‘The Real Golden Age of Murder – Pistols, Bombs and Motor Bandits’ by Joan LockI wasn’t feeling like writing another book just now partly because I too often seem to choose a subject needing a great deal of research but, despite not previously being attracted by the subject, I...
CWA Daggers 2021 AnnouncedChris Whitaker, Eva Björg Ægisdóttir, Michael Robotham, Vaseem Khan and Peter May win 2021 CWA Daggers. The winners of the 2021 CWA Daggers, which honour the very best in the crime writing genr...
Diamond Meets the EyePeter Lovesey on the inspiration for Diamond and the Eye. Some of my happiest reading has been in the private eye genre, hard-boiled American eyes like Sam Spade, Philip Marlowe, Lew Archer, Matt Scud...
‘Codes, Ciphers and Cryptic Clues in Crime Fiction’ by Vaseem Khan“The Da Vinci Code meets post-Independence India.” That’s how MW Craven, winner of the CWA Gold Dagger, has described my latest novel, The Dying Day. I can understand why. The book, set in Bombay in 1...
‘Scribbler Sleuths’ by Andy Griffee‘Police Calls’ were one of my regular duties as a 20-year-old cub reporter on the weekly Poole and Dorset Herald during the early 1980s. It involved an early morning drive to the town’s ma...
Sea views, enviable location: shame about the unexpected visitors!Beverley Jones talks about her new novel The Beach House and how beloved childhood stories provided sinister inspiration for adult nightmares. Once upon a time (in the 1980s), there was a little girl...
Latest News from Mirror BooksMurder at Roaringwater Murder at Roaringwater is the inside story of a young Frenchwoman, Sophie Toscan du Plantier. In this notorious and unresolved crime, the victim seemed to have a premonition of...
Countdown to Daggers Live!Book lovers and crime fiction fans have a unique opportunity to watch the famed Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Daggers awards, live. Tickets are free, but limited. To book a place, visit: http://bit...
Filmed interviews with authors to feature in National Crime Reading MonthA newly-launched initiative designed to showcase crime writers will feature in National Crime Reading Month in June with four authors talking about their craft and the publishing industry. Launched in...
Love Reading UK’s 100 Top Female-led Crime NovelsWhat an exciting collection this is! Love Reading UK is celebrating National Crime Reading Month in June, hosted by the Crime Writers’ Association, by offering you some of their favourite female-led c...
The Dark Room, by Sam BlakeHare’s Landing, West Cork. A house full of mystery… Rachel Lambert leaves London afraid for her personal safety and determined to uncover the truth behind the sudden death of a homeless ma...
The Invitation by A.M. CastleThe Invitation: join A.M. Castle for a closed circle murder mystery I have always wanted to write a closed circle murder mystery, so I suppose I’ve been lucky – the UK’s first lockdown gave me the mea...
WHAT MAKES A WRITER, by Jay FormanMy father was a psychiatrist and he often told me that psychiatrist’s children are the most messed up people on the planet. He may have been right. Like every other writer I’ve been told “no” more tim...
HISTORY: THE DEVIL’S SCRIPTURE by Jeff DawsonI lived, some years ago, on a Ladysmith Road. It joined another called Kimberley, thoroughfares of solid, red-brick terracing. Show me any British suburb, built c.1900, and I will give you streets nam...
Caught Doing the Bear, by Leslie ScaseIn this article I am going to express some of my personal views on the writer’s use of language in historical novels, both as an author and as a reader. By the use of language, I mean not just the wor...
Writing Forgotten Women by Saeida RouassIn 2015 I came across a Times newspaper article that detailed the crimes of the ‘Moorish Jack the Ripper’. The article was printed in 1906 and offered a gruesome description of a series of murders of...
Man as Monster and the Milgram Experiment by Bryony PearceI’ve always been intrigued by man-as-monster; equally frightened and fascinated by the idea that someone who could help an elderly neighbour with their shopping, let local kids play in their garden an...
‘Sodden boxershorts: Charles Willeford and modern-day publishing’ by John BarlowI’ve just finished reading Charles Willeford’s Hoke Moseley series. The four books, all set in 1980s Miami, are wildly, brilliantly idiosyncratic. As Elmore Leonard said, nobody writes a better crime...
The Adventures of Maud West by Susannah StapletonMaud West ran her detective agency in London for more than thirty years, having started sleuthing on behalf of society’s finest in 1905. Her exploits grabbed headlines throughout the world but, beneat...
Changing Genres by Leigh RussellWriters are wordsmiths. We spend our time playing with words, seeing how we can use them to communicate. But ideas as well as language inspire the books we write, and these ideas can pop up unbidden f...
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