Hi everyone. Again I’m delighted to be handing over my blog as part of the Spring Reading Week. Today I welcome author Lee Cockburn who is going to share with us some of the inspiration for the characters in her book, PorcelainL Flesh of Innocents. First of all, here is what the book is about.
The Official Book Blurb
Detective Sergeant Taylor Nicks is back and in charge of tracking down a sadistic vigilante, with a penchant for torturing paedophiles, in this unsettling crime thriller by a real-life police sergeant.
High-powered businessmen are turning up tortured around the city of Edinburgh with one specific thing in common — a sinister double life involving pedophilia. Leaving his ‘victims’ in a disturbing state, the individual responsible calls the police and lays bare the evidence of their targets’ twisted misdemeanours to discover, along with a special memento of their own troubled past — a chilling calling card. Once again heading the investigation team is Detective Sergeant Taylor Nicks, along with her partner Detective Constable Marcus Black, who are tasked not only with tracking the perpetrator down but also dealing with the unusual scenario of having to arrest the victims for their own barbarous crimes. But with the wounded piling up the predator’s thirst for revenge intensifies and soon Nicks discovers that she is no longer chasing down a sinister attacker but a deadly serial killer.
Vivid, dark and deeply unsettling Porcelain: Flesh of Innocents is the perfect next read for serious crime and police thriller fans.
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Without further ado I’ll hand you over to Lee.
The Inspiration Behind My Characters.
Being in the Police, all of the characters have to be fictional, and that is why the two main ones Taylor Nicks and Marcus Black are literally aesthetically perfect, very pleasing to the eye, a visual feast for both men and women, but I made sure their characters were very different, and made sure the perfection of one was only skin deep.
Taylor is a desirable woman, tall, athletic, intelligent and gay, she is aware that she is attractive and finds other people’s attraction to her very hard to resist. I think this is quite interesting as a character, because Taylor has a good and kind heart, which was broken badly once before, which book three will address. He enjoys female company, which ends up being to her detriment as her infidelity hurts those around her. As a reader, you are willing her to do the right thing, but also enjoy reading about when she doesn’t.
Marcus, I wanted the male character to almost be too good to be true, handsome, muscular and popular, a clean cut family man, somebody many women can only dream of. I would look up to him and respect him myself, he has good values, he is kind, caring and he is incredibly efficient and competent at his job, always striving to be better, and determined to get the right result.
People say my characters are stereotypical, really?, I don’t think so, I’ve never met anyone like them myself, although I’d like to. I enjoy writing about them and what they get up to and I hope the readers do too.
You ask what my inspiration was, I’m not sure there was any inspiration, just a couple of good coppers that I thought people would like, and that they’d get to share the ups and downs of their lives, and their most intimate encounters.
The other characters, the ones on the periphery are also meant to be endearing, Fran, Kay, Brooke, again attractive, but filled with individuality and normal human weaknesses, except Taylor’s boss, who is just unpleasant in every way, which I hope is portrayed that way.
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Thanks Lee. They certainly sound like interesting characters you’ve created there. Porcelain: Flesh Of Innocents is available to purchase now from the following retailers:
About the author
Lee Cockburn has worked for Police Scotland for sixteen years including as a police sergeant in Edinburgh for seven years and also as a public order officer. Before joining the force, she played for Scotland Women’s rugby team for fifteen years, earning over eighty caps for the Scottish ladies and British Lionesses teams. She also swam competitively for twelve years, successfully representing Edinburgh at the age of fifteen in the youth Olympics in Denmark in 1984.
Lee lives in Edinburgh with her civil partner Emily and their two young sons Jamie and Harry. Her first book Devil’s Demise was published by Clink Street Publishing November 2014.
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