Award-winning author sets new crime thriller in Northumberland

You Can Run tells of a group of armed mercenaries laying siege to a remote village in search of Alex Winter and his 15-year-old daughter, Ruby.

If the new thriller enjoys a fraction of the success of debut novel The Man On The Street and follow-ups One Way Street and Dead End Street, it’s going to make people wonder where exactly it’s set.

There was no problem with the trilogy which locates the action firmly in Newcastle, to the extent that fans can follow in the footsteps of homeless hero Jimmy Mullen and his down-at-heel friends.

But which village did Trevor have in mind when writing You Can Run?

“I tried very hard to find a real Northumberland village that worked,” said Trevor.

“I went to Morpeth Book Festival last year and threw the question out to the audience: if you were setting a book in rural Northumberland, what kind of things should be there?

“I had some lovely chats with local people who gave me some really good ideas so hopefully the story will resonate with the people of Northumberland.”

Trevor said that as part of his research he also stayed for a week in Snitter, using the village not far from Rothbury as a base while he went exploring ‘the wilds of Northumberland’.

But in the end, he decided his besieged village would have to be an amalgamation of several real-life places. Hence the fictional name, Coldburn.

Anyone who buys the book will get a clue as to where it’s supposed to be from the map on the inside cover.

Trevor first ventured into creative writing as a playwright with friend Ed Waugh.

But crime fiction was his first and enduring love and he switched to the genre after attending a writing course and then signing up to the first crime writing course at the University of East Anglia.

His fourth book, You Can Run, is set for publication on March 16.

In September, Trevor will be passing on tips to aspiring crime writers as a course leader at the Faber Academy, a renowned creative writing school which is branching out from London for the first time at The Common Room on Westgate Road, Newcastle.