Thinking like a copper: Lisa Ellery on creating authentic police procedurals
Lawyer-turned-author Lisa Ellery returns to the world of crime with her new outback mystery, Hot Ground. This pacy new tale follows Detective Jessy Parkin as she investigates the disappearance of a gold prospector in Kalgoorlie.
In this interview, Lisa tells us about why she chose Kalgoorlie as the setting, how she bonded with her main character, and the research that goes into writing a police procedural when you don’t work for the police.
At times, this crime novel reads like a love letter to Kalgoorlie. Was that, in part, your intention?
Kalgoorlie is where I have lived and worked for nearly a quarter of a century. I love being part of the vibrant community there. I wanted to write about what I love about the place. People like to think of it as the wild west – bikies, skimpies and the like – but the reality couldn’t be more different. It’s full of vitality and opportunities, ambitious young people working hard to establish their businesses and careers, a closeknit community that wants to see all its members succeed, social sports, creative pursuits, culture, ethnically and in every other way diverse, old and new friends (all living not more than ten minutes’ drive away), a natural environment of breathtaking beauty and serenity. Everything you need is there. I wanted readers to see what I see there. I also wanted to represent what it’s really like to live there: the challenges for police and everyone else associated with the tyranny of distance, the frequent trips to Perth and back, the challenge of the desert environment – boiling in summer, freezing in winter, communication challenges. And the resourcefulness of those who survive and thrive there despite facing those challenges on a daily basis.
Why did you choose to follow Jessy Parkin to Kalgoorlie?
Well, that’s a double-barrelled question – why Jessy and why Kalgoorlie? I’ll start with a bit about my choice of protagonist. After finishing Private Prosecution, I felt as though I was done with Andrew Deacon. I’d followed him on his journey of enlightenment and because he was not usually a sleuth there wasn’t really anywhere further to take him. He will continue to pop up in my universe (and maybe feature one day when I write a courtroom drama) but I felt like it was time for a change. I contemplated whose head I wanted to try to get inside. Jessy seemed like the logical choice as I wanted to write crime and she was a police officer, but I hadn’t really bonded with her over the course of Private Prosecution. At the same time, I felt as though, with me being a lawyer, our lives were worlds apart. Nevertheless, I gave it a crack, starting the writing of Hot Ground from her perspective, and after a while Jessy and I began to get along. I’ve since learned that coppers have all the same pressures and anxieties as lawyers. I feel as if Jessy and I could definitely have been friends.
What kinds of research did you need to do to write this police procedural?
A lot! Like most (but not all) people, I tend to bowl through life having a working knowledge of what’s going on, but really not being an expert in any area except my own profession, making up or fudging over anything I don’t know for sure. But when you embark on a novel such as this, you can’t make stuff up. Every little thing you write about has to be accurate, authentic and plausible, and I have found that the majority of what I needed to know isn’t available using Google or ChatGPT. As a result, I have spent many hours speaking to people who know much more than me in many areas, including policing, the corporate mining world, prospecting past and present, Goldfields history, genealogy, station life. Plus trucks, planes, weapons, phones and radios, flora … the list goes on.
The most challenging one by far was policing. Having worked as a criminal lawyer quite a long time ago, I had a vague idea about how the police did their job. But readers don’t want to read what I’ve fudged or dreamed up after watching a few American TV shows. They want authenticity and detail, they want to learn something they didn’t already know. To not just familiarise myself with police procedure in Western Australia, but to really understand how the police manage their jobs on a day-to-day basis, the challenges they face, was a steep learning curve that was only possible with the tireless assistance of my dear friend Rob Kirby, a very experienced police officer who is now retired. Rob reckons I now think like a copper, which is quite the development. I have found that deep diving into others’ areas of expertise is truly one of the most enjoyable aspects of being an author.
Do you have any advice for crime writers who are just starting out?
My advice for crime writers is the same as I would offer to any writer. Write and keep on writing – if you want to write something good, you have to write something. Fundamentally, it’s preferable if you can write what you know. That’s not to say you won’t wind up researching a million different specialised areas when you’re writing crime, but in crime writing it really helps to have a good basic understanding of law or policing, or both, in the jurisdiction where your story is based. If you don’t know anything about either, don’t let it put you off, but be prepared to do a mountain of research to get it right.
Will we see Jessy Parkin again?
Absolutely! I am keen to write more from Jessy’s perspective. She’s fairly junior at this point in time so it will be exciting to accompany her as her career progresses and she is able to take on different challenges and ultimately a more leading investigative role.
Hot Ground is available now from all good bookstores and online.
