Notes from a Doctor's Waiting Room

When I put up my plate as a young doctor, patients did not exactly queue at the door. I had a great deal of time and very little money, which is the classic condition for writing a first novel.

I modelled my detective’s methods on a teacher of mine in Edinburgh, who could tell a patient’s trade and travels at a glance before a word was spoken. It struck me that a man who could do that to a patient could do it to a criminal.

The practice is busier now, and I write in the evenings. But I am grateful to every empty afternoon of those years.