Why Harriet Steel chose Sri Lanka

17th July 2020

I imagine that something I have in common with most writers is that I aim to write books that I’d like to read, so, as I’m a fan of detective novels that tend towards the traditional style, that’s the genre I write in. I like my villains to be sufficiently villainous to make a plot interesting, but I don’t enjoy books with a lot of graphic violence.

Royal palms at the Botanic Gardens in Peradeniya

A vividly evoked setting is important in any book, but in the detective genre, I think it’s particularly so. However engaging the characters and ingenious the workings of the plot, the underlying theme – a crime is committed; detective solves crime – could easily become monotonous without one. I hasten to add, the setting doesn’t have to be picturesque; frequently the nature of a story dictates the opposite, but readers, or at least this one, need to feel they have been transported there.

Tea plantations

Before turning to crime with The Inspector de Silva Mysteries, I wrote historical novels, but creating a detective series was a project to which I had long given thought. I’d considered a lot of different settings. One was the cathedral city of Salisbury where I grew up. It’s a beautiful medieval place that I love. But were there already too many detective novels with similar backgrounds? I feared that might be the case. Then there was Norfolk where my family often spent time when I was young. My mental picture of my detective chasing down murderers under those huge skies, against a backdrop of lonely marshes haunted by the cry of the curlew was appealing but again, plenty of writers had been there before me. Eventually, I decided that I had to find somewhere outside of my former experience, but it must be somewhere I would love enough to spend a lot of my creative time there.

Temple at Polonnaruwa

When I visited Sri Lanka, I knew I had found the place, for I fell in love with the country straight away. It’s been described as the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, and it certainly is a jewel of an island, with marvellous scenery, abundant flora and fauna, and delicious food. The so-called Cultural Triangle, which includes the three former capitals of Kandy, Anuradhapura, and Polonnaruwa, also boasts a wealth of temples and archaeological sites. Then there’s the Hill Country, the tea growing area. Its lush green landscapes can’t fail to delight, and the area is full of echoes of the days when Sri Lanka was the British colony of Ceylon. The real, British-influenced town of Nuwara Eliya inspired my fictional Nuala in The Inspector de Silva Mysteries.

Coming as a tourist, Sri Lanka has a laid-back atmosphere that I found very appealing: the perfect fit for the traditional-style detective novels with an exotic flavour that I wanted to write. Extra time in lockdown has meant that an eighth book will soon be added to the series!

Harriet Steel

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