One of the first rules of writing is simple: Write what you know.

And Haverford Township Police Department patrolman Keith Gilman took that lesson to heart when he released his second crime novel, “My Brother's Keeper.”

In a series of email and phone call interviews, Gilman explains to Patch how a police officer with 18 years serving the Haverford Township Police Department—and prior to that he worked with the Lackawanna County Sheriff’s Department and the University of Scranton Dept of Public Safety—decided to take up writing.

“Writing is something I always wanted to do and felt I always would do at some time in my life.  Although I was generally a poor student, I seemed to have an innate talent for creative writing,” Gilman explains, who received a criminal justice degree while attending the University of Scranton, the town where he was born and raised. 

And he does have talent. His first book in the crime novel series about a former Philadelphia police officer, “Father's Day” won the Best First Novel Award from the Private Eye Writers of America in 2009.

And a story published in Philadelphia Noir from Akashic Books, “Devil's Pocket” was nominated for a Macavity Award, a literary award for mystery writers.

Quite impressive for any author starting out, but it’s his crime series that has the literary world noticing Gilman.

“Father’s Day” and “My Brother’s Keeper” follow private investigator and former Philadelphia cop Lou Klein into his world with a haunted past and the dark places of the City of Brotherly Love where decent folks do not dare enter.

In “Father’s Day,” Klein must find the missing daughter of an old friend, but along the way he uncovers the hard, dark truths of his friend’s alleged suicide.

“My Brother’s Keeper,” which was published late 2011, finds Klein trying to uncover a history of lies as an old girlfriend walks back into his life. With her arrival comes the murder of her brother and the truth of one of his oldest friend’s involvement with murder.

While most writers have to research the topic of their books, being a police officer himself, Gilman does not have much work to do, but he does investigate a lot as any author would do.

“I’m not originally from Philadelphia but since I’ve been in the area so long, I feel very much like an adopted son and have made it my business to learn the neighborhoods I write about and converse with the many police officers I’ve met who have worked and sometimes lived in those districts,” Gilman explains, adding that Lou Klein’s cases are not based on any actual cases that he has worked on.

Many writers usually have a unique relationship with their characters and Gilman is no different.

“As a writer, I feel you must put some of yourself in the writing and the characters.  So Lou Klein is me and he isn’t.  We have much in common in our sense of justice and our view of the world and we are separated by many things as well,” he explains.  “Lou has had much more to deal with, is more long-suffering than me or most people, cops or not. It’s the nature of the type of crime stories I write, strong noir elements, with fate pitted against the good intentions of very flawed heroes.”

Without the experience of being a police officer, Gilman says he is not sure if he would be able to write the books that he does.

He says that without his many years of training and experience as a police officer, he would not have the same sense of realism or emotional depth that he breathes into Lou Klein and his other stories.

And it is because of realism and depth that draws readers in and experiences the same things as Klein, who is a flawed hero who gets too emotionally involved in his cases, describes Gilman.

“Readers want to know what cops know, they want to know how cops think. They want to hear it from someone who’s walked the walk and can talk the talk. What cops tend to know most intimately is death and that is what readers often find described in my writing, Death in its many forms and faces,” Gilman adds.

Besides Lou Klein, Gilman has written many crime stories for various online and print publications. But many of his stories have the key elements that make for great reading.

“My novels are quite dark, with multiple layers of meaning, taut psychological depth, strong noir elements and stark visual imagery,” Gilman says.

But creating a world where a Lou Klein has to solve mysteries is not an easy thing. Unlike most people, Gilman not only has a dangerous job of his own being a police officer, but his work schedule is unpredictable and finding free time to write is hard.

But despite these challenges, Gilman does find the time to write his craft.

“Finding time to write is difficult.  I find myself writing at spare moments whenever the opportunity arises.  I unfortunately do not have a set writing schedule.  It varies from day to day and week to week depending on my work schedule and my level of fatigue.  It is important to me though and one way or another, it gets done,” he writes.

And what does the future hold for Gilman?

“I still have a few more years left in my police career. Then, I will undoubtedly devote myself exclusively to writing. Its definitely where I’m headed,” he remarks.

To find out more about the books that Gilman writes, go to: www.keithgilman.com.