My debut novel In Bitter Chill deals with the kidnapping of two young girls in the 1970s. It’s a distressing subject but I never considered the topic to be off-limits partly because it’s based on a ne...
Why I’ll Never Use an e-reader by Matthew PritchardOver the last 18 months I have purchased three e-readers: one for each of my parents, and a third for a friend. Having seen the machines in action, I have been impressed by them but know for a...
Golden Age – Part 4 by Noreen WainwrightI have spoken a lot about the Golden Age as a genre. When you are immersed in a subject you see it everywhere and in Waterstone’s in Liverpool last Sunday, sure enough, there were just so many re-issu...
Golden Age – Part 3 by Noreen WainwrightWhy do some contemporary crime writers decide to re-visit the golden age or indeed any other period of history? This is a popular trend but it is by no means a new one. In the 1970s, Ellis Pete...
After a conversation with James Ellroy, Tim Baker began work on a noir thriller. Twenty years and one vivid dream later, the completed work FEVER CITY is being published by Faber & Faber on 21 Jan...
Golden Age – Part 2 by Noreen WainwrightIn my last posting, I mentioned the unreliable narrator crime novel and how popular this sub-genre has become. But, if we look at the decades since the golden age we can see many strands in the...
A Day in the Life of Jean BriggsA Day in the Life of …Or, should it be A Life in the Day of …? I go to bed with Charles Dickens. I wake up with Charles Dickens. He’s always interrupting me with his speeches, his fourteen...
Golden Age – Part 1 by Noreen WainwrightYou might have noticed a relatively new trend in crime fiction publishing. In the midst of some of the prevailing big hits, you will see the re-issue of some of the golden age classics. One example of...
Diary of a Debut Author by Fiona Veitch Smith“His name is Arthur and he’s dead.” That’s how I was introduced to my costume for a 90-second film promo for my debut crime novel, The Jazz Files. Arthur – God rest his soul – had apparently once been...
A Day in the Life: Behind the Scenes by AJ WainesOne of the absolute joys of being a writer is that every day is different, largely because writers can play a much bigger part in the publishing process than they used to. Most authors now have a ‘pla...
The Importance Of Being Edited By Fergus McNeillSomebody once said “The only thing worse than being edited, is not being edited.” I forget who it was, and those may not have been their exact words, but they made an extre...
Diary of a Debut Author by Vaseem KhanSo . . . I am standing in a first-floor lounge at BBC studios in Manchester. It is 13th August 2015, 8.40am and in fifteen minutes I am due to walk onto the set of BBC Breakfast to talk about my debut...
Writer Seeks Readers By Fergus McNeillStories can connect people in all kinds of ways. I once drove over a hundred miles to speak at a library event. I had to take the afternoon off work to make sure I wouldn’t be late, and...
Are Some Writers Thieves? By Fergus McNeillI steal a lot of stuff. There aren’t too many professions where you can freely admit that sort of thing but, happily, writing is one of them. I steal indiscriminately, from friends, from...
The Write Way? By David HodgesSince the age of 11, when I started writing, I always envisaged myself living in a garret at the top of some old Victorian house in Covent Garden, surrounded by books and with the smell of coffee from...
Why do we like the wrong people? By Fergus McNeillMost of us believe that our moral compass points in the right direction. We know the difference between right and wrong, and we generally hope that good will prevail over evil. So why, when we read, d...
Shetland Noir by Mary BaleExtract from Threads of Treason and Pamela St Abbs Inspector Campbell Mysteries by Mary Bale. Thursday 12 November At about 7pm we passengers experience an extra quick journey to Sumburgh from Edinbur...
My writing life has taken a new turn. After spending the last year in the company of crime fiction writers, attending events, meetings, launches and festivals, it’s time to get serious. Although...
Diary of a Debut Author by Fiona CumminsAt 2am, when darkness has settled in for the night, I often hear the pit-pat of footsteps on the landing outside our bedroom. The door pushes open, drenching me in light, and a child appears in the we...
Crime novels I have read in three (or fewer) sittings by Matthew PritchardNovelist Phillip Roth says that if you take longer than two weeks to read a novel, you haven’t really read it – a statement with which I agree. Developing upon this idea, I think the hall...
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The CRA Newsletter: May 2020
The CRA Newsletter: April 2020
Case Files 43