Do you feel any sense of loss as you finish each book, or only relief?
Catherine Ham, Kalamos Greece

The relief comes when I finish the first draft and know I've got a book. Then the fine detail work begins and, as I get older, I find myself more reluctant to admit it's done and pass the finished product to my editor. That's when I feel the sense of loss.

What are you currently working on?
Michael Winstanley, Harrogate

It's a romantic thriller - or maybe a thrilling romance - with Gothic overtones, set in a Cumbrian valley where my heroine and hero arrive from distant places in search of information about their families' pasts.

You often develop minor characters in your books, such as Sergeant Wield, how important do you think they are to sustaining your books?
Margaret Dawes, Penrith, Yorkshire

Even my very minor characters are usually much more fully realised in my mind than in the books. Some of course only appear in one story; some reappear but still stay in the background; others become much more individuated, play larger roles, and turn into an important part of the Dalziel/Pascoe world. It’s a bit like life really, where every day we meet new people of whom an unforecastable few will prove to have a long-term importance to us. Any novel series that doesn't cater for this runs the danger of being mere formulaic repetition.

Why do you think people love crime fiction so much?
Jennifer Conway, Newquay, Cornwall

While, happily, most of us get through our lives without being burgled, robbed, mugged, raped or murdered, very few never come within one-stage-removed distance of at least some of these crimes. And nobody who reads the papers or watches the news on TV can be unaware that contingent with our nice safe world of law and order lies another world of criminality. Every day crimes happen to people like us. More frighteningly, every day they are committed by people like us! No wonder we're fascinated, and the fiction helps us deal with the fact.

Are you a disciplined writer or one that can only write whenever the muse takes hold?
Bill Sinclair, London

"He had a notion...that he could not write but at certain times, or at happy moments; a fantastic foppery, to which my kindness for a man of learning and of virtue wishes him to have been superior." Thus Dr Johnson on the poet Gray. In this respect at least the great doctor would have approved of me!

How long does it take you to write a book? When you finish one, do you always have an idea for the next?
Philip Harvey, Kinross

From the vision through the revision, about a year, sometimes more. And usually by the time I finish one, I have an idea for the next, or sometimes a short list of alternatives, floating around my mind.

Are you happy with the BBC screen adaptation? Were you consulted on who should play the parts of Dalziel and Pascoe?
Sarah Clarke, New Malden, Surrey

I'm happy it continues to be such a ratings success, and in terms of catching the spirit of the originals, I think some of the early adaptations were really excellent. But any TV series develops a life of its own and once they got to the end of the published novels and started devising their own scripts, it wasn't long before the umbilical cord was cut. Now it leads an independent existence, parallel to, but with significant differences from, the world of my novels. As to consultation, yes, I was kept informed of likely candidates for the main roles and my opinion canvassed.

What is your favourite grisly end to a character?
Peter Davies, Carlisle

Sorry, I don't have a “favourite”. Yes, murder can have elements of the absurd, even the comic, but its constants are tragedy and loss. I suppose the nearest I come to treating it in performance terms is in Dialogues of the Dead where the series of often macabre deaths is described from the somewhat distorted viewpoint of the killer.

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