EDINBURGH-BASED crime-writer Aline Templeton wrote her first novel at the age of six. A travelogue that saw Mr Wiz and Mrs Woz jet off to romantic Paris, it didn't quite receive the critical acclaim the fledgling author had hoped it might.
Recalling the moment her first literary masterpiece was critiqued, her face breaks into a smile as she remembers, "I've written since I could hold a pencil. That first novel was called The Adventures of Mr Wiz and Mrs Woz, who went off to Paris toget
her for the weekend."
With a chuckle she adds, "There was no mention of Mrs Wiz and Mr Woz, who were presumably left at home thinking they were on a business trip.
"I couldn't do joined up writing at the time, so it was all just printing on notepaper which had been stitched together. I gave it to my mother and she read it and laughed so much that there were tears running down her cheeks. I was mortally offended because it wasn't meant to be funny."
That childhood episode should have been a clue as to the career path Templeton would follow – as an English teacher, although her love of writing was never far away.
"While I was teaching I wrote quite a lot of magazine articles and was approached by an agent who talked to me about writing a novel. I remember when the acceptance of my first novel came I just couldn't believe it, and when the book was published I just hovered over it and patted it."
Her debut novel, published in 1984, was Death Is My Neighbour, the first of six stand-alone stories (The Last Act Of All, Past Praying For, The Trumpet Shall Sound, Night And Silence and Shades Of Death) she had published before introducing readers to DI Marjory Fleming in the 2005 tale Cold in the Earth.
The female detective returned a year later in The Darkness And The Deep and again 12 months on in Lying Dead.
On Tuesday, she returns for her fourth outing with the launch of Lamb To The Slaughter at Waterstone's on George Street, where Templeton will be on hand to chat about her work and sign copies of her novels.
Explaining the origins of the character, she says, "This figure just appeared in my mind. I knew I didn't want her to be the classic dysfunctional loner, because by then I'd had a lot to do with the police – I'd been a Justice of the Peace for ten years – and I wanted her to be like the people that I had met, not some sort of way out character. I wanted her to be a strong woman with the problems of every working mother."
A mother with a grown-up son and daughter of her own, Templeton and her husband now live in the Capital with their "eleven-year-old going on two-and-a-half" Dalmatian Lucy, in a house with a balcony built by an astronomer to observe the stars over the beautiful city skyline.
However, it's from her childhood growing up in the East Neuk of Fife that she draws on for the pretty and peaceful market town of Kirkluce, DI Fleming's patch in rural Galloway.
"I grew up in Anstruther, which, particularly then, had the atmosphere of Galloway now. You had the fishing down the front and the farming up behind. As a child I had friends who lived on farms and I used to love going to rake around in the hay and play with families of feral kittens and let the cattle lick my hands because they have those lovely rasping tongues."
One thing Templeton's love of rural life means, however, is that we are unlikely to see DI Fleming take a trip to Edinburgh anytime soon.
Candidly she considers, "You never know, but I think Edinburgh is already a very crowded market. To be honest, if I'm setting a story in a city I think I'd be more attracted to Aberdeen."
Rebus needn't look over his shoulder then.
• Lamb to the Slaughter book launch, Water-stone's George Street, Tuesday, 7.30pm, free but ticketed, 0131-225 3436 It's murder for DI Fleming Death is delivered to your door in Lamb To The Slaughter, the fourth DI Marjory Fleming thriller from Edinburgh-based author Ailine Templeton.
When a superstore development sets its sights on the Craft Centre in the quiet market town of Kirkluce – backed whole-heartedly by oily local Councillor Norman Gloag – traditionalists are in uproar.
And it is no secret that the decision to sell is down to one man – old Colonel Carmichael – who is being put under pressure from both sides. So when he is discovered by his house-keeper lying on his doorstep with a hole blown in his chest, DI Marjory Fleming and her team find that there are many townsfolk with much to gain from his death.
It was rumoured that Carmichael had nurtured a soft spot for Ellie Burnett, a young mother who ran a shop in the Centre, and who had no shortage of men. Did she know that he was planning to bequeath her £20,000 in his will? And how far would Ossian Forbes-Graham – jealous of Ellie's relationship with Johnny Black – go to prove his love for her?
Lamb To The Slaughter by Aline Templeton is published by Hodder & Stoughton in trade paperback, £11.99
The full article contains 912 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
