John Bayliss – The Butler Did It
Despite the phrase ‘the butler did it’ being such a well worn cliché, there appear to be remarkably few cases of murderous butlers in the whole corpus of crime fiction—not even from the Golden Age, wh...
John Bayliss – The Mystery of the Locked Room Mystery
We’ve all read them. We’ve all (hopefully) been mystified by them, too—those crime stories where how the crime was committed is as much of a puzzle as who committed it. They’re generally called ‘Locke...
Matthew Pritchard – Why Write Crime Fiction?
Like most novelists, I write because I love to read. But when I first tried to set pen to paper, this posed me something of a problem. What was I going to write? After all, I loved to read everything:...
Sherlock Holmes & The Holborn Emporium – Val Andrews
Every other Tuesday we feature a publication from leading independent publisher Endeavour Press. Sherlock Holmes & The Holborn Emporium – Val Andrews Get your free Kindle Edition toda...
John Bayliss – Lights, Camera, Write!
If someone trained a camera on me whilst I was writing, I suspect that the results would not be as dull as you might expect. I don’t mean the typing part (which is dull), but the fact is that hammerin...
Behind the Scenes with an Editor – AJ Waines
Every writer I know talks about Revisions. After submitting a book to an agent or publisher (and after a nail-biting wait (Do they like it?)), the response comes back in an email report outlining sugg...
Featured Author – Alex Shaw
Welcome to Alex Shaw, our featured author for March. In this, his first post for the CRA, we wanted to get to know a little bit more about him. How did you start writing? It was 1996 and I was livi...
Featured Post: Fiction Feedback
We are delighted to have been sponsored by Fiction Feedback this month. Fiction Feedback provide an independent, affordable, critique service for writers – giving honest, helpful and professiona...
What’s the story – Sally Spedding
There has to be enough of one whose selling ‘blurb’ and ‘shout line’ will persuade the casual browser that they are about to enter another world real enough to make them forget their own moorings. Thi...
Featured Author Friday – Sally Spedding
Last week we had a great post from our Featured Author, Sally Spedding, but I know you want to know a little bit more about her….. My crime chillers explore the darkest sides of people and place...
Settings to Die For – Sally Spedding
It has always been a particular setting which has fired the engine of my beginning either a new crime chiller or short story. A setting that hits my heart. Some have been discovered quite by accident,...
Catherine Aird – Diamond Dagger 2015
Earlier today the CWA made much anticipated announcement of the winner of the 2015 Diamond Dagger. We caught up with Catherine Aird to find out what winning the Diamond Dagger meant to her. How do you...
Heroes and villains – David Beckler
As with most genres, the most important character in crime fiction is the hero. This is usually a detective – amateur or professional – who solves the crimes. Writers intending to write a series must...
Rules for Writers – David Beckler
When I began writing a few years ago, I hadn’t a clue about the craft of writing and didn’t even know if I could sustain a narrative for the required 80-100k words. For thirty odd years the only writi...
Immortal Madonna by Yvonne Crowe
Every other Tuesday we feature a publication from leading independent publisher Endeavour Press. The Immortal Madonna – Yvonne Crowe Free Kindle Edition today (20.01.2015) What’s it all a...
Rules for Detective Stories – David Beckler
Monsignor Ronald Knox came up with 10 rules of detective fiction as a preface to Best Detective Stories of 1928-29: 1) The criminal must be someone mentioned in the early part of the story, but must n...
Music while you work?
I recently saw this quote from Paul Auster: “I’ve heard of people who write with music playing. This is unthinkable to me because the music that you’re listening to is the music of the language that y...
Fifty Shades of Nighttime Grey; Walking the Somerset Levels By Nina Milton
Have you ever walked the Somerset Levels at night? I have, purely for research purposes, and it was a scary experience. On the night I took my walk, charcoal clouds were scuttling across the sky. The...
Sherlock Holmes At The Raffles Hotel – John Hall
Every other Tuesday we feature a publication from leading independent publisher Endeavour Press. Sherlock Holmes At The Raffles Hotel by John Hall – Free ebook today (06.01.2015) What’s it...
The 12 Suspects of Christmas: The Solution
Previously in this periodical, the author put before you a Yuletide conundrum and now begs your indulgence to present her elegant solution… It was the second day of the Year of Our Lord 1896, wh...
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