Why reviews are so important (although not for the reasons you might think), by Dougie BrimsonOver the last decade, it cannot have escaped your attention that ebooks have changed the world of publishing significantly. This is especially true for mid-list authors such as myself. No longer alway...
TRUTH GAMES by Caroline EnglandFamily is everything to Ellie Wilson. She tries hard to be the perfect mother, the perfect partner, the perfect daughter – but she can’t always seem to get it right. When an old friend from uni...
Dagger Winners Announced OnlineCWA Dagger Awards 2020 Winners Announced – Michael Robotham, Lou Berney, Trevor Wood, Casey Cep, and Abir Mukherjee win 2020 CWA Dagger awards. The winners of the 2020 CWA Daggers, which honour the ve...
Location, location, location by Candy DenmanWhen I was working on the long-running drama series, Heartbeat, we were often told that the biggest character we wrote for was the setting. How true that was. Whenever I tell people that I used to be...
Research – So Much More Than Just The Facts, by Jay FormanI did more research for No Return than I’ve ever had to do before for a book. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. What I didn’t know was how ignorant I was. The basic spark of an idea for the story was...
The Man on the Street, by Trevor WoodAn environmental campaigner disappears on the eve of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations. The only witness, Jimmy, a homeless veteran grappling with PTSD, doesn’t want to get involved. It’s not h...
‘To F or not to F… that is the question’ by David JewellSo it’s finally out and in print. Death Rattle. The debut novel of a new and nervous crime writing author. So what happens now? Well… Next come the reviews. I begin to feel like the writer of a new p...
‘Battling with the Muse’ by Diane M. DicksonI believe in The Muse. I am one hundred per cent convinced that there is a magic force that guides artistic endeavour. For interest mine is female, taller than me with longer, curlier, blonder hair, f...
Vintage Crime: CWA Anthology of Short Stories 2020Vintage Crime, a compilation of the juiciest stories from past Crime Writers’ Association anthologies and edited by Martin Edwards, has been published by Flame Tree Publishing Published in hardback an...
‘Doing the homework’ by Andrew BibbyYou mean, you do research for your novels? I understand very well why some readers may pose this question. Non-fiction books, fairly obviously, need to be carefully researched. Nobody, I’m sure, woul...
A new short story anthology with a difference celebrates short stories from the archives of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA). Vintage Crime gathers gems from the mid 1950s, when the CWA began, unt...
Battling with the Muse, by Diane M DicksonI believe in The Muse. I am one hundred per cent convinced that there is a magic force that guides artistic endeavour. For interest mine is female, taller than me with longer, curlier, blonder hair, f...
Author in Lockdown: Merryn AllinghamPlease tell us a little about yourself and the books you write. I currently write what might be called traditional crime. It’s historical—the Tremayne Mysteries Series is set in the 1950s—and I have a...
Thirty-One Bones, by Morgan CryWhen Daniella Coulstoun’s estranged mother Effie dies in Spain under suspicious circumstances, she feels it’s her duty to fly out for the funeral. On arrival, Daniella is confronted by a d...
We are Spartacus: the Publishing Industry and Race, by Vaseem KhanAs one of only a handful of non-white authors on the British crime fiction map, I thought it might be worthwhile spending a moment reflecting on the worldwide rebalancing touched off by the George Flo...
Location, Location, Location by Graham MinettJust recently I read CJ Carver’s latest (and highly enjoyable) thriller The Snow Thief, which is set in Tibet. On the sleeve of the book was a note to the effect that she had been inspired to write th...
44 short stories by your favourite CWA crime writersFor National Crime Reading Month in May we put out a call to our CWA member authors to contribute short stories to our online anthology. Well, they came in thick and fast! If you didn’t manage t...
CWA authors contribute to NHS charity anthologyA dozen CWA authors have joined forces with Newcastle-Upon-Tyne based literary group, Noir at the Bar, to publish a collection of short, fictional crime stories to raise funds for NHS Charities Togeth...
CWA DAGGER AWARDS 2020 LONGLISTS ANNOUNCEDThe 2020 longlists for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime writing genre, have been announced. The world-famous Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Daggers are the...
The Pleasure of Rereading, by Sheila MitchellH.R.F. Keating was one of the great pillars of British crime writing in the twentieth century; he was a crime fiction critic for decades, President of the Detection Club, Chairman of the CWA, Fellow o...
Joining the CRA is FREE. There are no lengthy forms to fill out and we need nothing but your email. You will receive a regular newsletter but no spam.
The CRA Newsletter: Sponsored by NWC
Case Files 49
The CRA Newsletter: March 2021