Crime Fiction Killing the Invisible by Keith Dixon

Detective Inspector Walter Watts tries not to let personal feelings interfere with the needs of his job.
But when a young girl is found murdered on a barren stretch of wasteland in Porthaven, a tourist destination for thousands of visitors, he finds he can’t insulate himself from the feelings the girl’s death provokes.
Soon his complicated private and public lives are intermingled, and he must decide what is more important to him—solving the crime or keeping his job.

He realises there can only be one answer. The problem is that he doesn’t know which it is.

Keith Dixon recently spent some time with The Big Thrill, discussing his latest thriller, KILLING THE INVISIBLE.

Which took shape first: plot, character, or setting?

In this instance, it was an idea for the plot—the murder of someone who seemed to have no identifiable existence and was therefore almost ‘invisible’. As I began to write, however, I realised that the consciousness of the protagonist—a police detective—was central to how the story was told, and his perception of the crime could be a powerful social commentary.

Keith Dixon

What attracts you to this book’s genre?

I’m a great admirer of writers who are able to create compelling stories—usually allied to a crime of some sort—but also invent characters who are complex, human, and funny. It’s the mixture of plot and character that I particularly like in the best crime novels.

What was the biggest challenge this book presented? What about the biggest opportunity?

This was the invention of a new style for me—one that was very close to the protagonist’s consciousness. This led to a change in the way I wrote the prose and explored the mind of the detective as he investigated the crime. I wanted the reader to see and feel from his perspective, not from a typical third-person point of view. So the prose can be both curt and oblique but also funny as the main character has a sardonic take on life.

Keith Dixon was born in Yorkshire and grew up in the Midlands. He’s been writing since he was thirteen years old in a number of different genres: thriller, espionage, science fiction, literary fiction. Two-time winner of the Chanticleer Reviews CLUE First in Category award for Private Eye/Noir novel, he’s the author of ten full-length books and one short-story in the Sam Dyke Investigations series and two other non-crime works, as well as two collections of blog posts on the craft of writing. His new series of Paul Storey Thrillers began in 2016, and there are now three books in the series. His new trilogy, set in the fictional town of Porthaven, will be published from January 2023.

To learn more about the author, please visit his website.