Crime Pays For Bermudian Author
Deborah Middleton, the former head of the Bermuda International Business Association (BIBA), has gone from writing speeches about hedge funds to blood-soaked whodunits, recently publishing the second of her island-based mysteries featuring Chief Inspector Leon (Buddy) Burgess of the Bermuda Police Serious Crimes Squad.
Now living in Mallorca off the Spanish coast, Bermudian Ms Middleton — who headed the Middleton Torrance public relations and marketing agency before joining BIBA in 2002 –said her Bermuda-based police procedurals “Square Snapper” (2008) and the newly published “Never Too Dead To Talk” have stood out in a crowded field precisely because the stories unfold against an authentic Bermuda backdrop which is exotic and unfamiliar to international readers.
“To be successful as a writer you need to differentiate your work from other books of the same genre,” she said. “There are so many wonderful mystery writers with strong characters and story lines. My characters are ordinary people doing a tough job. They are not specialised profilers, ex-Special Forces members or Hollywood ‘types’. I therefore had to find a different hook.
“I found such a hook in the island of Bermuda itself, from where I come. It has a vast supply of natural beauty and charm. It’s only twenty-one square miles in size yet has one of the highest per capita incomes in the world. What gives the island an extra layer of interest is the sort of ‘town and gown’ contradiction between sophisticated international tourist and financial centre, and the locals’ sometimes ‘big village’ approach to life.
“This allows me to tap into aspects of island culture that are unique, enabling me to exploit the human dimension for a more compelling read. I am always gratified when my readers describe my books as ‘authentic’ or say I have captured the essence of life in Bermuda along with a good story. When I can include some action in my new home of Mallorca, then the backdrop to the novel becomes even more attractive.”
Ms Middleton retired from BIBA — now Business Bermuda — in 2006 and moved to Mallorca to embark on a literary career. Inspired by Colin Dexter’s Inspector Morse series — in which the historic British university city of Oxford is as much a character as Inspector Morse and his police team — she intended from the outset to make Bermuda more than just a lush semi-tropical setting for Chief Inspector Burgess’ adventures. And she appears to have succeeded. The novelist has been praised by her toughest critics — fellow Bermudians – for “capturing the essence of Bermuda in a way that informs and intrigues.”
In “Never too Dead to Talk” Ms Middleton has continued highlighting aspects of Bermudian life and culture — so much so she now has a Frequently Asked Questions section at her website where she provides answers to such reader queries as “What is a Kiskadee?”, “What is an Elephant Beer?” and “What are Sherry Peppers?”
Her first novel included scenes which took place at Cup Match, The Country Squire Inn and North Rock Brewing. In “Never Too Dead to Talk”, even though writing about an international criminal conspiracy, she takes time to describe the Bermuda Day Race and to mention the works of well-known local artists such as Desmond Fountain, Sheilagh Head and Jonah Jones.
While foregrounding Bermuda and its cuture, the Inspector Burgess books — praised as “well-written, well-paced and with gripping storylines” — don’t economise on traditional thriller action and mystery, either. In his debut outing “Square Snapper”, when the body of a brutally murdered girl washes ashore Detective Inspector Burgess discovers the killing is only the first in an epidemic of suspicious deaths that sorely tests the resources of the Bermuda Police — and the patience of the Bermuda Government. Parallel deaths in Florida lead the Bermuda and Dade County Police to work together to unravel the hierarchy of a major drug trafficking ring.
And in the new book “Never Too Dead To Talk”, Chief Inspector Burgess is back solving a particularly dangerous case involving pornography and murder that points to the Russian mafia and creates a new Bermuda triangle of crime: Moscow-Mallorca-Bermuda.
Prior to promoting Bermuda in her mystery novels, Ms Middleton sold Bermuda as a financial centre in her role as the globe-trotting chief executive of BIBA, an association of more than 120 international companies operating from here. “In those days, my writing was limited to the occasional speech and business articles about topics such as hedge funds,” she said. “There’s little scope for creativity in those.
“However, I do have a marketing background and in the past have written copy for advertisements and websites that, obviously, requires a completely different writing skill-set. Having said that, creative writing is not for the faint-hearted. I have such admiration for authors, such as Ian Rankin, who can build a character through dialogue alone. That takes tremendous skill.”
The Inspector Burgess books are available at Brown & Co., the Bermuda Bookstore and on-line at Amazon.com.
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