I HAVE been a Bradford lass for almost 40 years and over that time I’ve grown to love the adoptive city which I regard as Warm and Rich and Fearless.

It’s a welcoming place with a rich industrial and cultural history and inhabited by communities of fearless personalities living their best lives. Which is why my first two crime fiction series - the Gus McGuire books and the Nikki Parekh books - are set in Bradford.

After moving to Bradford, marrying, bringing up my family here, teaching, living and embracing Yorkshire as my home and latterly, writing about the city for the past nine years, I’m finally taking my writing back home to my wee village of West Calder and West Lothian with my brand-new Solanki and McQueen Scottish crime series and, believe me, writing it has been a hugely emotional rollercoaster ride.

The Blood Promise, the first in the series, published on May 23, features a Scottish/Indian female detective in her twenties, Jazzy Solanki, and a gobby, brash Scottish detective, Annie, Queenie, McQueen who is in her early fifties.

Bradford Telegraph and Argus: Liz has set her new book in the town where she grew up Liz has set her new book in the town where she grew up (Image: Liz Mistry)

When I decided that my childhood stomping ground and the surrounding area would be the setting for the new series, I didn’t for a second realise just how emotional it would be for me, but from the minute I started researching possible settings and revisiting my youthful memories, I was awash with poignant bitter sweet memories from a distant past. It was like opening up a cubby hole filled with my favourite cuddly toys - some of which I’d all but forgotten about.

Because I was in my fifties when I first got published, one of my deepest regrets was that my parents didn’t live to see my words in print, nor did they see me achieve my PhD - both of those achievements would have made them so proud. What would have made them equally proud is that in The Blood Promise, I celebrate the rich landscape, the unique characters and cultural heritage of my birth place.

The Blood Promise is an explosion of grit, suspense, with dashes of humour throughout, but it also juggles much bigger themes, from mental health, racism and misogyny in the police force. Of course, there’s darkness in my books, but there’s also a lot of light because I believe that crime fiction allows us to explore our demons - those dark places, those unimaginable things that we all fear - secure in the knowledge that, in the end, good will prevail.

Immersing myself in the past and being chock full of reminisces and stories from my youth, it was inevitable that nostalgia would grip me in its arms and force me to celebrate my personal history in some small way through my writing. As the storyline progressed and my cast of characters grew I found myself becoming increasingly sentimental, so I decided to weave my reminiscences into the narrative.

As an author, I have always made good use of the memories and experiences that, having lain dormant in my mental compost heap, have suddenly burst through the mulch and yelled ‘write about me, let me be in your story’ and that proved very true because The Blood Promise is filled with remembered snippets from my past.

Whilst Jazzy is a product of my later life - experiences of being in a dual race partnership with children of Indian/Yorkshire heritage, a huge extended family and being immersed in Indian culture - Queenie is definitely a product of my childhood influences. So many of her characteristics are easily identifiable as belonging to my beloved Uncle Geordie, a coal miner whose direct speaking, no nonsense attitude and sense of humour shine through in many Queenieisms.

I integrated my family’s names into the book too. My maiden name was Balloch and my Granny Balloch’s maiden name was Elliot, so in a nod to them, DI Elliot Balloch was created - a character who, while nothing like my dad physically or in personality, shares his passion for playing the euphonium. My mum made her way into the series too in the form of the pathologist Lamond Johnston whose name is a combination of my mum’s and her mum’s maiden names.

Writing The Blood Promise filled me with such joy and my emotional closeness to it has made it very special. Writing it was like coming home and of course we all know, there’s no place like it. However, for those Gus and Nikki fans out there, rest assured, they’ll be back!

Angie Marsons, Bestselling author of the Kim Stone series says this about The Blood Promise: “Loved the characters, particularly Queenie. The team dynamic was brilliant...full of twists, intense and immersive. A fantastic start to an intriguing new series.”

* The Blood Promise is published by HQ Digital (Harper Collins) and is available to order from bookshops.