A CRIME writer who wants to take readers away from Oxford’s dreaming spires and show them the city’s dark side has landed a book deal.

Merilyn Davies, who works for Oxford City Council, will see her novel about a crime analyst and detective in Oxford hit the shelves next summer after publisher Arrow signed the world rights.

Drawing on her experiences as a crime analyst for the Metropolitan Police, Ms Davies plans to offer a different vision of Oxford than that offered by the Inspector Morse series.

She said: “I first set it in London, which is where I worked as a crime analyst, but it just wasn’t gelling.

“I thought: I want to write it here, and so I started imagining my characters in Oxford.

“But then I wondered how I could do that in the city of Morse and Colin Dexter. I knew I would have to make it very different.”

And so, Ms Davies turned her creative powers to the city’s grittier side for her novel, which includes central Oxford, Blackbird Leys, Rose Hill and Witney.

The 45-year-old writer, who co-founded the Chipping Norton Literary Festival, which took place at the weekend, is not afraid of taking on Oxford’s underbelly and tackling tough issues.

She said: “Walking to work everyday it’s impossible not to be struck by the contrast between the dreaming spires of Oxford and those who go about their lives beneath them.

“I wanted to explore this disconnect and show readers the Oxford I grew up in: the homeless, the struggling families, the clashes on a Saturday night after one too many.

“Oxford is a beautiful city but it’s a city with a dark side and I wanted to bring that to readers in the same way Colin Dexter so brilliantly depicted the darker side of university life.”

When I Lost You follows the investigation of a husband and wife held responsible for the death of their baby. When the father of the dead child disappears, it’s up to crime analyst Carla Brown and DS Nell Jackson to seek out the truth.

Ms Davies also wanted to avoid the usual pitfalls with her characters.

She said: “Neither of them are alcoholics. They have issues like anybody does but they’re not dysfunctional people. I didn’t want to go into any of those cliches.”

Deputy publisher Emily Griffin said the book would appeal to fans of Line of Duty and Happy Valley.

She said: “From the electrifying courtroom scene in the opening pages of this novel I was hooked on When I Lost You.

“Merilyn brings to life a much grittier Oxford setting than the dreaming spires we associate with Inspector Morse, and her in-depth knowledge of the procedural world brings a unique authenticity to the novel.

“This is a truly immersive read with a stand-out hook and characters you invest in for the long term.”

Arrow, which acquired the world rights to Ms Davies’s novel, will publish When I Lost You in e-book and paperback in summer 2019, with a second novel following in 2020.