The Killing Sense began life as a picture in my head of a woman with red hair on a train – the Eurostar. I’d discovered rather randomly that perfume smells differently on people with red hair compared to others – red heads have an acid mantle on their skin which makes scent behave differently. I knew that red heads had a different reaction to anaesthetic (they need a LOT more than those without the red hair gene), but the perfume fascinated me. I haven’t found any scientific studies to back the theory, but when I mention it to people with red hair, they nod, knowingly.
At this stage I hadn’t read Patrick Suskind’s Perfume, and I didn’t want to until I was well into writing in case it influenced me in some way. So I got a bit of a surprise when I realised that the cover image is a woman with red hair! Fortunately, it’s only Jean-Baptiste Grenouille’s first victim who has red hair – the others are all dark (phew!)
My wandering thoughts on scent and perfume connected me to France, and then to the novelty of being able to get on a train in London St Pancras and get off in the Gard du Nord. St Pancras station is one of my favourite places, and it seemed to be the perfect location for this story of a red haired woman and perfume to begin.
As the idea grew, I could see a man sitting opposite the red haired woman on the train (think Daniel Craig in a navy wool coat carrying a walking stick). I knew he’d been in the military, but I didn’t know in what capacity, and I knew she was going to Paris because she’d won the trip in a competition. Previously I’d been thinking about a girl going into a student type house where there was a bicycle leaning on the wall in the hall, it was winter, and I could see her turning on the heating and unpacking her groceries. Was she part of this French story? I wasn’t sure, but I could see the man on the train standing on a landing at the top of a stone staircase that had ornate iron work banisters. I knew that was at the end of the story, but that was about all I had.
Normally I plot books in some detail before I begin them, but with this vague string of images, I wanted to start writing and see where this one took me. I want to grow as a writer with each book, and trying new ways of approaching a story is one way to do that.
There was one hitch with this ‘plan’ though – I’d spent a lot of time in France, but I’d never been to Paris, so I needed to do that first.
The protagonist in The Killing Sense, single mum Kate Wilde goes to Paris during the February half term (that bleak one that is always a struggle) – she’s a teacher, so she has the week off, as does her young daughter Hanna. Kate is able to leave Hanna with her sister Orla for the week – Orla doesn’t have any children and it’s a week to spoil her niece.
If Kate was going to Paris in February, that’s when I needed to go too.
I caught the Eurostar, and booking into a hotel near the Louvre, spent three days wandering around the city going to the locations that I knew would feature in the story.
As the idea developed in my head, I realised that it actually opened with a head being found in the Paris sewers, a head with red hair. I’m probably one of the few people who went to Paris for the first time, and went down into the sewers and not up the Eiffel Tower.
The sewers are fascinating, as Victor Hugo said in The Intestine of Leviathan ‘The sewer is the conscience of the city. Everything there converges and confronts everything else.’ Built to mirror the boulevards above them, there are 2600km of galleries and gutters, and each tributary has a blue enamel sign, just like the street signs above ground, with the name of the road on it.
Some of the tunnels are incredibly narrow, built of brick and arched at the top to allow the waste water workers to walk along them in single file. In the main tunnels, huge wooden balls are propelled through to clear blockages, and like miners, the workers value the presence of rats to warn them of dangerous gas build ups.
The research for this book ended up being three trips to Paris – in February, August and then in February again when I had finished it and needed to check my final points.
As well as a visiting the sewers, I needed to learn more about perfume. Grasse, on the Cote d’Azur is the world capital of perfumery, an industry founded by tanners in the area who, in the 16th century, aware of the strong smell of their leather, had the idea of perfuming them.
Based in Le Marias, I spent a day becoming acquainted with the olfactory pyramid and the history of perfume making. Kate wins a perfume course in the story, and so I wanted to see for myself what that entailed.
Mixing a huge variety of natural and synthetic essences to create layers, perfume is often made from more than 200 ingredients, each one positioned in a specific way to reveal more as it evaporates on the skin. Expert perfumiers can remember up to 1500 scents, understanding how they blend and react with each other. I ended up taking two perfume courses on different trips, discovering that there are three layers in perfume, which are referred to as ‘notes’. As Madame Ducournau explains to Kate:
“… the top notes awaken our sense of smell, our memories. They are the lighter notes, they open our emotions, they capture the attention of the nose during the first fifteen minutes of applying the scent. Heart notes give a perfume its personality, they are the most complex level of the pyramid – they are what we remember when we think of a scent, they are its identity. The base notes give the perfume depth, you will begin to recognise them after the perfume has been on the skin for around two hours. The base notes are the layer that lingers, they will determine your loyalty to the fragrance.”
Scent and senses – including feminine intuition and that creepy feeling you get when you feel you’re being watched – are very important in this story, so getting a real feel for the city was crucial. You can do a lot of research with Google street view, but you have to walk around Place Vendome to realise that every one of the designer boutiques has a different signature scent that you are enveloped in as the doors open.
Seeing Paris in February was important too – the bare trees in the Tuileries Gardens, how sound carries on the winter air, and how the Eiffel Tower is lit up at night all help build the sense of Paris as a character. Kate stays in an apartment on one of the narrow streets that wind through Le Marias, and from there she walks along the Seine to the Eiffel Tower and to the Musee d’Orsay, and importantly to the pedestrian bridge that link the two. As well as winning the competition, Kate has her own reason for wanting to go to Paris – to honour her school friend Trish’s memory.
I love writing characters who have lots of quirks and interesting backgrounds. I research each one, working out where they went to school, discovering where they live and what they love and what they hate.
When Kate arrives, she calls into a café and befriends Agathe, an architecture student, whose friend Sandrine has disappeared – we quickly learn that there is a killer in Paris stalking red heads. But that’s not Kate’s only problem. Her violent ex is also in Paris, and when Kate gets back to her apartment and thinks things have been moved, she’s terrified he’s been following her.
So far early readers have loved The Killing Sense, ‘This is a very cleverly plotted novel, with characters who at first, seem totally disconnected to one another, but as the story emerges, the reader begins to make the links, it is subtle and expertly executed. I was on the edge of my seat, especially towards the end of the story as everything begins to tie together and we realise just how much danger Kate is in. I was totally thrown by events that are revealed, it almost creeps up on the reader, taking them by surprise. Perfectly created characters in a setting that will entrance the reader, this is a gripping and tension filled novel that will chill readers to the bone. Highly recommended.’ – Anne Cater, Random Things Through My Letterbox Book Blog
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐’Twisty, engaging and gripping! I thoroughly enjoyed the setting in Paris’ – Netgalley Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐’Great storyline, something a bit different. Super twists and an easy five star read from me’ – Netgalley Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘One of my favourite books this year’ – Netgalley Review
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ ‘The city of Paris also plays a unique and beautiful character on its own’ – Netgalley Review
I do hope that you enjoy it too! Pop over to the book page here to read more reviews and to order from your favourite supplier – and thank you for reading!
