If you read my last post, you know I'm considering the plot for my next novel. My research has taken me off on an interesting tangent, but it's very different from what I'd initially intended.
My character, Harold Chesterfield, who is with the NSW Police, was going to become embroiled with the razor gangs of Sydney. Well, one gang in particular and the novel would start off with a body found on the Sydney Harbour Bridge construction site.
I've read a lot about the razor gangs and brothel madams like Tilly Devine, and I can see Harold trying to save a young woman from the clutches of a prostitution ring. So, that's where I was heading.
My dilemma is that Sydney politics in the early 1930s is so utterly fascinating that I can see a novel around the plot to kidnap the NSW Premier, Jack Lang. Catch up on my last post if you have no idea what I'm talking about.
So, this is my dilemma: Harold solving a crime that involves Sydney's razor gangs or Harold desperately trying to thwart a plot to kidnap a politician.
Maybe I have two books on my hands. I planned to write only one Harold Chesterfield novel, keeping it to around 70-80,000 words and then move on. But . . .!!