Page 54 - Fireflyz#20

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Art
Scene
52 | FireFlyz
A former Malaysian police officer proves it’s never too late to change careers, attracting
international acclaim as a crime novelist. FireFlyz meets Rozlan Mohd Noor to find out
what inspired themove fromsolving crimes towriting about them.
Criminal Mastermind
I
t
is a gritty world that Rozlan Mohd
Noor inhabits, a world of shoot-
ings and robberies, elicit materials,
hackers and triads. Thankfully the
violence and criminals only exist in
his imagination nowadays, colouring
the crime stories Rozlan has penned
successfully for the past five years.
However, for over a decade, real crime
was his world.
Rozlan, a soft spoken and genial Kuala
Lumpur inhabitant, spent eleven years
working in the Royal Malaysian Police
Force, both as an investigating officer and
a Magistrate’s Court prosecuting officer,
and has certainly seen the murkier side
of human kind.
Despite the tough nature of his work,
Rozlan was happy in his job – “I love
the cloak and dagger life” he gleefully
admits –with the plots and intrigues of real
life crime appealing to the mischievous
and curious streak that has propelled him
through life.
The role with the police force also
satisfied the restlessness within Rozlan,
a by-product of what he described to a
previous interviewer as a “rather difficult
childhood”:
“I grew up to be a restless young man,
constantly searching for a vocation where
I could fit in and contribute.”
A career in the police force satiated that
urge for eleven years, yet the ambitious