Wise Words: Effie Merryl
The crime-writer Effie Merryl’s life and career has had some challenging twists and turns to match any of those in her gripping stories.
Her latest novel, Maman, published by Wire is domestic noir and explores motherhood, truth and justice. It packs an emotional punch and its authenticity shines through, drawing on Effie’s vast experience of policing.
Effie’s journey to becoming an author started as a child in Hartlepool, where she loved going to the library and enjoyed books like Enid Blyton’s tales, where mysteries were solved. She was such an avid reader the library staff regularly let her go over the 10 book a week limit.
She said: “When I was about 12 I moved on to Stephen King and Agatha Christie. What I loved about their books was finding out why people do things and their motivation not being black and white.
“I had the ambition to become an English teacher during my A levels but my parents had to move away so I needed to get a job to support myself. After a short while working as a typist I thought I would enjoy the police, and solving real life mysteries, so applied to forces all over the country. The Met in London offered me a job and I moved to London on my own when I was 19.
“When I wrote statements they would often run to five pages where a lot of police officers tended to write one or two. I included as much detail as possible and this meant the barristers in court had plenty to inform them about people’s state of mind, for example, to help ensure a fair trial. I took the same care with them as I do with my creative writing.
“My patch was London’s East End at first, then I was transferred to the West End and I was policing areas like Soho and Mayfair. By this time, I had made steady progression and was promoted to a plain clothes officer in CID. I am particularly proud of being part of the team that created the first vulnerable violence unit in the country, which was then used as an example for other forces. It also involved child protection work which inspired my Maman storyline about the need to safeguard children.”
Effie’s role at the Met was really satisfying but family circumstances meant she had to move back to Hartlepool and transferred North. After a difficult case it was hard to continue in the environment she found herself.
Difficulties also arose for Effie as she was diagnosed with Ehlers Danos Syndrome, a connective-tissue disorder which can life-threatening. She made the difficult decision to leave the police on medical grounds but ensured all her knowledge about children and families was not wasted by setting up a successful childcare business. It won awards and was held up as an exemplar in team development, inclusivity, and diversity by national peers.
A move to Scotland followed where her love writing was reignited. She began writing short stories and achieved her dream of studying for, and then being awarded, an Open University Open degree with modules of social sciences and creative writing.
All the creative hard work also paid off as at the Bloody Scotland crime festival in 2012 she won the Pitch Perfect prize for a novel idea called She’s Not There.
During Covid’s lockdowns she was able to finish this book, a police procedural with a female lead protagonist, Kat Dubois. It was initially printed in 2023 and was re-printed by Wire Books earlier this year. Book two in this series, Last Train Through Pitlochry, is currently being written. It will be published in September 2024.
Effie explained she had sent out She’s Not There to a couple of publishers with no success but met Rob Parker, who owns Wire Books at the Harrogate Crime Festival and he agreed to publish her. Her standalone crime thriller, Maman, was published in April and is being well-received.
She said: “What I think is so satisfying about crime reading and writing is the unexpected, creating and solving a mystery and getting into a character’s head. This emotional connection is most important to me when I’m developing a story.
“My advice to aspiring authors is what was given to me. The only unsuccessful writer is the writer that stops writing.”
The icing on the cake for Effie came this year when she was on stage at the Cromarty Crime Festival being promoted as an author after attending the event in the audience.
Her favourite crime writers are Ian Rankin, for his first-class, hard-boiled police procedural novels, Stephen King, for his great writing and Louise Beech, who writes from the heart with emotionally striking stories.
She is currently 40k words into a new detective series where the investigator is using genetic research.
The Stand-Up Mam has funny family stories. Do you have one to share?
When my youngest daughter was 10 she asked my husband what a prostitute was? He carefully explained, without being too graphic, to which she replied, I thought that was a protestant!