The multi-award-winning author talks about bringing lesbian representation to the crime genreĀ and her new novel The Longest Goodbye
BY MARI HANNAH
As I approach the publication of The Longest Goodbye, the ninth Kate Daniels title, Iāve found myself reflecting on where storytelling has taken us, how much further we might go, and how our lives mirror each other. It began with the creation of a tough and tenacious murder detective, a woman with a seductive mix of ambition and vulnerability based loosely on my civil partner, a cop. I gave Kate a complex backstory, a journey even more complicated, as mine was about to become when I tried to find a home for her. Unlike Kate, I was naive and didnāt see a brick wall comingā¦
Time and again I faced rejection, unable to find a publisher willing to take us on. Just as Kate was operating in a male-dominated environment, I was attempting to join an exclusive club with an impenetrable door keeping us out. If publishers perceive a risk, itās easier to say no than yes. That goes for all writers, but for me, Kate was that risk. I wasnāt having that. And just as sheād shown the strength of character to survive as the head of a busy Murder Investigation Team, I kept the faith. Lesbian representation in fiction is important to me. We deserved a place at the publishing table. Nothing less would do.
Throughout her career, Kate has been constantly on guard. Revealing her true self, and with that her sexuality, was not an option she wanted to take. I was waving mine at commissioning editors, demanding that they open the door ā eventually, they did.
In the first book, The Murder Wall, Kate is driven by a need to solve an undetected case, but beneath all of that is a shadowy past that sets her apart from her contemporaries. Iāve drip-fed that through eight titles as the series progressed, some of it grounded in truth. Early in her career, Kate had witnessed gay officers marginalised by vindictive colleagues, and it stayed with her.
Kateās ambition wouldnāt let her risk exclusion. Her relationships never took place in her own backyard, none that mattered. Casual sex with women from other cities offered her anonymity; women sheād met in nightclubs, using a false name, and hiding her professional identity. Conflicted by the deceit, she struggled with the impossible conundrum of keeping up appearances at work, while daring to dream that she might find someone to share her life with. Until one day, Jo Soulsby blew into her life at a party, a woman she fell for in a big way. In real life, that woman was me.
Now, eleven years on from making her debut, Kateās story is in development with Sprout Pictures & Atlantic Nomad. Together, weāve won multiple awards, including the DIVA Wordsmith of the Year 2019, the accolade Iām most proud of. To see Kate reach bestseller status is a dream come true. Policing and publishing may have moved on, but weāre not done yet. Weāre still fighting, still pushing boundaries that are real, not imagined, and still aiming for the top.
The Longest Goodbye will be published by Orion on January 18, 2024.
Multi-award-winning, bestselling author/screenwriter Mari Hannah is the creator of the Kate Daniels series of police procedurals, the Ryan & OāNeil and Stone & Oliver series. She has written 15 books since 2010 and her work has been sold around the world and translated into other languages.
Both Mari and her partner have experience working in the criminal justice system; her partner is a former murder detective. Mariās career as a Probation Officer was cut short following an assault on duty. She then transitioned to writing.
Mari won a place on the BBCās North East Voices Drama Development Scheme after pitching her original crime series. Through this, her first Kate Daniels novel The Murder Wall was developed, which won her the Polari First Book Prize.
She went on to win the CWA Dagger in the Library 2017. In 2019, she was the Programming Chair of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, the biggest of its type in the world. In 2020, her Kate Daniels thriller Without a Trace was awarded the prestigious Crime Book of the Year award at Capital Crime.
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