A little help from some policemen friends always comes in useful when you’re penning a crime novel.

And author, David Evans, it appears, has plenty of them.

“I’ve been so lucky with the people I’ve met through doing this,” he tells me. “First there’s Colin Steele, who was the ex-Superintendent of the Essex Murder Squad, and then Tom Harper, ex-Principal Crime Scene Co-ordinator for the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Doctorate.”

And don’t forget Steve Eastwood, a retired City of London Police DCI, who started off life as a PC in Clacton in 1974.

David adds: “He was able to give me invaluable information, like the fact that Special Branch, not Essex Police, were responsible for the Harwich ferry terminal and about their relationship with the KMar, who are the Dutch authorities.

“I remember going to see Tom at his office in Chelmsford when I was writing one of my earlier books and he was telling me that body bags didn’t come into use until the Nineties and before that body’s were wrapped in plastic.

“Both Colin and Tom read the initial draft and although there influence seeped a little into the narrative, it was mainly the procedural stuff.”

But that’s what gives David’s books a real authentic edge, one that has already reaped literary rewards.

Born and brought up near Edinburgh, Scotland, David had a very successful career in the construction industry before taking up writing.

Since releasing his debut book, Trophies, more than six years ago, he has been riding high in the bestseller charts.

After Trophies, the first in a trilogy of crime books set in Yorkshire and Essex, the following year he brought out Torment, which went on to be shortlisted for the prestigious Crime Writer’s Association Debut Dagger Award.

After netting a deal with Bloodhound Books he then released Talisman, before starting to work on his latest series of books, which begins with disposal and a light aircraft crash that takes place just off the coast of Clacton.

“With Trophies the action took place in Yorkshire, where I lived for a time,” he says, “but then with Torment and Talisman I brought the action down to Felixstowe and Jaywick, and that kind of inspired me to set a new series in north Essex initially towards the end of the long hot summer of 1976.”

Littered with local references from Colchester Hospital to Great Bentley village green, Disposal’s strength lies in David’s new crime-fighting duo DS Cyril Claydon and DI John ‘Dick’ Barton.

“I’d had enough of the characters from the Trophies series,” he admits, “and I had this idea of an old sergeant approaching 50, who was a little like my dad, who in turn was a mechanic in the RAF, being teamed up with someone completely different in terms of age and attitudes. It’s great to set the novel locally and this area provides a great backdrop but really Disposal is about the journey that both characters go on.”

Disposal is available in Caxton Books, Frinton, and Red Lion Books, Colchester.