ROBERT EDRIC takes the hot seat and tells us about The Song Quartet, his Hull-based crime novels

THE four novels – Cradle Song, Siren Song, Swan Song and Funeral Song – feature private investigator Leo Rivers and are set in the old, decaying heart of Hull, where disused quays meet the silted-up river, and where this finally empties into the Humber.

The novels are set in the early noughties, before Hull began the gentrification. The locations are based in the once neglected neighbourhood that was the busy and vibrant locale of Hull's fruit and vegetable market and warehouses, porters' pubs, disused ships' chandlers and run-down boxing clubs and reading rooms.

We asked Robert why he chose to write about a private investigator and not a police procedural?

A: Private detectives, it seems to me, have far greater freedom to become involved in both sides of any investigation – the crime itself and the police response to it. Leo Rivers is approached by clients often unhappy at legal outcomes, and where accusations of corruption are levelled against the police themselves. By maintaining his independent status he is better placed to move back and forth between both worlds, frequently uncovering as much criminal behaviour and malpractice in the latter as the former.

Q: Which crime writers have influenced your work?

A: I am a great fan of the classics: Chandler, Dashiel Hammett, and James M. Cain, for whom the private investigator was king, and who operated completely independently of the law; and more recently of Arthur Lyons and Robert B Parker. Of current crime writers, I would consider (along with most other commentators) both Don Winslow and James Lee Burke to be the foremost masters of the art, followed closely by Michael Connelly, Robert Crais and Dennis Lehane.

Q: All Americans.

A: True. And this goes back to the British current obsession with those constrained procedurals, or with, say, pathologists getting impossibly involved, or psychologists, or teams of investigators re-examining historical crimes. In all four of The Song Quartet books Leo Rivers is cast directly into the heart of each developing case, and the narratives are more dependent on unfolding events and direct and immediate conflicts rather than unbelievable coincidences and convenient confessions. There is an element of violence in all the books but, with the exception of a few armed police squads, few shoot outs, and certainly nothing that would be considered out of place in present-day Britain.

Q: Why Hull?

A: Because it's a city I know well and one that is grossly under-represented in the world of modern crime in both fiction and on the small screen. It is often referred to as a 'forgotten northern city', and when compared to, say, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Leeds or Sheffield, it is certainly the poor relation. It is an isolated, poorly-connected city rooted in its fishing past, and one that has long considered itself unjustly neglected by central government. It is a staunchly working-class and socialist place, and one that clings proudly and stubbornly to its own unique history and understanding of itself. It is a small city, and one whose heart has not yet been completely razed and rebuilt in accordance with any contemporary remit.

Q: Are the four novels sequential or stand-alone?

A: Stand alone. The same investigator, the same environment – Rivers works from a dilapidated office above one of those fruit and vegetable warehouses, surrounded by men working all hours of the day and night – and with the same few associates. Chief among these are a man and woman – Sunny (on account of his not-so-sunny disposition) and Yvonne – who were both once proper journalists, but who are now reduced to running an agency selling 'advertorials' to what remains of the local newspaper industry. Even 20 years ago, these business models were unravelling, and this loss and its consequences for the men and women involved, are as much a part of Rivers' investigations as the crimes themselves. All three characters frequently pool their resources and help out when required. Yvonne in particular provides the solid and reliable core around which both Rivers and Sunny spin in their all too often uncontrollable and violent orbits as the investigations run their courses into both unpredictable places and the company of violent, angry men.

Q: The first three novels were first published over a decade ago and received widespread acclaim in the national press. Why is the fourth being published only now?

A: Having published the first three titles, I wrote the fourth book, Funeral Song, put it away temporarily, and was then overtaken by the publication of other titles waiting in the wings. The three books had been well-received and so I returned to my more usual, allegedly "literary" novels (not a distinction I personally choose to make) and time moved on. Now, with interest in Funeral Song from P.S. Publishing, and in conjunction with their reissue of the previous three books in beautifully matching editions, all four are set to see the light of day for the very first time.