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Synopsis

In the bleak snowbound landscape of the Cambridgeshire Fens, a car is winched from a frozen river. Inside, locked in a block of ice, is a man’s mutilated body. Later, high on Ely Cathedral, a second body is found, grotesquely riding a stone gargoyle. The decaying corpse has been there more than thirty years.

When forensic evidence links both victims to one awful event in 1966, local reporter Philip Dryden knows he’s onto a great story. But as his investigations uncover some disturbing truths they also point towards one terrifying foggy night in the Fens two years ago. A night that changed Dryden’s life for ever . . .

Shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Award 2002

Reviews

Critic Review:

‘Beautifully written … The climax is chilling. Sometimes a book takes up residence inside my head and just won't leave. The Water Clock did just that’ 
Val McDermid

‘An atmospheric, intriguing mystery with a tense denouement’ 
Susanna Yager, Sunday Telegraph

Interview

Jim Kelly is a journalist and education correspondent for the Financial Times. The Water Clock is his first novel and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey Award for best first crime novel of 2002. This captivating and evocative murder mystery - skillfully punctuated with significant events frozen in time - marks Jim Kelly as the new master of suspense. In our interview, we discover more about the main protagonist Philip Dryden, plus Kelly reveals why he loves the Fens and discusses his interest in the sixties.

You also work as a journalist - so is Philip Dryden you?
As he is tall, dark, handsome and clever, the answer is yes. But in reality, just a little bit. I was a local journalist on papers for ten years and you do come across some amazing stories. So he is not me, but he is my life - or at least part of it. The most startling element of the plot of The Water Clock was stolen from real life. I was working in York and called one night at the cathedral where they were preparing to film the enthronement of the new archbishop. They found a corpse on the roof when they were putting up the TV lights. He'd been up there for several weeks. He'd committed suicide by jumping from the central tower. The man's name, by the way, was Kelly.

Will all your novels feature Dryden?
I'd certainly like to go on writing about Dryden. He has begun to get a life of his own. In many ways he is the classic sleuth. He is inquisitive, awkward, sceptical, and a born observer. The life of a journalist is about as close as you can get in modern times to that of the classic amateur detective. They have time, and motivation, to find out the truth. Dryden, like many classic mystery heroes, is also slightly trapped. His wife is in a coma so he has to stay in the Fens to be near her. In many ways he is biding his time until something else happens, but something else may never happen. This gives him a slightly surreal existence. And being a journalist means that the stories tend to come to him - a long line of trivial, comic, or sinister plots which are the bread and butter of local newspapers.

What is it about the Fen landscape that so inspires you, and works so well in this genre?
The Fen landscape is not what it seems. It is a very odd combination of openness and secrecy. You can see almost forever, or at least to the horizon, and yet it is so easy to hide within it. It also has some of the magnetic quality of the sea - when you look out at the flatlands from Ely you have everything behind you, and nothing in front of you. Because the sky is so important in the flat country of the East of England the mood can change dramatically. It is very easy to feel very small, and overwhelmed, by the East Anglian skyscape. It is also a moving landscape because it is full of water, which can make it very dramatic in storms, ice, or flood. But most of all the fens bring you as close as you can get in this country to wilderness. A few miles from Ely you can park up the car, walk half a mile, and be in a spot beyond sight of any buildings, people, or roads. Being featureless everything seems lost.

Are there any other landscapes which attract you as a setting?
I was a student in Sheffield in the 1970s and the ravages of unemployment, and the collapse of the steel industry, had left their mark on the city. It is a stunning urban backdrop, high hills topped with tower blocks, and streets lined with furnaces. I think it had the quality of a man-made maze, with large areas of the city deserted and waiting for the bulldozer. Dotted throughout this were small communities of great spirit. At the time I probably felt Sheffield had always been like that - but in fact it was a short interlude between its heyday as an industrial city and the rather trendy place it has become. It would be a great backdrop for a murder.

One striking feature of The Water Clock is the flashbacks to the sixties, in particular the day of the World Cup. What made you choose this event?
I think some events are emblems for whole generations. The 1966 World Cup Final is impossible to forget if you lived through it. I can recall pacing up and down in the back garden while the rest of the family seethed in front of the TV after Germany's equalising goal. I was nine. But it is so long ago that in many ways the world looks completely different. The mood was different I think, which is dramatic if you want to use flashbacks. I think most people were less cynical - perhaps less than they had been for decades. But there was also this tough underbelly to life - the leftovers of the crime which had been spawned in the war and thrived in the fifties. Life then was not as cosy as it is now, and people took more risks.

Which other crime writers do you enjoy reading?
I can never answer this question without mentioning The Nine Tailors by Dorothy L. Sayers. It's a dreadful cliché but it did change my life. I've ended up living parts of it by moving out to the Fens. It is the best mystery novel I've read about place - and perhaps the best novel about the importance of place. I was a big fan of Morse, for the company of the characters mainly and the perfect control of the plot. The most astonishing crime book I've read is A Very Long Engagement by Sebastien Japrisot, which is built around the First World War trenches and the punishment of a group of deserters. I am just discovering George P. Pelecanos. I normally dislike US crime writers as I don't feel much empathy for the landscapes, or cityscapes, but he writes brilliantly and the violence has impact because the characters are real people. I read Shame The Devil first and my pulse rate went up in the opening chapter.

Can you give us a taster of what your next novel will be about?
The Fire Baby is about the damage that can be done by lies. It begins with an aircrash in the Fens during the drought summer of 1976. The only survivors are a woman and a baby. From a lie told that night several lives are eventually destroyed and a man's life is brutally ended  - starved to death in a lonely Fen pillbox. The hunt for the killer opens up the complex latticework of lies which have been spawned by that first, original, falsehood. It's also about a despicable modern crime - that of people-smuggling. A crime which has come to be linked recently with the Fens and the flows of migrant workers into the fields. It all sound a bit grim – but I think Dryden's resolute good humour survives, as does the indifference of his side-kick, Humph, the ever-present taxi driver.

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