‘And you say he’s still working with you?’

‘I wouldn’t be without him.’

‘Does he ever suggest story ideas for a book?’

‘Not so far.’

‘Have you asked him?’

‘No! I would never do that.’

‘You surprise me,’ said Frejah. ‘Any experienced detective will have come across many great stories in the course of their work. We don’t solve everything. Even when we work out who the perpetrator was, there’s always something that doesn’t quite make sense, some remark that one of the people involved happened to make that didn’t fit with the facts. I’ve been involved in several cases like that. I could tell you some of them—’

The coffee was at last delivered to the table. I took hold of mine at once, and applied myself busily to the task of adding cream and a little sugar. I stirred the cup with intense interest. I did not look up to meet her gaze.

‘Wouldn’t you be interested in hearing some of them?’ Frejah said. ‘I’m sure you could write a few books based on them.’

And there it was – the suggestion novelists never have an answer for, and try to avoid at all costs.

Everything we write as fiction is based ultimately on story. In some novels a storyline, the narrative, is virtually all there is, in others the story is deeply or subtly woven into the language, the mood, the characters, the setting, and so on. But fiction always directly or indirectly relates the movement of events and decisions that amounts to a story.

Story is what many readers remember about a novel long after they have read the last page. Story is seen as unique to each novel.

We all involve ourselves with story. Most people who read books love to think about ‘what happened next?’, or if they read mysteries ‘whodunit?’. They follow the story, enjoy its twists and turns, wait for the final revelation.

Sometimes readers feel let down by the way the author has tied things up. People want stories to work properly, as they see it, to give a kind of satisfaction. It makes them dream about what they think would have been a more gratifying ending: the hero didn’t die after all, the business didn’t collapse, the couple married and lived happily thereafter, and so on. Or, getting further into the spirit, they think up a whole new plot, one they have never read anywhere or heard about from anyone (they believe). Or they are told an anecdote by a friend, or there is a court case they read about some years ago in a newspaper, or there was some unusual event that occurred in the locality whose details have never spread into the wider world – they all seem obvious material for a novel.