Dead Beautiful: New Parisian Crime TV Drama
Launching on All 4 on Friday 4th August 2017, DEAD BEAUTIFUL is Walter Presents’ new Parisian crime offering made up of nine self-concluding episodes: each one brimming with expertly plotted twists, gasps, butterflies and cold-blooded murder…
If the Cops Don’t Get You, Bad Luck Will: Crime Fiction as a Conservative Genre
Chuck Caruso
For all of its interesting variants (from cozies to serial killers and from volunteer detectives to police procedurals), the traditional mystery or detective novel remains arguably one of the most conservative of all genres. At least in terms of how its narrative arc...
The Latest from the Murder Squad
Barry Forshaw
Martin Edwards – The Story of Classic Crime in 100 Books has just been published by the British Library, and he has been delighted by early reaction to it.
Cath Staincliffe – The Silence Between Breaths will be published in translation in France by Editions Bragelonne.
Ann Cleeves – Ann tells us of her travels, with the standout destination being Estonia, where she took part in the Tallinn HeadRead Festival.
Margaret Murphy – Margaret has completed edits on Splinter in the Blood, and made a start on outlining the second Ashley Dyer novel.
Chris Simms – Chris has finally succeeded in getting the entire DI Spicer series back in print.
Kate Ellis – The paperback of The Mermaid’s Scream will be published at the beginning of August.
Crime Time talks to Eric Brown, Michael Gregorio & Michael Jecks
We asked Severn House authors Eric Brown, Michael Gregorio and Michael Jecks to tell us a little more about the background to their new books. All three books are available now in the UK, with Eric Brown’s Murder Take Three out in eBook, and in hardback in the USA, on 1 August. Michael Gregorio’s Lone Wolf and Michael Jecks’ A Murder Too Soon will be published in eBook, and hardback in the USA, in September.
Testimony by Scott Turow, Give Me the Child by Mel McGrath
Barry Forshaw in the Financial Times
Testimony by Scott Turow, Mantle, £18.99, 483 pages Decades after the bloody Bosnian conflict, issues of blame and responsibility remain troubling. Any novelist tackling the period is obliged to do so with seriousness of purpose – which is what makes Scott Turow’s latest book a gamble
A Thousand Cuts by Thomas Mogford
Giles Morgan
It is April 1940 and a bomb has been detonated in the Dockyards of Gibraltar. This surprise attack on the British results in the death of two Navy servicemen. The ensuing investigation finds a Spanish dockyard worker guilty of the crime and he is executed by hanging for their murder. In present day Gibraltar Christopher Massetti, who is the son of the hanged man, is being represented by lawyer Spike Sanguinetti after he has been charged with harassment against a local GP…
From The Hound Of The Baskervilles To Strangers On A Train
Martin Edwards
The astonishing popularity of the British Library's Crime Classics series - closing in on one million paperback sales - has surprised many people. Including me, to be honest, even though I'm the series consultant. Readers who take a liking to a particular book or...
The Story Of Classic Crime In 100 Books By Martin Edwards
Barry Forshaw
The all-conquering success of his massively enjoyable Golden Age of Murder must have created a problem for the writer Martin Edwards (currently chair of the Crime Writers Association): how to follow a book which appeared to write the last word on a great era of crime...
Fever By Deon Meyer, Trans. K. L. Seegers
Ruth Morse
This is a long book, and has its longueurs, especially in the middle. It's a stand-alone, post-apocalyptic story narrated in the first person by one of the rare survivors, Nico Storm, about the building and the tearing asunder, of a community based on civility and (at...
The Health Of Strangers – Lesley Kelly Talks To Crime Time
Lesley Kelly
What image does the word influenza conjure up for you? A couple of days in bed with Lemsip and some comfort reading – or a deadly pandemic that kills the young and fit? In 1918, Spanish flu killed between three to five percent of the world's population. A particularly...
