Why I Set My Novels in the Present Rather Than the Past
Crime fiction depends on pressure: a person must make a decision before the truth disappears, a threat becomes real, or an ordinary life breaks apart. The present gives me that pressure in its most immediate form. My characters live with the same technologies, anxieties and social changes as the reader, so their choices feel close enough to touch.
The Thorkild Aske novels are rooted in Norway, a country where old customs and modern systems exist side by side. A remote road, a family holiday, a ferry crossing or a winter gathering can carry centuries of memory, while a mobile phone, digital record or camera may alter the investigation within seconds. That contrast creates a useful tension for a psychological crime story.
A historical setting can offer distance and atmosphere, but it also places a layer between the reader and the crime. In a contemporary novel, the reader recognises the objects on the desk, the messages that arrive late at night and the quiet unease of waiting for someone to reply. The world does not need to be explained before the emotional danger begins.
For Australian readers, this immediacy can take many forms: a train platform in Melbourne, a crowded café in Sydney, a long drive between regional towns or the practical caution people use when sharing personal information online. A present-day setting allows the novel to travel across borders through everyday experience, even when its landscapes, traditions and weather are distinctly Norwegian.
| Element | Present-day crime fiction | Historical crime fiction |
|---|---|---|
| Investigation | Phones, databases, cameras and instant communication shape the case | Evidence and communication are limited by the period |
| Reader connection | Familiar habits create immediate recognition | Distance creates atmosphere and historical perspective |
| Social pressure | Current debates, laws and technologies can influence behaviour | Social rules are reconstructed through research |
| Setting | Modern places can change rapidly and feel unstable | Buildings, customs and institutions may feel preserved |
| Character conflict | People must respond to information arriving too quickly | People struggle with what information cannot yet be known |
Technology That Changes The Crime
A contemporary investigation is shaped by the speed and permanence of information. A message can be deleted but still leave a trace. A location can be shared without a character realising it. A photograph may reveal a detail that the person holding the camera never noticed. These possibilities influence both the plot and the moral choices of the characters.
Technology also creates uncertainty rather than simple certainty. A phone can place someone near an event, but it cannot always explain why they were there. A camera may record movement while missing intention. Digital evidence can be incomplete, manipulated or misunderstood. This gives the investigator a richer problem: facts arrive quickly, yet meaning remains difficult.
That tension is familiar in Australia, where contactless payments, transport apps and workplace platforms have become ordinary parts of daily life. The same convenience that helps people move through Sydney or Melbourne can produce a trail of personal data. Contemporary crime fiction can use that trail without pretending it provides a complete picture of a human being.
The Present Carries Its Own History
Writing in the present does not mean ignoring the past. Every modern crime is surrounded by earlier decisions, family stories and national memories. In Norway, holidays, food, landscapes and local traditions can hold emotional significance long before they become evidence in a case. I use those elements to show how the past remains active inside present relationships.
The important distinction is that my characters experience history as inheritance rather than as a period being reconstructed. A tradition may comfort one person and burden another. A familiar celebration may expose a family secret. Readers interested in this relationship between custom and plot can explore how I use Norwegian traditions in the novels.
Australia offers comparable layers of memory. An Anzac Day ceremony, a family Christmas in the heat, a regional football weekend or a gathering shaped by First Nations history can carry different meanings for different people. These occasions are recognisable, yet never emotionally neutral. A present-day setting lets a crime disturb a living tradition instead of presenting it as something safely contained in the past.
Laws, Institutions And Real Consequences
The contemporary world gives crime fiction a clear framework of laws and institutions. Police procedures, privacy rules, mental-health services, border controls and media practices affect what characters can do and what investigators are allowed to learn. These boundaries make the story more credible because the solution cannot depend on unlimited access to private information.
Australian readers are especially aware that personal data sits within a legal environment shaped by the Privacy Act 1988, while state and territory rules can affect policing, recording and reporting. A character may have a strong suspicion but still need lawful grounds to obtain information. That gap between what someone believes and what they can prove is fertile ground for suspense.
The law also changes how victims and witnesses behave. People may fear reputational damage, employment consequences or public exposure as much as physical danger. In a close-knit town, gossip can travel faster than an official statement; in a large city, anonymity can be equally deceptive. Contemporary crime fiction can show those pressures without turning institutions into convenient villains.
A Living Market For Crime Fiction
Setting a novel in the present allows it to speak to the current reading culture. Crime fiction readers follow international releases, translated editions, podcasts, reviews and author events almost simultaneously. A novel can move between countries while the concerns inside it remain recognisable: loneliness, institutional distrust, family obligation and the desire to understand another person.
The Australian market has a strong appetite for local and international crime writing, with independent bookshops, public libraries and major retailers supporting translated fiction alongside Australian voices. Readers may encounter a Norwegian novel in Brisbane, Perth or Hobart and still recognise the emotional logic of a difficult family conversation. The geography changes, but the experience of uncertainty can cross it.
This is one reason an author website matters. Information about editions, reviews and rights helps a book remain connected to readers beyond its original publication. For publishers, booksellers and translators considering future opportunities, rights enquiries provide a direct route to the practical side of that connection.
Why Thorkild Aske Needs The Present
Thorkild Aske is shaped by memory, guilt and the consequences of earlier actions, yet he moves through a world that demands immediate responses. He cannot remain outside the systems around him. Messages arrive, records exist, people search for information and public narratives form quickly. The present keeps pushing him towards decisions before he has fully understood himself.
That pressure is central to the atmosphere I want. A contemporary setting makes escape difficult, but it does not make truth easy. Modern life supplies more evidence while multiplying interpretations. It gives characters access to one another while leaving them emotionally isolated. Those contradictions allow the investigation to become a study of responsibility as well as a search for facts.
I also value the risk of writing about a world that is still changing. Streets are redeveloped, technologies become ordinary and social assumptions shift. A novel set in the present captures a particular moment without claiming that the moment will last forever. Readers who want to place the books within a wider crime-fiction context can find further material through crime fiction craft, while the novels themselves remain anchored in the unstable world their characters must confront.
The next step is to read the Thorkild Aske novels in publication order and watch how present-day technology, Norwegian tradition and personal consequence develop from one case to the next.