Friday, August 17, 2018

Criminal Reinvention

I'm still hung up on this idea that you can 'reinvent' yourself, somehow completely transforming your life through some fundamental change in job or lifestyle.  It occurred to me that one way I could do this would be to write a best-selling novel.  Or even just a moderately selling one.  I could always try writing one of those crime novels featuring a quirky detective who investigates mysteries linked to their particular field of expertise.  You know the sort of thing I mean - the same idea also used to be popular as the basis for popular TV series: Lovejoy - the antiques detective, Pie in the Sky - the fat culinary detective, Rosemary and Thyme - the gardening detectives.  There are countless others. Back in the day, I had a notion to try and sell a series concept for 'The Snooker Playing Detective' to the BBC, as it seemed to be only niche sleuth they didn't already have.  But I digress.  Coming back to the subject of literary specialist detectives, I've recently finished reading the third and latest installment of Andrew Cartmel's ongoing 'Vinyl Detective' series, for which I have a soft spot.  There are the very epitome of the specialist detective, featuring mysteries centered around the world of rare vinyl records.

Perhaps, I mused, these could form the template for my own attempt to reinvent myself as a purveyor of such specialised crime novels.  Maybe I could come up with a detective who specialises in some area of esoteric knowledge of which I have some expertise.  Now, I don't know anything about record collecting and that niche has already been more than adequately filled, but I do know quite a bit about old model railways and toy trains.  Could that be the key to a successful series of crime novels: the 'Toy Train Detective'?  We could follow him as he attends toy train fairs in search vintage rolling stock, becoming, along the way, embroiled in model railway-related mysteries.  The problem is, of course, that there are very few items of vintage toy train stock which are really valuable enough to inspire crimes.  Certainly, I couldn't see anybody committing murder through the desire to possess a mint condition pre war Bassett-Lowke 'Flying Scotsman'.  I also can't think of any models produced in such small numbers that they now hold mythical status - not to the extent that someone would hire an expert 'Toy Train Detective' to track one down.  So, that's another idea for 'reinventing' myself out of the window.

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