Last year, I sat with the Finnish novelist Antti Tuomainen on a panel for the literary festival Newcastle Noir. Tuomainen is a massive name in his home country and is enormously funny to listen to,…
It’s not often that a writer gets to blow his own trumpet, but it’s the second anniversary of the publication of The Breaking of Liam Glass and much to celebrate and be grateful for. My…
Crime is exotic, exciting, fun – unless you’re on the wrong end of it. And no criminals are more exotic and adventurous than pirates. So, when I was researching a new novel last week and…
Last week I wrote about honesty in writing – how it is the difference that makes the difference. No amount of clever plotting or literary fireworks will make up for a lack of truth. Today…
On February 9th 1982, a man grabbed a Chicago policeman’s gun in the street and shot him and his partner dead. A city-wide investigation led to the arrest of two brothers – Andrew and Jackie…
In his fascinating book on our unconscious instincts, Blink, Malcolm Gladwell starts one chapter with the shooting of sidewalk peddler Amadou Diallo by New York police in 1999. Race was, of course, an element. But what…
Black Water Lilies review The struggles of three women – a child, a school-teacher and an elderly woman about to be widowed – intertwine in this award-winning crime thriller which takes place over 13 days…
Just this week I heard from my neighbourhood network about yet another death from stabbing, close by in Islington. Knife crime in London reached an all-time high last year and 2019 seems to be going…
This week I have exciting news: my novel has landed a prestigiousBOOKBUB RECOMMENDATION. They’re putting my debut noir thriller The Breaking of Liam Glass out to their massive mailing list for 99p/99c – for only a…
English noir or seaside noir? We’ve had classic Hollywood noir, Scandi noir and the fast-rising Tartan noir, north of the border. But what of English noir? Or perhaps even seaside noir – burgeoning at the…
Now is possibly the best time ever to be a cozy mystery crime reader Sales of crime novels in the UK soared this year, overtaking general fiction for the first time. And, like hummus, it seems…
Murder Mystery Review: Golden Age Detective Drama Can crime writers turn detective? More specifically, could this crime writer face his fears and take part in After Dark’s library-based murder mystery evening and solve the case?…
Do you love crime, like me? We’re not alone. Turn on the TV, go to the cinema, walk into a bookshop – crime is everywhere. Yet, ironically, crime statistics are going down all round the…
Have you been watching Jed Mercurio’s latest series, Bodyguard? Do you trust him? A review in a paper this week said, not to worry: the bodyguard himself is the star role and the star always…
Sirens – this week’s review in the Library Corner I was standing in Waterstones, asking for dark crime stories, when the assistant handed me Sirens – debut novel by Joseph Knox. Sumptuously produced in hardback,…
We all love a good little-fish-in-a-big-pond story, when the little guy from out of town has to survive among the city-slickers. But we love it even more when the little guy turns out to be…
The English love the countryside and never more than when there’s a corpse spreadeagled over the lawn. The country crime sub-genre appeared almost as soon as the detective genre itself. Three years after the first English…
Yesterday I came close to inflicting serious verbal damage on an indie bookshop manager. I’d very much like to know from anyone else who has a similar story, either as an author, a publisher or…