MY INSPIRATION: Trevor Wood

North East author Trevor Wood unveils his new novel You Can Run, a stand-alone thriller set in a remote Northumberland village, this month. The author looks set to continue his successful trajectory which saw his debut novel, The Man on the Street, win awards including the Crime Writers’ Association’s John Creasy New Blood Dagger and Crimefest Specsavers Debut Novel of the Year. It was also shortlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and has been optioned for television by World Productions, the makers of Line of Duty. Follow-up sequel, One Way Street and the final book in the trilogy, Dead End Street was released in 2022.

Here, Trevor tells us more about his inspiration behind his work…

“One of the best things about being a writer is that you can put the world to rights. Out in the real world we watch, practically helpless, as those in power get away with murder, quite literally in some cases. They wring their hands, disclaim responsibility and cast the blame on others. Or when caught bang to rights they thrust their families in front of the cameras, claim there’s been a terrible misunderstanding and carry on regardless. A systemic abuse of power with impunity seems to have infected the higher echelons of society across the world and there appears to be little we can do about it. Time and again in recent years we’ve seen senior politicians and advisers (Hi Dominic) doing whatever they like without consequences. Not in my book. In my book there will be payback; the underdogs can fight back and they can win. And I can even throw in a yappy, white-haired dog that no one likes and call him (drumroll)…. Boris.

“In You Can Run, when the reclusive young heroine Ruby is being hunted by a gang of armed men for reasons she can’t even begin to understand she has to seek the help of the villagers she has previously avoided like the plague including the neighbourhood busybody, a disreputable poacher, the village drunk and the local school’s troublemaker. It’s been described as ‘the Thursday Murder Club meets Reservoir Dogs.’

“In some ways it’s a continuation from my previous books which also saw the underdogs coming out on top against the odds. The Jimmy Mullen trilogy, which began with the CWA New Blood Dagger winner The Man on the Street, was firmly set in Newcastle’s homeless community. The homeless are regularly demonised and I wanted to humanise them by examining the myriad ways people can end up living on the streets despite their obvious capabilities, in the context of a crime novel. When Jimmy and his friends are confronted with issues that society is failing to deal with or crimes against them that the police can’t or won’t deal with they take matters into their own hands and solve their own problems, sometimes ingeniously. Not for nothing was Jimmy nicknamed ‘Sherlock Homeless.’”

Trevor is making several appearances in the area to talk about You Can Run. Catch him at Waterstones in Durham on Saturday 18^th March at 10am; Drake the Bookshop, Stockton on Saturday 25^th March at 7pm; Forum Books, Corbridge on Tuesday 28^th March at 7.30pm; and The Accidental Bookshop, Alnwick on Wednesday 29^th March at 7.30pm.