A macabre liturgy. A mysterious carving. An intriguing 200-year-old mystery. When Phineas Fox is asked to help with the music for bicentenary celebrations at Cresacre Abbey School, he does not expect...
A DISCORDANCE OF ANCIENT LAWS by Sarah Rayne
I wasn’t expecting to find I had combined an ancient law and opera for a book, but Song of the Damned, published in July 2018, turned out to have both elements at its heart. It’s not, of course, so ve...
The second disappearance of Aldo Moro by Timothy Williams
Left-wing terrorists kidnapped Aldo Moro in Rome on 16 March 1978. Fifty-five days later, on 9 May, his lifeless body was found abandoned in a Renault 4 hatchback in the heart of the city. He had been...
And What Do You Do? by Diane Dickson
When I was in my late twenties, I worked as a receptionist. Not any old receptionist, I worked in the staff health clinic in a military hospital in Saudi Arabia. It was confidential work. It wasn’t ju...
James Bond in a Toga and Sherlock Holmes with a Rapier, by Peter Tonkin
Since bringing the 30-novel Mariner series of action adventures to a close and retiring from full-time teaching, I have been working on two parallel series of historical novels. One is a sequence of...
The most prolific murderer in history? (And the chances are you won’t have heard of her) by Tessa Harris
Ask a serious crime buff to name the most prolific serial killer in history and many will no doubt say Harold Shipman, the Lancashire doctor who is thought to have killed more than 200 victims. Others...
A Day in the Life… by Abi Silver, author of The Aladdin Trial, out 28 June, published by Lightning Books
I find myself lurching into the morning routine around 6.45; rousing the boys for school (I have three, in their teens), sorting the washing (whites/colours), including remembering to put to one side...
CWA Diamond Dagger Winner Michael Connelly Interview
Michael Connelly – winner of the CWA Diamond Dagger 2018 Michael Connelly is to receive this year’s CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honour in British crime writing. The Dagger award recognises autho...
I Never Lie by Jody Sabral
Is she the next victim? Or is she the culprit…? Alex South is a high-functioning alcoholic who is teetering on the brink of oblivion. Her career as a television journalist is hanging by a threa...
Forgotten Classics: Cornish Author Katherine Stansfield’s Choice
Katherine grew up in Cornwall, and though she now lives in Cardiff, she can’t stop writing about her former home. Her historical crime series, Cornish Mysteries, blends real crimes with local folklore...
Interview with Simon Michael, who writes about 1960s London
Good afternoon, Simon and welcome to the CRA blog. Hello, and thank you for inviting me. For those of us who haven’t yet encountered the Charles Holborne series, would you object to the books being ca...
Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining… by Paul Gitsham
One of the dirty little secrets that we crime writers are sometimes loathe to admit in polite society, is that when something really bad happens to a loved one, our second thought (after checking they...
Why Do We Write Fiction? by Patricia Finney
Yes, I know Terry Pratchett got here first but I can’t find the relevant quote from his Witches Abroad. I mean seriously. Why? Why do we sit down for many many many hours, busily writing long ex...
CWA Announce Longlists for Prestigious Crime Writing Daggers
The Crime Writers’ Association announced the much anticipated longlists for the annual Dagger awards at a reception during CrimeFest in Bristol on the evening of Friday 18 May. Several titles ap...
Case Files 32
Case Files issue 31 – out soon! Case Files is an ezine that profiles new or forthcoming novels from members of the Crime Writers’ Association. Subscribing is free – and it let’...
National Crime Reading Month 2018 Underway
National Crime Reading Month, an initiative promoted by the CWA, is now underway, with libraries, bookshops and writing festivals throughout the country hosting events and talks this month with author...
Historical Noir by Barry Forshaw
Barry Forshaw, one of the UK’s leading experts on crime fiction, has written a lively, wide-ranging and immensely informed history of the genre as part of his award-winning ‘Noir’ series (that include...
Where do you get your ideas? Crime writer Peter Bartram lifts the lid on his source…
When people hear that I’m a crime writer, the question they ask most often is: where do you get your ideas from? I guess I’m not alone among crime writers in finding that’s the numbe...
Writing as Escapism by AJ Waines
Have you ever been caught daydreaming? Missed your stop on the bus because your mind was miles away? Been hauled up for staring out of the classroom window as a child? If so, you probably learnt that...
Death in Shetland Waters by Marsali Taylor
Cass Lynch has achieved the post of third officer aboard her beloved ship, Sorlandet. They’re sailing from Norway to Ireland as part of the Tall Ships race when an unnerving early-morning encounter le...
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