23rd October 2015
‘Madame Ribault … managed to crawl to a chimney-board, where she traced with her finger, dipped in blood, the letters Commis de MT.’ Handy that, my Inspector Hardacre of Manchester would have s...
16th October 2015
Are we to have a Watson? The question is asked by A.A. Milne. His only detective story, The Red House Mystery, gives the answer. Milnes’s amateur detective, Antony Gillingham who ‘was born not...
15th October 2015
What Next? by Peter Tickler It’s a strange feeling. My latest crime novel, Dead in the Water, has just been published by Joffe Books. In addition, as I sit at my laptop typing this blog, I am feeling...
9th October 2015
In a letter entitled ‘How I Write My Books’, Wilkie Collins refers to the development of plot and character in the writing of The Woman in White. The central idea of conspiracy, he says, sugges...
4th October 2015
I’ve loved books ever since I learned to read…as a child, I would lose myself in anything by Enid Blyton, and I read classics like Little Women and Black Beauty so many times that my copie...
2nd October 2015
Somewhere recently, I read of a detective who advised his subordinate, young and keen, to disregard motive. Concentrate on the evidence, he insisted, and we’ll get our man – or woman, presumabl...
28th September 2015
Crime fiction is populated with cops and robbers. Of course the good guys and gals hog most of the limelight. But there wouldn’t be much point building up a multi-faceted character on the one ha...
18th September 2015
So you’re a writer… that don’t impress me much… Well it does sometimes. Maybe on a cultural level. I don’t overtly tell people I’m a writer. But when during a regul...
15th September 2015
Truly Criminal showcases a group of highly regarded writers who all share a special passion for crime, reflected in this superb collection of essays re-examining some of the most notorious case...
11th September 2015
Rebus is Edinburgh. Edinburgh is Rebus. Morse is Oxford. Oxford is Morse. You can’t take the sense of place out of crime novels. In many books the main character and the place are so intertwined that...
9th September 2015
Every other Tuesday we feature a publication from leading independent publisher Endeavour Press. Shrine to Murder by Roger Silverwood Tell me more! Bromersley. A small, peaceful town in Yorkshire. But...
4th September 2015
The devil’s in the detail so they say. And more and more crime writers seem to be getting involved with the finer points. But are they ‘losing the plot’ in the process? Is thi...
28th August 2015
Three years ago, if you’d asked me to stand in front of an audience and talk, I’d’ve died with my feet in the air. Now, when I go to the fridge and the light comes on, I do a ten minute bit. I wanted...
25th August 2015
Every other Tuesday we feature a publication from leading independent publisher Endeavour Press. Three, Three The Rivals by Anthea Fraser Tell me more! When Sheila Fairchild wakes one night from a chi...
21st August 2015
Where do you get your ideas? Writers will tell you that question is one they are most often asked, but it is still a valid query. How does a bunch of perfectly normal, well-adjusted – well, in the mai...
14th August 2015
I was once on the run from the law, a hunted fugitive, an innocent man jumping at every knock at the door, every footstep on the street… Okay, I wasn’t exactly Dr Richard Kimble but for a week or two...
11th August 2015
Every other Tuesday we feature a publication from leading independent publisher Endeavour Press. The Quick and the Dead by Alison Joseph (Download for free on 11.08.15) Tell me more! Sister Agn...
7th August 2015
One of the questions I’m often asked about my crime fiction is, why Glasgow? It’s such a well-used backdrop for the genre, surely you could write about somewhere else? Of course I could but I’m a Glas...
28th July 2015
Every other Tuesday we feature a publication from leading independent publisher Endeavour Press. A Well Pressed Shroud, Nicholas Rhea (Download for free today 28.07.15) Tell me more! Hardworking Detec...
24th July 2015
I’ve been reading crime fiction since I was a child. When I give talks at libraries I like to mention the authors that have influenced me as a writer. I always start off with Carolyn Keene’s Nancy Dre...