Retired judge publishes first crime thriller

Published on 22/09/2012 12:00

A RETIRED High Court judge has turned to a life of crime – by having his first thriller novel published.

Ian Simpson, who lives in the Capital, sat over murder trials before retiring due to being diagnosed with muscular 
dystrophy.

His first book, Devils and Disciples, was nominated for the prestigious Debut Dagger Award by the Crime Writers Association.

And he has now followed that up with his first published book, called Murder on Page One, which is a light-hearted whodunit that tells the story of a serial killer who targets 
London literary agents.

The 63-year-old said: “There’s a lot of creative licence involved but there is definitely an influence.

“The central character is a policeman, I wouldn’t say he was your archetypal bent cop, but he’s someone who takes a lot of shortcuts and he does things he’s not supposed to.

“Obviously, in my career, I was aware of things like that happening, particularly in the 70s and 80s.

“You might get someone’s appearance from a real person and another from someone’s character.

“You create a composite from people you’ve known and others you’ve imagined – inflate it with your imagination and that’s really fiction.”