Steph McGovern samples a life of crime
The broadcaster’s first novel is out soon
It seems everyone’s got a crime novel in them, especially if they work in TV. Richard Osman probably didn’t blaze a trail but his success must have inspired others.
Next to dip their toe in the murky water is Middlesbrough-born presenter Steph McGovern whose debut, Deadline, is published by Pan Macmillan on July 3 (and is available to pre-order now).
On the back of the free sampler - picked up (quite deliberately) in The Accidental Bookshop in Alnwick - established North East crime writer Ann Cleeves offers an endorsement: “Entertaining and delightfully authentic…”
Steph credits Ann, who she admits is a friend, although “brutally honest”, with giving her the confidence to press on with a project begun during lockdown when “writing became my sanity”.
She’d expected it to remain a hobby. Although she’d always loved reading and interviewing authors, and had enjoyed mulling over imaginary crime scenarios with mates, Steph insists she’d been “too intimidated” to have a crack at authorship herself.
Then Ann delivered her verdict – “you can write” – and Steph was “blown away”.
The ‘what if?’ at the heart of Steph’s book (she says she heard a favourite crime writer, Harlen Coben, say he got the ideas for most of his books by constantly asking himself that question) is that you’re live on TV and you find your child has been kidnapped.
When TV reporter Rose, in the middle of interviewing one of the country’s most powerful men, hears an unfamiliar voice in her ear, she knows something’s wrong. Her earpiece has been hacked and the fate of her family is at stake.
Steph, hoping we like it (and urging us not to tell her if we don’t because her “ego is too fragile”), says: “As well as giving you a peek behind the scenes of telly, it’s also a story that acknowledges and shines a light on the people who society often underestimates, with northern humour at its core”.