Worlds collide and coexist in Henrietta McKervey’s new detective novel Violet Hill in which two female detectives work side by side, a hundred years apart.
It features Violet, a private detective in World War 1 London and Suzanna, who unwittingly picks up where she left off in 2018. Suzanna is a Super Recogniser with the London Metropolitan Police force, which means she has an exceptional ability for facial recognition. Henrietta told Dave Fanning about what inspired her.
"There was a feature in The New Yorker and it just seemed like such a fascinating idea that somebody would have this skill that they can’t switch off that every day, they’re walking around and every face registers with them and there’s nothing they can do to stop that happening, and then I was also fascinated by at the end of the First World War, there was this one woman working as a private detective… There were 1 million women called ‘surplus women’ at the end of the First World War because the men were gone and they were suddenly meant to find a new way of living… The idea of the traditional marriage, home life was gone for so many of them. I was thinking, what was that like for someone and how do you try and remake your life in that situation?"
Henrietta was joined in studio by Padraig O’Riordan, a real-life Super Recogniser with the Met Police. He describes the gift and curse of his unique ability which allows him to identify criminals but which never gives him a break.
"It emanated from the London riots in 2011, when it was noticed that five or six officers were doing far more identifications of suspects from the riots and they decided after the riots than to get a unit together with those five or six people. It was originally forty, and then a proactive unit was developed which was six of us."
Padraig’s ability means that he can regularly sit in front of CCTV footage for 10 to 12 hours and pick out faces of offenders. He has worked across many cases and is currently putting his skills to good use in the Grenfell inquiry.
Violet Hill by Henrietta McKervey is in bookshops now. Click here to listen to The Ryan Tubridy Show.
