AN author has featured in a new CBS crime documentary after writing a novel inspired by notorious moors murderer Ian Brady.

Howard Linskey, originally from Ferryhill, County Durham, will feature in the new series from CBS Reality called Written in Blood.

The programme, hosted by Simon Toyne, brings fact and fiction together with Mr Linskey and other top crime writers to discuss how their works of fiction have been inspired by real life crimes.

The published writer joins a line-up that includes multi-million-selling authors Peter James, Mark Billingham and Simon Kernick.

Mr Linskey’s latest book “The Search” includes a character which resembles Ian Brady.

Assisted by his then girlfriend, Myra Hindley, Brady brutally murdered five children in the early sixties and it is these notorious crimes that feature in Linskey’s episode of “Written in Blood.”

Mr Linskey said: “I did not consciously set out to write about Ian Brady but, as the novel progressed, my character Adrian Wicklow started to resemble him.

“Brady was a narcissist who took a sadistic pleasure from tormenting the police and deliberately playing games with them, which became part of my story.”

Linskey has written six crime fiction novels to date, including a trilogy set in Newcastle, featuring a white-collared gangster called David Blake.

His current series, published by Penguin, follows Detective Sergeant Ian Bradshaw, who teams up with investigative journalists Tom Carney and Helen Norton to solve cold cases in County Durham and Northumbria.

Mr Linskey added: “The moors murders were possibly the most notorious crimes of the twentieth century and they shocked the whole country.

“Since then, Brady has been portrayed as someone who was laughing at the police and the victim’s families.

“One of the reasons for doing this programme for CBS Reality was to set the record straight.

“Brady didn’t win.

“He was an insignificant man before his crimes and spent more than fifty years in prison after them.

“That’s not winning.”

Ian Brady died aged 79 at the high-security Ashworth Hospital in May, just one week after Linskey’s novel was published.

  • For more information on CBS Reality or to view the documentary, visit cbsreality.tv