Douglas Promenade, where the main character realises his old life has caught up with him.
Not many books are set on the Isle of Man, but when I wrote my own gangland novel, I found it makes a great setting for thrillers.
“The Sea Vista Hotel lurked on a dingy, narrow side street like it had wandered off the sea front and lost its way.”
Man On The Run
No Way To Live opens with Tom Adams arriving in his hotel in the Isle of Man. Until recently, Tom was a member of a powerful London gang. Now, he’s come to warn a Manx shop owner that his gang intends to apply pressure on him to sell his business by attacking his daughter.
In Chapter Three, Tom walks along with Douglas promenade at night with the shop owner’s daughter. After a while, he realises two enforcers from the gang are following them…
So Why the Isle of Man?
I wanted a seaside town for Tom’s hideout scenes, a location very different from London’s chaotic, busy streets. At first, I played with the idea of Brighton, but the Isle of Man’s much greater distance from London made my mind up. My crime syndicate needed somewhere far from the Met’s prying eyes.
There were other advantages to choosing the Island as a setting. The insularity of it, so that the kind of crime and criminals suddenly being introduced in the novel felt new and terrifying. Also, the awkwardness of escaping once you’re there, plus it’s tax haven status, helped make it an obvious choice.
As Tom reflects:
“Money could be cleaned and disappeared like it had never existed.’”
How Lockdown Affected the Decision
There was another reason to use the Isle of Man as a location. In 2020, with two university students to support, we decided I would teach in an international school in Saudi Arabia. It seemed like a good decision. Every holiday, I would hop on a plane and come home. I could send home most of my tax free earnings to support the voracious university students.
But then Covid, and lockdown, struck. Flying between countries became difficult. I wrote the first draft of No Way To Live in my dark, slightly dingy Riyadh flat from late October to December, 2020. I was unsure when I would next be able to go home, and unable even to leave the compound I was living on. So I combated homesickness by writing about the two places I know best: London and the Isle of Man.
The Isle of Man was chosen because I grew up there, in Onchan, where Tom has a fight in the book. I worked on the deckchairs on Douglas promenade, back when that was a thing. Later, I worked in a tourist shop similar to the fictional Trove that features in No Way To Live. I still regularly visit.
Manx Locations
In the Isle of Man scenes, the Bee Gees statue and the Tower of Refuge do heavy symbolic lifting. Castletown, Port Jack Glen and, of course, the Fairy Bridge all make an appearance. Writing about them in my dark Riyadh flat cheered me up, and made me feel like I was back on the Island. Hopefully, you will too, even if you’ve never actually been.
No Way to Live
No Way To Live is available on Amazon and Kindle Unlimited
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