DCI Surinder Taws is the Scottish female detective at the centre of my Surinder Taws Mystery series, set in Stonehaven on the Aberdeenshire coast. Her first case is The Crimson Keep.
When I began writing The Crimson Keep, I knew I didn’t want to create another detective at the start of their career.
There are plenty of those already. The ambitious new recruit. The outsider genius. The detective who solves everything through brilliance alone.
I was more interested in what comes later.
In experience. In consequence. In the kind of understanding that only comes from having lived a life.
That’s where DCI Surinder Taws began.
A Detective Shaped by Experience, Not Potential
Surinder is in her fifties. She’s built a career, raised two children, and come through a long-term abusive marriage to a fellow officer.
That history matters.
It shapes how she sees people, how she listens, and what she notices. She isn’t looking to prove herself in the way a younger detective might be. She already knows what she’s capable of.
But that doesn’t mean she’s untouched by doubt.
Outside of her work, her confidence has been worn down. The aftermath of reporting her ex-husband still lingers – some colleagues supportive, others resentful that she spoke out.
She’s experienced enough to do the job. But she’s still dealing with the cost of the life she’s lived.
Not a Genius – Just Someone Who Pays Attention
There’s a familiar trope in crime fiction: the detective who is brilliant, unusual, and slightly removed from the rest of the world.
Surinder isn’t that.
She’s intelligent, but she’s not a genius. She doesn’t rely on sudden flashes of insight or dramatic leaps of logic. She works methodically. She builds a picture piece by piece.
And she’s very good in interviews.
She knows when to push, when to wait, and when to let silence do the work. She understands people not because she stands apart from them, but because she’s lived alongside them.
That difference matters.
A Woman at This Stage of Life
I wanted to write about a woman in her fifties because we don’t see enough of them at the centre of crime fiction.
Surinder is perimenopausal. She deals with hot flushes, brain fog, and the quiet awareness of ageing. These aren’t plot points, but they’re part of her reality.
They influence how she moves through the world, how she feels in her own body, and how she’s perceived by others.
She isn’t trying to reclaim youth. She’s navigating what it means to move forward without it.
Leaving Glasgow, Starting Again
Surinder relocates from Glasgow to Stonehaven after being overlooked for promotion.
On the surface, it’s a career move. In reality, it’s a need for distance. A chance to step away from a place where her past still defines her.
But starting again isn’t clean.
In a smaller community, she’s both visible and unknown. She has authority, but not yet trust. She understands how systems work, but not the dynamics of this particular place.
That tension – between experience and unfamiliarity – sits at the centre of her role in the series.
Strength, Control, and Resistance
Surinder doesn’t respond well to authority used badly.
She has little patience for politicians or senior officers who prioritise optics over truth, or who use their position to control rather than lead.
That comes from experience.
She knows how power can be misused, and she has no interest in playing along with it. She will do the job properly, even when it puts her at odds with the people above her.
The People Around Her
One of the most important relationships in the series is between Surinder and her colleague, Cliffy.
Cliffy is a steady presence. A devoted family man, physically imposing but emotionally open. He’s an excellent reader of people, and far more intuitive than he first appears.
Where Surinder is direct, he’s patient. Where she holds back, he connects.
They complement each other without competing, and that balance becomes essential to how they work.
A Different Kind of Detective
Surinder Taws isn’t designed to dominate a room.
She’s there to understand it.
She observes. She listens. She asks the questions that matter, even when they’re uncomfortable. And she carries her past with her, not as something to overcome, but as something that informs how she does her job.
She is competent. She is emotionally guarded. And she is, at her core, kind.
If You Like Character-Led Crime Fiction…
If you’re drawn to crime fiction where the detective feels real – shaped by experience, relationships, and the life they’ve lived outside the job – you can start reading The Crimson Keep here:
Not Ready for a Full Novel?
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