The Thief, His Wife and the Canoe by David LeighMy book started its life in late 2007, the same month I had flown from Panama to Miami and on to Manchester, via Atlanta, Georgia, to bring Anne Darwin home to face the music. Anne was the wife of ‘Ca...
Music of the Night – CWA short story anthologyMusic of the Night is the anthology of original short stories contributed by Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) members, with music as the connecting theme. Whether it’s the swaying notes of classical o...
‘From the slush pile to the Sorbonne’ – Peter Lovesey on the lows and highs of short story writingMany stories ago, I found a second-hand book published in 1947 called The Queen’s Awards. It contained the winning short fiction in a competition organised by the two American mystery writers, Frederi...
‘The C Change in Undercover Policing’ by Stephen BentleyHaving now written two non-fiction and several fiction books about undercover cops, I know a thing or two about authenticity when writing fiction involving characters who are undercover police officer...
Open House Submissions 100×100 for Under-represented Writers10am Tuesday 1 March 2022 – 10am Wednesday 2 March 2022 For 24 hours, United Agents Books Department will be holding an Open House submissions window to encourage submissions from groups that ar...
‘Entering the secret world of urban gangs’ by Jennie EnsorWhat goes on inside closed groups has always fascinated me – whether it’s a dysfunctional family unit, an urban gang or a Metropolitan Police murder team. All three feature in my fourth book, Silenced...
The Subsequent Wife by Priscilla MastersJennifer Lomax is just twenty-one but she’s already taken some hard knocks in life. So when older, reserved and enigmatic widower Steven Taverner asks her to marry him, she’s desperate to...
Hunt for the Margery Allingham Short Mystery Prize Winner 2022The hunt for the best unpublished short mystery story is on. Entrants have until 6pm GMT on Monday 28 February to enter the international Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Margery Allingham Short Myste...
Bookseller of the Month – February 2022: Winstone BooksWinstone Books in Sherborne, Dorset, is our February Bookseller of the Month. Bookseller Elly Griffiths paid them a visit. By serendipitous coincidence, February 2022 marks the tenth anniversary of Wa...
A Talent for Murder by Matthew BoothIt has been a long time coming. Since I first encountered Sherlock Holmes when I was 11 years old, I wanted to write crime and detective stories and, over the years, I wrote several crime novels (unpu...
When I signed a two-book deal with Polygon back in 2019 under the new name of Morgan Cry, I was ecstatic. I delivered both books to the publisher by late 2019 and thought, what do I do now? I knew tha...
‘The Downstairs Neighbour’ by Helen CooperIn a converted Georgian townhouse in south west London, three families live under one roof. The large flat that takes up the top two floors is home to the Harlow family: happily married Paul and Steph...
First Love by Maxim JakubowskiIt might appear perplexing to some that the latest book by the erstwhile owner of the Murder One bookshop and current Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association happens not to be a crime and mystery nove...
Bookseller of the Month: Griffin Books, PenarthThe CWA’s Bookseller of the Month for December is Griffin Books in Penarth. Griffin Books in Penarth is one of those shops writers love to be invited to. It’s run by the amazing Mel Griffin who...
KGB Banker by William Burton McCormick & John ChristmasA return trip to the land of his ancestors is about to turn deadly for one whistleblowing Chicago banker. When financial executive Bob Vanags takes a job at ominous Turaida Bank in Latvia, he hopes to...
A Theft, A Dog and a Man called Harold by Peter BartramOne of the pleasures of crime writing is when research turns you into a ‘snapper up of unconsidered trifles’. (The Winter’s Tale, Act 4 Scene 3, if you were torturing yourself to remember where the qu...
Bookseller of the Month: The Book Makers, BrightonEvery month, as part of the new CWA Booksellers Champion initiative, we want to celebrate a bookshop because we believe bookshops don’t just sell our books – they bring our streets alive. This month,...
Many Deadly Returns by the Murder SquadIt’s 21 years since Murder Squad, a group of award-winning crime and mystery writers, was formed and they have written a new anthology of short stories to celebrate the occasion with a bang. Murder Sq...
How I Came To Write ‘Appointment in Tehran’, by James StejskalWest Berlin, 1980. We knew it was going to happen sometime soon. When exactly was a mystery. It was one of those closely guarded secrets that would only be revealed when it was successful or went spec...
‘The Marriage Trap – what to do with the love interest in period detective fiction’ by Fiona Veitch Smith“Excuse me, miss. I think you’ve dropped something.” He held the camera under one arm like the bellows of a bag pipe, while with the other he thrust something in her direction. A book. The one she had...
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