This time last year a rumour swept through the close-knit British crime-writing community, not whispered in a quiet moment in the billiard room but shared on group chats and message boards. The producers of The Traitors were recruiting contestants for 2026, and wanted one of us to take part. Of course they did! The Traitors is a controlled, lower-stakes, stylised version of the golden age country house whodunnit, which is itself a controlled, lower-stakes, stylised version of real-life murder. It is crime writers’ job to examine the dark side of human behaviour. Betrayal of trust and manipulation are all in a day’s work. We often write from multiple perspectives, identifying with victim, perp and detective, giving us a unique kind of empathy. We spent the rest of the year wondering who it would be. (I didn’t get the call.)
Last November, in that howling no man’s land between the finale of Celebrity Traitors and the transmission of series four, I went along with 13 fellow crime novelists to the Traitors Live Experience in Covent Garden. Despite being professional pattern-finders with highly tuned powers of observation, none of us at the replica round table guessed that the Chosen One was among us, and had already completed her stint on the real thing.
Harriet Tyce, the barrister turned thriller writer, is perfect for the show, says former detective and bestselling novelist Clare Mackintosh. “The cat-and-mouse game in crime and thriller novels isn’t only between detective and villain, it’s between author and reader – who will reach the truth first? Whether Traitor or Faithful, a crime writer makes a formidable opponent.”
Mark Edwards, Traitors superfan and author of The Wasp Trap, agrees. “When talking to my family about The Traitors I referred to the players as ‘characters’, a slip that proves I watch it in the same way I read crime fiction. Writing crime novels makes us very good at games. That’s why Harriet was able to see that Hugo was a Traitor immediately.”
Ah yes, the takedown that launched a thousand memes. Harriet’s uncloaking of Traitor Hugo in episode three was masterly. It’s one thing to have your suspicions, another to present them convincingly. Her speech was the stuff of the courtroom dramas she writes; eloquent, controlled, incisive. “It has occurred to me from the moment that I found out that you were a barrister that you would be a prime target for the Traitors to take out,” she said, as the nation watched with barely controlled lust. “You have experience at cross-examination, you’re good at presenting your case and you’re highly articulate.” She closed with: “Those are hard facts, as far as I’m concerned.” In Ardross Castle, hard facts are thinner on the ground than protective Shields, but by presenting theory as data, Harriet made sure it became fact. Misdirection is all about delivering near-truths with such panache that the reader doesn’t question it. In a show in which so many banishments are vibes-based (“I’m voting for yourself because you took the last croissant at breakfast”), a novelist’s persuasive skills are powerful.
Harriet is, in Traitors parlance, “playing a blinder”. (We will overlook her misstep with Ross, the most doomed Faithful ever. All good sleuths have a fatal flaw.) I’m not sure writing mysteries automatically qualifies one to excel at the game. We spend most of our time alone, typing and wearing fleeces covered in pet hair. Yes, I practice to deceive, but it takes me months to get those plot twists down on paper. In conversation, I fumble my words and, like Stephen the Traitor, I’m a blusher. That said, authors do develop soft skills that might equip them well for life in the castle. In my time at literary festivals and libraries, I’ve learned how to engage a room of strangers quickly. “To be a successful author you have to be comfortable talking to people and making them like you,” says Edwards. “The players who are good at networking, like Jessie, are far less likely to be banished.”
That’s our suitability for the Faithfuls established, but what of the dark side? “To make twists work,” says Edwards, “we have to be able to create characters who are good at lying and pretending to be good guys. These baddies are always the most fun characters to write, and I think we would all relish the chance to be one of them, if only for a few weeks.”
When we played the Traitors Live, Harriet began as a Faithful but was recruited as a Traitor halfway through the game. If she crosses the floor in the show, the day job will give her further advantage. Crime writers love playing with dramatic irony. We are puppet masters, never happier than when the readers know something the characters don’t. What is that if not the essence of Traitorhood? That, and the inability to resist a chance to make mischief.
The Night Stairs by Erin Kelly is published by Vintage in July. To support the Guardian, pre-order your copy at guardianbookshop.com. Delivery charges may apply.
