Why focus a series of novels around the police investigations involving the Yorkshire Ripper?
Again, I was born in Dewsbury in 1967 and didn’t leave West Yorkshire until 1987 (and then only to Manchester). The crimes of the Yorkshire Ripper and the police hunt for the person (or persons) responsible lasted from 1975 until 1981 and, for me, cast a shadow over that entire place and time. I believe you should write about things that matter, about things you care for, things you know – what matters to me, what I care for, and what I know – is the West Yorkshire of my childhood which, unfortunately, was also the Yorkshire of the Ripper.
