The Crime Readers' Association

Death Lies BeneathCRA Giveaway: Death Lies Beneath (DI Horton Series)

1st March 2014

The eighth marine mystery crime novel featuring DI Andy Horton When ex con, Daryl Woodley is found dead on the marshes bordering Langstone Harbour the Intelligence Directorate believe his murder is li...

Developing Characters – Pauline Rowson

28th February 2014

Creating a likeable, interesting and complex main character, one the reader can have empathy with, one they want to trust, to feel his/her pain and disappointments, root for throughout the story is a...

aj waines the evil beneathMusic to my Ears – A J Waines

26th February 2014

  As a new fiction writer, specialising in psychological thrillers, I’ve taken no creative writing courses, joined no writers’ groups and even managed to fail my ‘O’ level English Literature. Not...

finn clarke winner of debut dagger 2013Call Time: Finn Clarke

16th February 2014

The Crime Writers’ Association has been running its Debut Dagger for over 15 years. The entry period for the 2014 Debut Dagger is now closed but this seemed like a good time to look back and hav...

Featured Author Friday: Pauline Rowson

14th February 2014

Are crime writers psychopaths?  Pauline Rowson The relationship between writers and their characters takes many forms. Some of my characters irritate me, others entertain, some make me feel cuddly and...

Featured Author Friday: Pauline Rowson

7th February 2014

Why the crime genre is so popular Crime fiction is the bestselling genre and tops the most borrowed fiction books from public libraries in the UK. So what is it that makes crime fiction so popular?  F...

Featured Author Friday: Chris Simms

31st January 2014

A Price To Pay – the ideas behind the story For the last three weeks, I’ve been discussing where ideas for novels come from. Sometimes, they ambush you. You might be sitting at home, minding your own...

CRA Blog Author Chris SimmsCRA Blog Author Chris SimmsFeatured Author Friday: Chris Simms

24th January 2014

Cut Adrift – the ideas behind the story My previous two posts looked at where ideas for novels come from. For some writers, a book is created when a very particular thought hits home: what if? This wa...

Click Alison Joseph

22nd January 2014

Click by Alison Joseph ‘You’d know if he was dead, though, wouldn’t you? Your own husband…..’ She stared into the black water. Around her the trees dripped with recent ra...

Reading: A Specialist Activity

22nd January 2014

David Stuart Davies writes: Reading books is becoming a specialist activity no longer enjoyed by the general public, writer Ruth Rendell has warned. The crime novelist and peer said reading is no long...

Julia JonesMargery Allingham: mystery on Mersea Island

21st January 2014

  Where do your ideas come from? Chris Simms says that he’s sometimes tempted to tell audiences that he downloads them from www.ideasfornovels.com. But however much authors may dislike bein...

CRA Blog Author Chris SimmsCRA Blog Author Chris SimmsFeatured Author Friday: Chris Simms

17th January 2014

Outside the White Lines – the ideas behind the story In last week’s post, I described how one question makes authors quake in their shoes: where do your ideas come from? Most writers – myself included...

CRA Blog Author Chris SimmsCRA Blog Author Chris SimmsFeatured Author Friday: Chris Simms

10th January 2014

The question authors dread. They stare at me in silence, hands raised high. It’s the part of a talk when I feel like David Dimbleby on Question Time. Who should I point to? ‘OK, the dark-haired lady i...

Reviewer’s Diary: Barry Forshaw

30th December 2013

Sitting in Soho with Simenon’s Son There are definite perks to being a writer of books on crime fiction. Such as invitations to a meal at discreet Soho House (situated, coincidentally, in Soho)...

D A MishaniThe International Author: D. A. Mishani

24th December 2013

Being a crime novelist in a country where crime writing is scarce, I’m often asked why I have chosen to write crime novels of all things. After all, I could have written novels that don’t...

IslNoir.Bob&ArnaldurChasing the elusive Lights, and Iceland Noir

19th December 2013

Earlier this year, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Ragnar Jónasson and I met over a curry and a beer, and it turned out we had had similar thoughts about Iceland’s lack of any kind of crime fiction festival. Ice...

The Magus of Hay Phil RickmanPhil Rickman – The Magus of Hay

7th December 2013

Phil Rickman swapped his native Lancashire for the rural peace of mid-Wales to work as a BBC radio and TV reporter. He now lives on the Welsh Border, where he writes crime novels with a restrained ele...

Jean Chapman Deadly seriousJean Chapman, Deadly Serious

7th December 2013

Jean Chapman lives in rural Leicestershire worked as freelance journalist before switching to fiction. After a first foray in the short story magazine markets, she wrote sixteen historical novels befo...

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