Simms City

Like his fictional protagonist, Detective Inspector Jon Spicer (introduced in Killing the Beasts, 2005), author Chris Simms lives just outside the northern English city of Manchester. Their mutual involvement with that mammoth metropolis lends Simms’ novels an air of authenticity that is a welcome balance against their sometimes gritty, more visceral elements. (One of his early standalone novels, 2004’s Pecking Order, featured a character having sex with a chicken, which put me off Kentucky Fried Chicken for life.) It doesn’t hurt his career, either, that he’s represented by über-agent Jane Gregory and published in the UK by Orion.

With the imminent release in Britain of Simms’ seventh novel, Hell’s Fire, I encouraged him to tell Rap Sheet readers a little about this work’s plot and inspiration. His response:

In Hell’s Fire, DI Jon Spicer is on a particularly easy trail to follow; the criminal he’s chasing leaves churches burning in his wake. But with the fourth attack, a badly burned corpse is found in the smoking ruins.

The novel looks at the decline of Christianity in this country, a phenomenon reflected in falling congregations and the boarding-up of many churches. Also of concern is what’s replacing the traditional Sunday service as people seek spiritual fulfillment of one sort or another. In recent years, New Age beliefs have become incredibly popular. Spiritual colleges are popping up all over the country--and Internet--where pupils can, for a fee, learn about such things as crystal-healing, tarot, or palmistry. Some even conduct séances where you can contact dead relatives through the (college-supplied) spirit medium.

Pagan religion is also enjoying a renaissance. Witchcraft--or Wicca as it’s now known--pre-dates Christianity and was ruthlessly stamped out as the church established itself in Britain.

Many in the Christian faith are still alarmed over the influence of anything magical. Vicars frequently speak out against the perniciousness of things such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer or even that sinister fellow, Harry Potter.

Of course, what they really fear is people exposing themselves to the forces of Satan. Many would agree their fears are well-founded--after all, there is no doubt [that] interest in the satanic is as strong now as it ever was. All you need do is listen to death metal music. Unfamiliar with this particularly morbid strain of metal? The band names give a good indication of what it’s all about: Abomination, Angelcorpse, Blasphemy, Fallen Christ, Infernum, Necromass, Rigor Mortis, Sodom, Ungod. Pretty music, it isn’t.

DI Spicer’s investigation into whom the dead person in the fourth church was draws him into a horrifying underworld--one where worship involves committing unspeakable acts. As [mathematician and religious philosopher] Blaise Pascal noted back in the 17th century, “Men never do evil so completely and cheerfully as when they do it from a religious conviction.”

Meanwhile, I see that Simms and his books are featured prominently at the Web site Manchester Confidential. According to site contributor Philip Hamer:

Chris spends three months researching his novels, and the entire gestation period takes a year--he writes them in long hand. “It’s vital to get the forensics right and the expert Ian Pepper is a fantastic source. There’s a lot of intriguing stuff about arson and its detection in my new book. You’ve got to be wary of the amazing advances in DNA because a crime can be solved so quickly these days that a crime writer wouldn’t be able to fill a page with his tale, let alone an entire novel.” As for authentic dialogue, Chris says that travelling on public transport and listening in to conversations is important to him.

His love for a girl from Marple, in Cheshire, brought Chris to the outskirts of Manchester. The Sussex-born Sociology graduate is proud that themes, rather than characters, dominate his work and says that Spicer is emphatically not a Mancunian Rebus, the Edinburgh detective created by Ian Rankin. “There is little cynicism in Spicer, and he is younger, and he has none of the world weariness or complicated love life of Rebus,” he says. “My Spicer novels have permitted me to explore so many topics that interest me: consumer and car culture, the way we treat animals, plastic surgery and terrorism have all been the topics that have galvanised my work.”

If all that doesn’t persuade you to pick up a copy of Hell’s Fire (which is due out in American bookstores come July), then perhaps it’s worth noting as well that the British book chain Waterstone’s last year selected Simms as one of Britain’s 25 young authors to watch--an honor he shared with Nick Stone (King of Swords), Louise Welsh (The Bullet Trick), and Richard Morgan (Black Man/Thirteen).