsibilities and their home life.

“I wanted my novels to reflect the reality of a detective’s life, rather than regurgitate the Sherlock Holmes trope.

“The stories must reflect how Aector deals with solving murder cases whilst tucking his kids in at night or paying the late electric bill, so that there is a more human aspect to his character.”

David feels he owes his success to Aector, and that without this character, he wouldn’t have had the chance to live his life as a full-time novelist.

Now, David’s series has racked up a place on the Sunday Times bestseller list, became a Richard & Judy pick, and even been adapted to the stage for a sell-out production.

His latest novel Cold Bones will be the eighth in the DS McAvoy series and he hopes it will be just as successful.

Set in the tightly-knit fishing community of Hessle Road in Hull, the story follows Aector McAvoy as he attempts to solve the mystery behind the death of an elderly lady, found frozen in her bathtub.

“The idea came to me when I heard somewhere about a flock of chickens who had been submerged in frozen water up to their necks one winter, and it killed them.

“I then got to work thinking of how I could create that gruesome image through writing.”

It appears that nowhere is safe from David’s imagination however, including our very own Northumberland, with David’s newest project, a work in progress, being set in Gilsland.

“It’s a big change for me,” said David. “I’ve gone from gritty and grey urban landscapes to chocolate-box villages and wide open spaces.

“Setting the novel in Northumberland allows me to bring disorder to the idyllic landscape, which I have to admit, I’m really looking forward to.”

Cold Bones will be published on January 24, 2019.