The emerging trend of Manc Noir

About this time seven years ago I had my debut novel published.?

It was a dark comic thriller set in Alderley Edge about a prize idiot called Roger Cashmore who had more money than sense.?

Called 40 By 40, it was primarily a send-up of the whole dodgy business scene of Cheshire bling, and how it rubs alongside the footballer’s wives and shady figures in organised crime.?

I’m really proud to have done it, I’m not going to be falsely modest about that. I thought it was a good first effort and I was generally pleased with the reception. The reviews in the press were all really positive, I got to the final of a first time writer’s prize called Pulp Idol and I had some interest in developing it for telly.?

Looking back it could have, should have, been so much bigger. It sold out a limited print run by a niche publisher in the Peak District run by a top guy called Stuart Wilkin . But I wasn’t exactly batting off the agents and major publishers.

I think I’ve worked out why.?

Novels need to be part of a popular type, to fit alongside something else that is successful.?Think of all those books at the airport bookshop that look just like a Jack Reacher book by the author Lee Child. The publishing industry really likes to ride a wave just as music does.

I knew this of course, having taken some advice from Jane Costello who has been a successful author of several ‘chick lit’ novels.

My problem was the wave of comic thrillers has gone. In a world of algorithms and book trade marketing it was time to pivot, long before I did.

The trend is for more dark and less comic. I’ve also noticed that popular authors like Tony Parsons and Chris Brookmyre have had to adapt their style to be much more violent and to delve into crime and punishment. Tony’s novels used to be centred on an emotionally fraught single father who works in TV. Now the main character is a tense single dad who is also a maverick cop not afraid to throw a few punches in the pursuit of justice.

Joseph Knox is a fantastic literary writer, but his best stories are about a Manchester detective gone rogue. Having established himself with a trio of hard-hitting potboilers he’s had the smarts to do something clever with his most recent novel True Crime Story.

Last week I finished reading The Ballad of Hanging Lees, the final part of David Nolan’s trilogy set in the dark triangle of Oldham, the Dark Peak and Saddleworth. Like the books Black Moss and Mermaid’s Pool before it, his latest tale brings together the stories of the first two in a really clever way interlinking with noncery, the Strangeways prison riot and GMP malevolence. They are all firmly part of an emerging trend of Manc Noir, every bit as raw and real as Scandi Noir or anything by Harlan Coben.

The central character is a journalist, but the bleakness of the moors and the foreboding local reservoirs also play a fairly important part of the story.

David Nolan also knows what he’s talking about and has taken good advice; Neil Summers was a consultant on Mermaid’s Pool on certain details of the 1989 rave scene. And David also wrote a compelling book about the notorious child abuser Alan Morris which gave him knowledge and insight about what goes on in such a historic abuse case.?

I can see all three books making brilliant TV dramas, far more gritty than the Coben adaptations that were filmed around the North West, and we can help him have far better music.

These stories feel part of something, they touch a cultural nerve and they rattle along with real pace and energy. I wish David well, he’s a great writer and top bloke and I’m not envious of his success at all.?

However, I know what to do next time. Stick to what I know, but make it darker and like two of the writers I’ve mentioned, change my name a bit to give it some punch. Coming soon, Death on the Edge by Mick Taylor.?

David Nolan's The Ballad of Hanging Lees is available now from Fahrenheit Press.