Tom Eaton: On crime, comedy, and creating Arnold Prinsloo

Writer and satirist Tom Eaton’s new whodunnit, An Act of Murder, is wickedly funny, clever and an entirely South African take on the cosy crime novel. You’ve got a billionaire found dead on his garish estate, and an actor falsely accused of the crime on a mission to clear his name. What more do you want in a read?

Here Eaton talks to us about why he did the project, how Joburg’s neighbourhoods and gated suburbs make perfect settings for murder – oh, and there’s that little thing about actor Arnold Vosloo too.

What sparked the idea to write a crime novel?

It was quite a contrived start, actually. Marida Fitzpatrick at Penguin, who wasn’t my publisher at the time, approached me and asked if I’d ever considered writing a cosy crime novel. I hadn’t – at all – but she sold me on the idea. That was about two and a half years ago, and from there, the lead character of Arnold Prinsloo developed quickly.

I love struggling creative people, because all creative people deep down feel like the supporting cast of their own play. And then of course the “Arnold Prinsloo being confused with the real actor Arnold Vosloo joke” came to me. In fact, I’m secretly hoping that we could get the real Arnold Vosloo to do a cover shot for the next book.

You clearly had a lot of fun with the satire – the pastiches of the South African people and world we know had us laughing out loud.

Yes, but I had to rein it in a bit. Satire comes easily to me, but too much of it can derail a character-driven novel. I wanted the characters to remain real, with empathy – not just punchlines.

Did you always know you wanted to write crime, or even cosy crime?

Not really. But I realised, while writing, that the kind of crime I enjoy leans towards the cosy end of the spectrum. I’m not into dark, violent stuff. As a child, I watched every episode of Murder, She Wrote, so I guess it was in there somewhere.

Did you read other crime novels for research or inspiration?

Actually, I made a conscious choice not to. I didn’t want to be accused of writing a Richard Osman knock-off, so I stayed away from everything. I figured it’s all been done before – best to come at it fresh.

So how did you plot the novel – character first, or storyline?

A bit of both. I thought I was someone who planned everything, then wrote between the lines. But what happened here was that, over time, the characters became real to me. I’d spent more than a year with them. The first draft was me pushing them around like a satirist, but later I began to feel real empathy. Arnold started making his own decisions – I just followed him.

Favourite character?

Arnold, of course. But also Frau Bohm. She’s very much inspired by people I’ve known – I went to a Waldorf school, so that world is familiar. She lets me say things no one else could get away with, including torturing a guy by way of physio!

You nailed Joburg as your setting. Did you spend much time here?

No, I’m Cape Town through and through. But I visit enough for certain parts to have made an impression. Joburg needed to be the setting – a city with those strange gated estates and little suburbs, each with their own vibe. I could have set it in Stellenbosch or Cape Town, but it would have been a very different story, and Arnold a different man.

Do you think an international audience would understand it?

Maybe not in the same way. I didn’t try to make it universal – I wrote it for South Africans. I think international readers might find it a bit exotic or odd, but that’s okay.

The character names are so distinctive – Arnold Prinsloo, Lenin Mangope, the Twomblys, Bordeaux Le Clercq… how did you come up with them?

Twombly just came to me. I needed someone small and shuffly – and the name Twombly had that perfect pretentious-meets-pathetic vibe. Arnold is obviously a nod to Arnold Vosloo. Frau Bohm was a real person, long dead. Zelda – Arnold’s girlfriend – felt like a sturdy, capable South African name. She’ll come into her own in the next book.

Speaking of which… is this the start of a series?

Yes – I’m working on book two now. It picks up a couple of weeks after the end of the first. Same characters, new setting. I’ve got a little trilogy mapped out.

Do you know who the killer is this time?

I do – and that’s the challenge. In the first book, I didn’t know, which helped me plant doubt in the reader’s mind. Now I do know, and I’m trying not to overplay it. I’m not a great liar – even on the page!

You’ve written a lot for television. Has that helped your novel writing?

Definitely. Television [writing] teaches you economy – scenes are two minutes, no matter what you need to get across. Compared to that, writing a novel feels like an indulgence. But it’s also taught me to just get on with it.

Would you like the book to be adapted for screen?

Absolutely. A few people have asked me who I’d cast, and while I’d love Arnold Vosloo to be involved, Arnold as a character doesn’t have a clear physical look for me. He’s slightly tragic, thinning hair, bit past his prime – but loveable.

Are you a disciplined writer?

Not unless there’s a deadline looming. Then I’m excellent. Otherwise I faff, scroll social media, watch junk TV. Writers get away with a lot by claiming they’re “percolating”.

Lastly, how has the response been so far?

Really lovely. I heard last week that it was the second-best-selling English-language fiction title in South Africa – just behind Paige Nick’s clever new book. Readers have told me they had fun, and honestly, that’s all I wanted.