Hexham as a crime scene

 

Is atmosphere of place important in crime writing?

I’ve just finished the latest Rebus and I wonder if I’m the only one who checks the locations on my ipad as I read? I used to know Edinburgh fairly well. As a young person I linked the city to Mary Queen of Scots and thought it terribly romantic. A cousin of mine, only a few years older, remarked dourly that it was a grim, dirty city. A friend who trained as a town planner did his work experience in Edinburgh and took me to see some of the desperate council estates that tourist rarely see.

If you read Ian Rankin’s books, and I own most of them, then Edinburgh is revealed in splendid misery. The town itself seems to breed the crimes that go on inside its buildings and has done for centuries. The history reeks of witchcraft, murder, grave robbers, back stabbers and their stories seem to rise out of the sooty stones of the city.

So yes, I think place is important and I’m wondering if Hexham is appropriate as a setting for murder. Has there ever been a murder in Hexham? It seems there has. Records of murder in the twelfth century, and more through the ages right up until Holly Newton died in January this year. I doubt there’s anything I can do will to make the pretty little market town of Hexham seem as grim as Edinburgh. There are ancient buildings, such as the Old Gaol, built in 1333 from stones taken from the Roman site at Corbridge. Surely those stones have memories? Maybe they can be made to give them up...