F.T. Summer Crime 2017
Barry Forshaw in the Financial Times
The Dry by Jane Harper
You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood
Wolves in the Dark by Gunnar Staalesen, trans. Don Bartlett
Three Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre, trans. Frank Wynne
The Force by Don Winslow
Give Me the Child by Mel McGrath
Fever by Deon Meyer, trans. K. L. Seegers
Paradise Valley by CJ Box
Dagger In The Library 2017 Winner Announced
Barry Forshaw
The winner of the CWA 2017 Dagger in the Library has been revealed: Mari Hannah. The winner was declared at a reception at the British Library on Saturday 17 June by Martin Edwards, Chair of the CWA. Martin said: 'At a time when the CWA is expanding its support for...
F.T. Summer Crime 2017
Barry Forshaw in the Financial Times
The Dry by Jane Harper
You Don’t Know Me by Imran Mahmood
Wolves in the Dark by Gunnar Staalesen, trans. Don Bartlett
Three Days and a Life by Pierre Lemaitre, trans. Frank Wynne
The Force by Don Winslow
Give Me the Child by Mel McGrath
Fever by Deon Meyer, trans. K. L. Seegers
Paradise Valley by CJ Box
Dagger In The Library 2017 Winner Announced
Barry Forshaw
The winner of the CWA 2017 Dagger in the Library has been revealed: Mari Hannah. The winner was declared at a reception at the British Library on Saturday 17 June by Martin Edwards, Chair of the CWA. Martin said: 'At a time when the CWA is expanding its support for...
The Late Show By Michael Connelly & The Upstairs Room By Kate Murray-Browne
Ruth Morse
The Late Show by Michael Connelly, ISBN-13: 978-0316225984 A 'next new' book by Michael Connelly is always exciting; a new series by Connelly is even more exciting, and the way he sets out his stall in the first paragraph of The Late Show suggests a renewed interest...
The Labyrinth Of Death By James Lovegrove
Barry Forshaw
Titan's welcome series of Sherlock Holmes pastiches continues with one of the very best modern practitioners of the art, James Lovegrove. Several attempts to take up the pen of Arthur Conan Doyle have been, frankly, uninspiring — but Lovegrove has repeatedly proved...
Desmond Bagley Thrillers – The Tightrope Men, The Snow Tiger, The Enemy, Flyaway
In the 21st-century, it's hard to remember when writers such as Desmond Bagley were riding high in the bestseller charts, and the British thriller novel reigned supreme (it's a vanished era celebrated in a new book by Mike Ripley, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang), and it is a...
Bill Beverly In Conversation At Crimefest 2017
Katherine Sunderland
Welcome Bill and thanks ever so much for coming along to chat to me about your Words and Music - especially as you are taking some time out from your panel events while we are at Crime Fest this weekend! I hope you are enjoying your fleeting visit to the UK to promote...
Camino Island By John Grisham
Michael Carlson
John Grisham has, as I have written before, the knack for keeping the pages turning. He does this by creating a protagonist whose character gives you reasons to be sympathetic, and then immersing that character into a plot where the other characters are drawn thinly,...
New Resource For Crime Writers – The Puppet Show
Barry Forshaw
A new resource for writing crime fiction is available. If you have ever thought about writing your own crime fiction, but are not sure how to get started, THE PUPPET SHOW is a blog dedicated to all things crime writing. Written by Laura, a twenty-something who is keen...
The Best Recent Thrillers
Barry Forshaw in the Guardian
The publishing world is no stranger to bitter arguments, but few were as divisive as that prompted by Joël Dicker's multi-award-winning The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair two years ago. Admirers claimed it as a masterpiece, with eye-catching metafictional...
The Irregular by H.B. Lyle
Michael Carlson
By now just about the only character in the Sherlock Holmes canon who hasn't had his or her own detective series is the Baskerville hound, and I'm sure someone's considering that one as we speak. We've seen all sorts of Holmeses over the years, and with the recent...
Murder Squad Latest For June
With so much great news to share, and spring well and truly sprung, Murder Squad decided it was high time we dusted off the old website and gave it a clean new look. So head over to www.murdersquad.co.uk - we'd love to hear what you think of the new design. You can...
Spotlight On A Murderer, The Legacy, Touchez Pas Au Grisbi
Barry Forshaw
SPOTLIGHT ON A MURDERER, Georges Franju, director/Arrow Blu-ray Here, encapsulated in one cherishable issue, is the absolute justification for the Blu-ray medium: dusting off and restoring films which have been immensely hard to see and which have built up a great...