Lexie Conyngham is a historian living in the shadow of the Highlands. Her historical crime novels are born of a life amidst Scotland’s old cities, ancient universities and hidden-away aristocratic estates, but she has written since the day she found out that people were allowed to do such a thing. Beyond teaching and research, her days are spent with wool, wild allotments and a wee bit of whisky.
1. How did you get started writing?
I think I’ve been writing since I realised you could – I was always scribbling stories, and when I read Agatha Christie when I was eleven, I realised I wanted to write murder mysteries. I’ve never really stopped! I know I have to do other work as well, partly to continue finding inspiration, but writing is what I’ve always wanted to do.
2. What drew you to write a novel
Long-windedness! I find short stories very difficult. Occasionally I find an idea that fits best as a short story or a novella, and I do make myself write short stories regularly as a discipline, but it’s not my place. I did do the requisite awful poetry when I was a teenager, and I’ve tried my hand at radio scripts, but I feel most at home with what I read most – novels. I like complexity in a story and novels give me the room to bring that in.
3. Which writers past or present have influenced your style of writing?
I suppose most of the writers I’ve read have in some sense influenced my style one way or another, even if it’s thinking ‘Oh, no, I don’t want to do it that way’ or ‘I like that but I don’t think it’s me’. I would love to write like Kate Atkinson or Val McDermid, and I admire Jane Austen, Dorothy L. Sayers, Dorothy Dunnett and C.J. Sansom. Intelligence and wit always draw me in.
4. When you first started writing did you find it hard to get publisher interest?
I found an agent pretty quickly but we parted company soon after. It was due to illness but I found the whole experience a bit disheartening. This was back in 2011 when ebooks were just starting out, really. Two friends who had just bought their first Kindle basically locked me in their dining room until I agreed to try publishing via Amazon, and they helped me with the tech stuff which seemed pretty daunting then! I put my first two books up, and was rather surprised that people seemed to like them! I love being indie, having the power to choose my own covers and titles, and go with my own schedule, and though I sometimes find publicity daunting I’m prepared to do it for the sake of my independence!
5. There are many interesting characters in your Novel, do you have a particular favourite one?
I enjoyed writing the main character, Charlie, because he grows so much in the course of the novel. He thinks a trip to Aberdeen is the greatest adventure he’ll ever have, and he’s quite content with that – he has no idea how much further he’ll have to go.
6. What kind of research have you have to undertake for your Novel?
Of course I’ve been to Leith Hall and explored the area, as well as visiting Amsterdam, and taking a closer look at the part of Aberdeen where the duel happened. I visited the Tolbooth in Aberdeen which is a great little museum with a view of the very site of the duel. Down in Edinburgh I looked at all the papers that were brought together for the criminal case (some really interesting witness statements!), and went to several museums to look at clothing and household items of the period. I like maps showing me what the surroundings were like at the time – sometimes they’ve changed more than you might expect. And I read lots of books! I always put together a Pinterest board for a new book to collect images that inspire me so when I’m feeling adrift I can quickly take myself back to the right historical period.
7. Are the characters in your books based on any real life?
In the case of this book, yes, very much so. John Leith and his wife, mother and uncles were all real. Charlie, the main character, existed, but there was very little about him other than his witness statement. I could decide whether he was young or old, brave or timid, kind or cruel … When I use real characters I’m always a little nervous about messing up history, so it’s much more fun to fiddle at the edges of what we actually know.
8. Do you have a particular favourite scene in the book and why
I enjoyed writing Charlie’s arrival in Amsterdam, trying to see it through his eyes, a strange and confusing place, and also trying to see the old city past the way it appears now. Charlie is excited and scared, and doesn’t know where to go and whom to trust, but he’s still taking in all the new sights and sounds, learning his new surroundings, and worried that he will never be able to go home, too.
9. Do you see any of your characters personality in yourself and vice versa?
I suppose something of me slips into all the characters. I’m a bit like Charlie in that I’m a cat – I like to stay on my own territory at home. And if I had the chance I’d like to be as good a housekeeper as Harriot! She’s a good strong character, the kind of woman who can run her estate with competence and tell others what’s required. I’d like to think there’s a little bit of me in her, too … maybe.
10. If you can, would you give us a sneaky peak into any future novels you might planned.
I’m working on the twelfth in my Murray series at present, The Dead Chase, and I’ve reached 1820. I’ve given myself a particularly horribly complicated plot, which I’m regretting! It’s set in London, Brighton and Lewes in Sussex, so I’m also on relatively unfamiliar territory. It’s going very slowly!
11. If you had the opportunity to write a novel with any writer alive or dead, who would it be and why
Hm, interesting one! It would need to be someone I admired, obviously, and with whom I thought I would get on well … I think it might have to be Dorothy L. Sayers. We have a few interests in common, but I could learn a huge amount from her. I might not so much write with her as sit at her feet and wonder!
12. Do you have words of advice you can share with anyone who is intrested in writing a novel
The best advice you can give to a writer is ‘Write!’ Don’t just sit there dreaming of your acceptance speech for the Booker or the Golden Dagger – and don’t put it off till tomorrow. Write something every day. It doesn’t have to be good, but it does have to be down on the page. The more you do, the better you get, the closer you are to your dream.
Latest Novel
See, Charlie, it might be near twenty year since Culloden, but there’s plenty hard feelings still amongst the Jacobites, and no so far under the skin, ken?’
Charlie Rob has never thought of politics, nor strayed far from his Aberdeenshire birthplace. But when John Leith of Leith Hall takes him under his wing, his life changes completely. Soon he is far from home, dealing with conspiracy and murder, and lost in a desperate hunt for justice.
Inspiration for The Slaughter of Leith Hall:
A good friend of mine, from whom I had previously stolen a story about a skeleton, went to work as a guide at Leith Hall, a National Trust property in Aberdeenshire, and came across the story of John Leith, the laird in 1763, who was killed in a duel in Aberdeen. Though it looked very straightforward, the family had always had questions about the incident – why was the duel not properly organised? How had John, a kind and level-headed man, managed to fight with one of his best friends? How many shots had there really been? Why had the killer or killers threatened John’s servant? She thought it would make a great novel, and handed the idea to me on a plate, along with the loan of the printed family history. I was intrigued, and began to have a poke around to see what might actually have happened, and why, and The Slaughter of Leith Hall is the result.
Novels Written
The Murray of Letho Series:
Death in a Scarlet Gown
Knowledge of Sins Past
Service of the Heir
An Abandoned Woman
Fellowship with Demons
The Tender Herb
Death of an Officer’s Lady
Out of a Dark Reflection
A Dark Night at Midsummer (novella)
Slow Death by Quicksilver
Thicker than Water
A Deficit of Bones
The Hippolyta Napier Series:
A Knife in Darkness
Death of a False Physician
A Murderous Game
The Thankless Child
A Lochgorm Lament
The Orkneyinga Murders Series:
Tomb for an Eagle
A Wolf at the Gate
Dragon in the Snow
Standalones:
Jail Fever
Windhorse Burning
The War, The Bones and Dr. Cowie
Short Story Collections:
Thrawn Thoughts and Blithe Bits
Quite Useful in Minor Emergencies
Website: https://www.lexieconyngham.co.uk
Blog: https://murrayofletho.blogspot.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lexie-Conyngham/e/B008XH0YQ2/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_ebooks_1
THERE'S BEEN A MURDER 
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