Sweet Things Dying: About the Novel
The first Adam Cole novel.
Hello and thank you for being here!
As always, the time you take to read anything that I post is much appreciated. And the more reading that you do, the more grateful I am. So, asking that you commit to a full-length novel is, as any writer will acknowledge, about the greatest effort I can request on your behalf, and that you would take the time to do so is the highest compliment that any writer can receive in return.
The first novel-length effort here is Sweet Things Dying, an 86,000-word detective story that will be released chapter-by-chapter over several months in the serialised manner of its Victorian forebears, which serve as an inspiration to the tale. The story centres on Adam Cole, a private enquiry agent living in the East End of London in 1887. He is drawn into the mystery of Heather Bloom, a popular local coffeehouse girl and his former lover. Throughout the story, we are given prologued glimpses into their past together, all interspersed between the present story wherein Heather has suddenly vanished, leaving behind a series of clues which do not add up. From the start, Cole is met with several challenges, including an unfinished letter sent to him by Heather seemingly moments before she disappeared, and push-back from Heather’s stern father, a local reverend who has an unsettled history with Cole. At the same time, he must deal with the mad pleas of his own father who is an inmate at Broadmoor Asylum, locked away for the murder of Cole’s younger brother William – a childhood memory that haunts Cole throughout his investigation. Over several days and nights of sleuthing, he begins to uncover secrets about Heather’s family and neighbours that lead him through the winding, shadowy alleys of the East End and to the sea-sprayed streets of Whitby. Faceless men and back-room abortionists come to light, pushing Cole’s skill to the limit, and twisting his heartstrings as he learns more about Heather and the dark secrets that have long consumed her life. In the end, as Cole pieces together one shocking suspicion after another, he’s left with a terrible realization about the Bloom family and guilty feelings about his own failed relationship with Heather – and if that weren’t enough, he is dealt one final, horrific blow regarding the childhood murder of his brother.
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Counter to a lot of similar fiction, I’ve avoided making Cole the uber-mensch private detective who constantly outdoes the police or uses forensics ahead of his time. He relies more on asking questions, using sources, snooping around, deceiving others, and, when necessary, running away. He is far from perfect and the world he inhabits is equally imbalanced. Contrary to the impressions one gets from reading the censored output of Victorian authors, the era was, just like today, filled with sex and violence and offensive language, and I’ve depicted that as honestly as the story required it without, hopefully, being too gratuitous.
As for the writing of the book, it was, to use a familiar phrase, a labour of love over many months and years. It was written firstly for myself – for my own joy, a means to transport me to an age I have been long fascinated with but can never visit. To experience the time of the Victorians with what little authenticity I could afford, my original outline, notes, and even the first draft of the novel were all written by hand, often while hunched over a Victorian-style writing desk, using pen and paper and lit by the warm glow of candles and oil lamps. Immersing myself in the fiction of the time, as well as newspaper articles and other texts, and a variety of modern non-fiction works that explore the era, helped to create an imaginative atmosphere that served as effective stage decorations for my characters. In this way, they played out their roles in my mind, allowing me to transcribe it all on paper as I inwardly watched it unfold.
While the modern East End of London cannot be said to be the same as that of the 1880’s, it is also not so different. Many of the streets and alleys and buildings remain, bearing the same names and faces, so that the winding steps that Cole takes through Spitalfields and Bethnal Green may still be followed quite faithfully today. One of my greatest joys in life, in fact, is to wander the streets of London with Cole in mind, gazing at the steeple of Christchurch in Whitechapel, browsing the stalls at the vaulted Spitalfields Market, and sipping a pint at the Ten Bells Pub, all as he does, and all of which continue to endure to be enjoyed today. Even the grime and garbage and raucous weekend street noise live on, if only updated, and while the Jews and East Europeans that seemed so foreign to Cole and other Englishmen of his time are less apparent, the “sense of other” that they brought with their exotic shops and restaurants still thrives, albeit supplanted by Bengals and Pakistanis. I spent many days and nights weaving through these streets, using my imagination to redress it all as it had been in Cole’s time, and I never found it to be much effort to do so. In my mind, the passing motorized taxis and buses became horse-drawn cabs and omnibuses, the electric lamps on the street corners flickered with gaslight, the rowdy Saturday night revellers became drunken sailors, and the gentrified blocks of apartments became squalid tenements and lodging houses.
Every writer has their methods, and these were just a few of mine. My hope is that they work to bring the essence and effect of London past to life for the reader today.
So I’d like to thank you again for taking the time to read through these words. You will find that the introductory pages of Sweet Things Dying have been freely made available to allow you to taste what has been written and decide whether, through a small monthly contribution, you’d like to keep reading on as the book and other companion pieces are slowly released week-by-week. The more subscribers I generate, the more I can work to contribute to the book. And please leave your feedback in the comments! By doing so, you may influence how I can improve the work going forward.
All the best always,
R.R. Scott
****Where to begin****
If you wish to step into the pages of Sweet Things Dying, here is a note on where to get started. As each chapter gets posted weekly, and as prologues are interspersed throughout the novel, it’s easy to lose track of where to begin, especially as other posts, short stories, etc, push things down the line. So, begin with Prologue I, then move on to chapters I through IV, after which you jump into Prologue II, and continue with Chapter V, etc. I have subtitled the earliest headings with “the first Instalment,” “the second instalment,” etc, as a bit of guidance. Scroll down to see the full TABLE OF CONTENTS below in order.
Get Started Here! Click on the links below to access the opening chapters for FREE:
Sweet Things Dying - Chapters I & II
Full Contents Continue Below (Paid Subscription Required):
Thank you for reading!