This week I’m talking to bestselling author Sam Blake. Originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire, Sam has two teenagers, three cats and lives in a 200-year-old cottage at the foot of the Wicklow mountains with…
I’m really pleased that this week we have a guest appearance by the best-selling comedy writer (and a good friend of mine) Paul Bassett Davies. Paul has been a writer, director and performer for stage,…
Fiction writers are liars by trade and spy novelists are the biggest liars of all. Their entire genre is based on deception and betrayal of trust. And I don’t just mean the characters. As with…
I’m delighted this week to host a question and answer session with the successful crime author and screenwriter Adam Hamdy. Adam is the author of the acclaimed Pendulum trilogy, an epic series of conspiracy thriller novels, nominated…
Last month I reviewed the latest, possibly last, novel by one of the giants of spy fiction, Agent Running in the Field by John le Carré. Today a very different, indeed very unusual, spy novel.…
There’s something about books written by masters of their craft towards the end of their careers. It’s a kind of poise, an ease, that you can see in (say) Philip Roth’s late books. (Which isn’t…
![CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS / @CSI?cafe |Source=[http://www.flickr.com/photos/26226522@N08/3435027358/ CRIME SCENE DO NOT CROSS / @CSI?cafe] * Uploaded by Diego Grez |Date=2009-03-25 21:10 |Author=[http://www.fl](https://charles-harris.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/Do_Not_Cross_Crime_Scene.jpg)
For the first post of the year, I’m delighted to welcome guest-blogger Desiree Villena, a lifelong true crime aficionado. Today she puts her passion and knowledge to use by choosing her best true crime books…
Louise Doughty is one of the most interesting authors today. Refusing to be pigeon-holed, every book breaks new ground. Her novels have been shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and longlisted for the Orange Prize…
I like dark stories. I have no problem with light stories, either, but there’s something about a novel or a film that is unafraid of the night, literal or metaphorical. Louise Doughty is one of…
Publishers, agents and readers love a running series. Like a fast food outlet a good series promises a regular supply of what you love. A McNovel. Mick Herron hit a rich vein of dark spy…
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,…
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…
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…
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…
It began in a kitchen. Two men talking over a roast chicken. But one off-beat comment would lead to a decades-long scientific detective story. And a new view of what it means to be human.…
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”…
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?…
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…