Unpublished debut wins top crime writing award

Josephine, aged 40, said: “I’m a journalist and used to live in Cuba but there is only so much of the place you can get into articles. I wanted to capture the day-to-day of life in Havana,”

And also to avoid the obvious – and the preconceptions.

“If you’re writing about Cuba, it’s tempting to reach for sex, salsa and cigars, but to me the daily grind is so much more interesting. I was really pleased when a Cuban friend said he didn’t really recognise the Cuba you usually find in fiction but that I had actually written about his life.

“And Cuba is such a great setting for a crime novel. Soviet-style communism has left this long legacy of corruption while all the market reforms that are going on are introducing a sense of resentment between haves and have-nots.

“And with that comes a whole new level of violent crime.

“Hopefully the book will appeal to people because it gives a real sense of place.

“And now we can’t really travel and the world is in a mess, I think we all need a bit of sun-drenched escapism.”

Josephine added: “I started writing the book when I was living in Havana and have been working on it in fits and starts ever since.

“I treated it a bit like an article.

“One of my close friends in Cuba was a lawyer and he had so many interesting stories.

“It was too good an opportunity to miss.

“So my research involved long interviews with him; we took walks around Havana and he basically handed me his life to write about.

“I’d also already interviewed a lot of interesting characters for other articles and a lot of what they said ends up in the book in one form or another.

“The book is aimed at anyone who loves crime and thrillers or has an interest in Cuba.

“It is set in Havana today. Salaries barely last a week, the shops are empty and the black market thrives.

“My main character is Aramis Roque, a bright young lawyer, who has just landed the biggest case of his career. A general has been killed and he’s defending the prime suspect.

“Ignoring orders to fudge the case, he finds himself dragged into a world of high-level corruption, beatings and murder.

“I really hope to write more books about Aramis either in Cuba or possibly the US which is where my lawyer friend has ended up. And I’d love to make this book into a TV series.

“I am a first-time author. I have also written the manuscript for a children’s picture book about dementia, which is inspired by the relationship my kids have with my mum, who has Alzheimer’s.

“Hopefully I’ll be able to get that published too now.

“I’ve wanted to be a journalist ever since watching Press Gang as a child!

“I did school magazines, wrote for the student paper and have been working as a journalist for almost 20 years.

“Despite reading novels obsessively throughout my life, it didn’t occur to me to write one until I got to Havana.

“Then it felt like I had something worth writing about.”

More details can be found on https://www.josephinemoulds.co.uk/

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