“Probably some piece of everything I’ve ever done,” says Sharon Duncan, “shows up in my writing.” That said, she’s not an MI5 agent like Kate St. Claire, the protagonist of Duncan’s latest novel, Going Dark. Duncan isn’t exactly sure where the character came from, but she has some theories.

“[Kate St. Claire] evolved from all my wonderful sojourns in London and Devon and Scotland,” says Duncan, “and from Foyle’s War, and my readings of the SOE in World War II, and the Maisie Dobbs series.” Aided by these influences, Duncan found the protagonist she needed. “I knew I wanted to create a strong, smart female who worked in British espionage, and lo and behold, she appeared!”

A devotee of thrillers, Duncan has done her homework. “I grew up in the genres of mystery and espionage,” she says. “My mother was a voracious reader, belonged to two book clubs, and there was no better way to while away long snowy winter evenings.” Duncan grew up in Michigan, attended Michigan State University, and then moved to California for graduate school. She still lives on the West Coast—in Gig Harbor, Washington. 

“All of my best writing has been done in sight of the ocean,” says Duncan, who’s also spent considerable time in southwest Florida. “I need to see the water.” Duncan’s a writer of routine. “Many of my epiphanies and breakthroughs come in the very early morning hours before the world intrudes,” Duncan says. Her writing space overlooks the waters of Puget Sound, and from the windows she can see her blooming rhododendrons. 

Though born and raised in the States, Duncan sets her latest thriller on the other side of the Atlantic, in England and elsewhere. Kirkus Reviews notes that the book’s “descriptions are rich, and the pace is fast and furious as Kate seeks answers to professional and personal problems in England, France, and Morocco.” 

At the beginning of the book, a car bomb destroys Kate’s Alfa Romeo. She’s not in it and is only injured in the explosion, but her parents, who were borrowing the car, are killed. An Islamic State group splinter cell claims responsibility for the murders. Kate’s romantic interest, Tariq Kassar, conveniently disappears the night before the bombing. And his wife, Nadia Sultan, prone to stalking Kate, might be a suspect as well. Meanwhile, MI5 Deputy Director Deborah MacKenzie is trying to extricate herself from a relationship with a male escort who may have ties to terrorist networks.

Kate and Deborah are strong characters but not inhumanly so. They try to hide their flaws and mistakes. Kate, for instance, struggles to believe the mounting evidence against Tariq. Emotionally bereaved and confused, she opts for repression. Even her return to her parents’ apartment is a quiet attempt to muffle her feelings—and a display of Duncan’s assured characterization:

Kate hesitated at her parents’ bedroom, then slowly opened the door and scanned the silent room with its king-sized bed and the walk-in closet. Her mother’s white toweling robe lay across the back of the vanity chair. The bed was neatly made. A framed portrait of Kate and her twin brother Kincaid sat on the tall bureau….Her father’s favorite tweed jacket lay across the bed as if he’d intended to take it to Devon and then changed his mind. The door to her father’s adjoining office was open, a stack of files and books on the desk, no doubt left there to peruse on the Monday morning he never returned to.

Characterization is a priority for Duncan, one that demands painstaking planning. “For each character I create a two-page, detailed bio,” she says. “Not just age, education, and physical characteristics, but hangouts, deepest secrets, what they’re most proud of, most afraid of; their core need, their psychological maneuvers.” 

“Once a character is full-blown, they write the scene,” says Duncan. “I don’t need to….It really is like channeling.”

In addition to these character biographies, Duncan creates “sociograms,” graphic representations of the links between characters. She extensively outlines each scene in her novels and uses Story Grid, an editing tool, to “see the bigger picture and how scenes are relating to each other.” 

A thorough planner, Duncan is also meticulous in her research methods. “I do a lot of research up front,” she says. “Sometimes years before I even write the book.” Duncan admits that more than one project has taken her down a deep rabbit hole of internet research. “I’m afraid the FBI will turn up at my door,” she jokes.

As much as she enjoys digging for information, the subjects of her books often arrive uninvited via the cycle of endless and implausible news. “We are living, for better or for worse, in what will be seen as historically chaotic times,” Duncan says. “My fictitious characters simply respond to real events transpiring around them.”

Duncan’s mysteries used to be published by Penguin. While that measure of success represented the fulfillment of a dream, she also grew frustrated with the traditional publishing path. “It was great being at Penguin,” she says. “The downside was that my publicist had 74 other writers she was working with.”

Duncan took a long hiatus from writing “to do a lot of sailing and yacht racing.” When she returned, the self-publishing route looked more promising and rewarding. She could use Amazon’s publishing platform. She’s since enlisted a longtime friend to do all her book design. Still, Duncan’s not opposed to high-profile representation. She’s received a couple queries. Her hope is that the Officer Kate St. Claire series will get the adaptation it deserves: a TV show. “She’d be a fabulous protagonist in a BBC series,” Duncan says of Going Dark’s lead.

Duncan has another thriller she hopes to finish this fall. After that, she’ll have to decide whether to return to Friday Harbor, Washington, and resume her ongoing Scotia MacKinnon Mysteries series or revisit London and renew the adventures of Kate St. Claire.

Either way, it’s a win-win for mystery readers.

Walker Rutter-Bowman is a writer and teacher living in Washington, D.C.