Scarborough writer Kate Evans' first crime novel A Wake of Crows, set in the town, hits the shelves

The author, who lives in the town with her husband Mark Vesey, is behind A Wake of Crows, the first in the three-book series featuring DC Donna Morris.

Her publisher, Constable, liked the idea of a novel Kate had submitted but asked for a different protagonist.

“I had just gone through a nightmare peri-menopause culminating in a hysterectomy. It didn’t seem to me that there are many peri-menopausal detectives in fiction out there, so DC Donna Morris was born,” said Kate.

“I don’t want to give too much away about the plot– but a chance meeting I had when I was 14 in Krakow also gave me one of the threads in the story.”

DC Donna Morris is a probationer and has chosen to come to Scarborough to be close to her daughter.

A Wake of Crows interweaves with a story about communist East Germany. The series is also charting her journey which will include re-assessing her life choices and past.

The publishers did like the setting and loved the way Kate wrote about the town and the sea. “They liked the way I take time to create a sense of place. I love Scarborough, its landscape and its mix of peope.

“There are so many different bits to it – bits that are elegant, bits that are run down,” said Kate, who also brings in spy station Irton Moor into the plot.

“I adore the sea in all its moods. Plus there are the moors and the wolds. I enjoy finding new ways to describe the environment. And I like to bring it in to reflect what is going on for the characters or in the plot.

The title – A Wake of Crows – comes from an image of crows gathering in the trees in Raincliffe Woods.

Kate has been writing fiction, non-fiction and poetry since she was 19. A trained psychotherapeutic counsellor, she is interested in the connection between creativity and mental wellbeing.

She has an MA in creative writing from Sussex University and has taught creative writing.

The second novel in the DC Morris series, Drowning Not Waving – the title purposely echoes the Steve Smith poem – will be published next month and the third is due out next year.

A Wake of Crows is available in all formats and in paperback at Scarborough Waterstones.