Meet me in Malmö
Ewan Strachan is a second-rate journalist working for a third-rate publication in Newcastle. His unfulfilled career is given a potential boost when he meets a one-time friend from university who is appearing at a film festival in Edinburgh. Mick Roslyn is now an acclaimed movie director based in Sweden, married to the glamorous leading lady of most of his films. Mick invites Ewan to ‘Meet me in Malmö’.
On arrival in Malmö, however, Ewan makes a shocking discovery – the lifeless corpse of Roslyn’s wife. She has been strangled.
The Skåne County Police are called in to investigate the most sensational murder in Sweden since the death of Prime Minister Olof Palme in 1986. The investigating team includes the attractive, divorced, mother-of-one, Inspector Anita Sundström.
Ewan is deeply shaken and his world is about to be turned upside down – he suddenly becomes the investigating team’s prime suspect. Is Ewan their killer or is he an innocent caught up in a wider plot?
Anita Sundström tries to find the answers that will lead her to the top of Scandinavia’s highest building, before one final twist. It’s murder in Malmö.
Meet me in Malmö is published by Robert Hale Ltd.
Where to buy
Meet me in Malmö is only available via the Internet. It can be purchased from the following sites:
Why Sweden?
I’ve been visiting Sweden regularly for the last ten years as my eldest son lives over there. In recent years his home has been Malmö. Through him I met a couple of police detectives, who have become firm friends. They helped to inspire me. Interestingly, both have worked out of the Ystad police station which is where Henning Mankell sets his popular Kurt Wallander novels. Originally, Meet me in Malmö was based on an idea I had for a film script but then I decided to turn it into a novel
Having read a number of Scandinavian crime novels (particularly Swedish), I thought that it would be a different approach to introduce my Swedish detective and Malmö through the eyes of a British character, an outsider. It’s a basic introduction to Sweden, as home-grown Swedish writing – just as crime writing from any other country - assumes a certain degree of local knowledge and cultural understanding in its readers. I have attempted to fill in some of the gaps.
I am now working on a follow-up novel featuring Anita Sundström, provisionally entitled Murder in Malmö.
The author
I was born in Edinburgh and brought up in Durham. My family originated from the Isle of Skye, where my Viking ancestors settled after one of their many raids. Hence the name Torquil, which is Scandinavian.
I was briefly a teacher and failed insurance salesman before becoming an advertising copywriter. I worked in agencies in Birmingham, Glasgow and Newcastle. I also spent five years with the local Thomson newspaper group in Newcastle, which gave me the background for Ewan Strachan’s character in the novel.
Since 2000, I have worked as a freelance copywriter – Words That Torq - and divide my time between Cumbria, where I live with my wife, Sue, and two days a week in the North East of England, where many of my advertising/design clients are based. Copywriting is still my day job, so if you need any brochures, websites or scripts writing, please don’t hesitate to contact me at torq@wordsthattorq.co.uk
Other writing
In recent years I have been commissioned to write a couple of feature-length film scripts. One of them, Sanctuary, a supernatural thriller, is currently with a production company, as is a TV comedy drama entitled Et tu, Brian? The others wait patiently for potential backers.
I have written a humour book – Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow – which I hope will make it onto bookshop shelves one day.