Paris by noir – Review: Clementina by Simon Cann
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…
Has Amazon deleted your reviews?
A few weeks ago I wrote a blog in which I said how important reviews were to authors and readers. Imagine my shock, then, when I discovered that Amazon has developed an algorithm to delete…
Do you need your delusions?
Listeners who believe that the BBC is a hot-bed of pinko leftie elitists who want nothing more than to attack the right, might have felt vindicated if they’d turned on Radio 4 last November. At…
How to write a riveting review
This week, an art that is both very new and almost as old as writing itself – writing reviews. First, a thank you to everyone who’s written reviews of my books. The number of Amazon…
Death by Monet: Black Water Lilies by Michel Bussi
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…
The Harris anti-Bafta awards 2019
As a BAFTA member, over the past months I’ve received a total of 93 movies (not counting downloads) to watch and vote for – or not, as the case may be. Aside from the general…
They warned us! Review: Middle England by Jonathan Coe
They warned us. We were making a film for the British car makers British Leyland in their Midlands Longbridge factory. But the camera crew was using an estate car made by another company. A “foreign”…
Rules for novelists writing rules for novelists
Many writers have handed down their golden rules for novelists. There seems to come a moment in every writer’s life when he or she feels it’s time to share what made them a success. This…
Taking risks in the farmers’ market
How often do you find yourself taking risks? Recently, my wife and I visited a farmers’ market along with our younger son and his family. I don’t know about you, but I find these places…
English noir at the seaside? Review: MJ Arlidge’s thriller ‘Eeeny Meeny’
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…
Crime writer turned detective – murder mystery review
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?…
Peak experience? The Sound of the Mountain by Yasunari Kawabata
Library Corner review: The Sound of the Mountain – Yasunari Kawabata Let me declare an interest, well at least two. On the one hand, I’m a sucker for anything Japanese. On the other, there’s little…
How seductive is the call of Sirens – review of Joseph Knox’s debut noir
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,…
Chill out with Chili – Review: Get Shorty by Elmore Leonard
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…
Do criminals have free will – or is it all down to good and bad luck?
If you ever thought philosophy was for people with glasses and sticking-out ears who need to get out more, you may be in for a shock. Every crime thriller you’ve ever read is steeped in…
The murder to end all literary murders? Magpie Murders by Anthony Horowitz reviewed
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…
Feeling overwhelmed? People love David Allen’s “Getting Things Done.” Are they right?
Feeling overwhelmed by all those emails, all that paper,the to-do lists stuck to the wall or just the things you know you have to do that are running round your head? Everyone I know who’s…
Who’s afraid of the Maybot? John Crace’s I, Maybot, reviewed for the Library Corner
Most of us remember our first encounter with a mechanical life-form. Depending on when we were born, some of us had nightmares about Daleks. Others have had their dreams haunted by Transformers. Or Alexa. In…