The Infirmary (DCI Ryan Mysteries prequel)(87)
“Mind how you go,” Phillips said, with a catch in his voice. “They say, God and the Devil both walk on that island.”
“There’s only one way to find out.”
With that, Ryan stepped out of the car and into the crisp morning breeze, lifting his face to the salty wind. He slung a small weekend bag over his shoulder and, with a final wave for Phillips, set off towards the causeway. He paused to toe off his boots and let his feet sink into the sand, enjoying its texture against his skin. A number of wooden stakes had been erected at intervals across the causeway to guide the way for pilgrims and, across the expanse of sand, the island awaited.
He took the first step, following in the wake of countless others who had sought solace and solitude.
Phillips watched the tall, lone figure walking across the sand until he was little more than a shadow, a mirage in the rippling light as it glimmered and bounced off the distant waves, and wondered what he might find on the other side.
Time would tell.
DCI Ryan will return…
The Infirmary is the prequel to the DCI Ryan Mysteries series. Readers who are new to the series can follow Ryan’s story chronologically by reading Holy Island, which covers the events immediately after The Infirmary.
If you have already read the ten existing DCI Ryan books, and would like to be kept up to date with new releases from LJ Ross, please complete an e-mail contact form
AUTHOR’S NOTE
Since my debut novel, Holy Island, was first published in 2015, many people have asked to know a little more about what led DCI Ryan to seek sanctuary on the remote little Northumbrian island. I wrote another nine chronological books and explored the struggle between Ryan and his nemesis, ‘The Hacker’, over the course of those books, but the story of their first psychological duel was never fully told. This is, in part, because the prospect of writing a prequel story is quite daunting: having developed all the characters throughout the series, it is a challenge to step back in time to their fictional world as it would have been in 2014. Was the story important enough to tell? Ideas and storylines have been percolating over the past three years until the timing seemed to be right to reveal the world of DCI Ryan before experience had taught him caution.
Writing The Infirmary led me to rediscover parts of the city of Newcastle upon Tyne I was already familiar with but also revealed new and exciting discoveries such as the Victoria Tunnel which runs beneath the city from Leazes Park to the west all the way to the river at Ouseburn, to the east. Taking a tour of part of the tunnel (which has served several purposes over the years, including coal transportation and air raid shelter during the World Wars) was an eerie experience and allowed me to imagine all manner of scenes where Ryan might find himself trapped inside. By necessity, the storyline is a darker thriller than some of the books in the DCI Ryan series but is not, I hope, without humanity. As the friendship between Ryan and his co-workers develops, there are flashes of humour and sentiment to offset their daily grind. Likewise, their interactions with the ordinary people they are tasked to serve and protect reveal a fundamental compassion that underpins all they do.
There are ‘good’ and ‘bad’ people in the world and their employment takes many forms. In this fictional story, the antagonist has created an alternate personality in which people believe him to be kind and caring towards those who appear vulnerable. However, The Infirmary is a story about Good versus Evil and, without a truly ‘evil’ baddie, the climax of the story would carry far less weight.
In some quarters, there is an intellectualised debate raging over whether writers of crime fiction ought to create male characters whose aggression tends to focus on women. To some, this succeeds in painting women as perpetual victims. For my part, the choices I have made in this novel reflect reality: to acknowledge that women are (sadly) often victims of serious crimes such as rape or murder does not overlook the opposite scenario, nor is it intended to be reductive. A victim of crime is not the sum total of their experience; their character is much richer and broader, which is why DCI Ryan fights so hard on these pages to avenge their memory. It is equally true to say that deviant personalities and perpetrators of serious crime can belong to women and, indeed, I have written their characters in other books.
No doubt, I will explore another female character whose infamy rivals The Hacker in the coming years… Until then, it will suffice to say that The Infirmary is the story of Ryan’s personal journey to becoming the much-loved character he is now.
LJ Ross
January 2019
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Born in Newcastle upon Tyne, LJ Ross moved to London where she graduated from King’s College London with undergraduate and postgraduate degrees in Law. After working in the City as a regulatory lawyer for a number of years, she realised it was high time for a change. The catalyst was the birth of her son, which forced her to take a break from the legal world and find time for some of the detective stories that had been percolating for a while and finally demanded to be written.
She lives with her husband and young son in her beautiful home county of Northumberland.
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