What a useful day! Police, forensics, pathologists, barristers, dna, footwear, fibres, spatter analysis… real life crimes and creatively imagined and solved ones — by Paula Hawkins of Girl on a Train, no less. There she is reading the end of her crime story with compere Peter Gutteridge — we took part in it throughout the day. It all happened at Northumbria University in Newcastle, a conference for writers and readers.

Put on by New Writers North, I was lucky to spot it in my NAWE newsletter a couple months back, so I even got the early bird rate. There were agents, editors and some one-to-one sessions available too. But I was there for facts and procedures, and came away with gold. Like the fibres that might be on my victim’s clothes. And that, yes, telecoms forensics can trace a received text back to source — but it will take longer if it’s in another country. And of course, I still have more questions, but I got a good lead for those from DC Holmes (first name was NOT Sherlock).

Researching — plus a long train ride each way — is a great aid to hatching and plotting. Do it! Then there’s the writing part…