During this years’ festival season, as I prepare for my first in person appearance at a festival, there are a number of expertly well written distractions to stop me from undertaking my preparation reading. Traces, written by Val McDermid and then a brand new series on Disney Plus, Tracker, written by Jeffery Deaver. Both of these writers are primarily known for their scientific accuracy, whether it’s through dogged research that they both undertake, or people they may know, like Sue Black. This gives their shows a level of authenticity, which makes them really interesting to watch. Tracker ..read more

Congratulations to Clare who announced last week that she had decided to go back to the police force, but was still going to carry on writing Ffion Morgan in her spare time. Ffion is Clare’s first series character and Game of Lies plot line is current with the number of reality TV shows out there. If you had a secret, what would you do to stop it being exposed? With the inclusion of her daughter as part of the plot line with her boyfriend being on set, tying both the case she is investigating and the characters private lives is a really good way of creating a rounded book. And with one o ..read more

As a writer will tell you, all authors need other hobbies to keep them level. Mine is a possibly unhealthy obsession with all things medical drama. If you take a medical drama from the last 30 years, then I’ve probably seen it. This is why when looking for something a little different to read, Simon Stephenson’s Sometimes People Die, seemed like the perfect combination of my two favourite things. Hospital related deaths are something that I’ve also been aware of due to my criminology degree. One of the things we looked at in that course was the statistical anomaly of murder and the fascinatio ..read more

Mara’s No One Saw a Thing is a great play on the missing child plot. When Andrea’s journalist protagonist loses her daughter on a train this could have been like many books I have read before, but, why this happens makes it different. When her and her husband go to see all his friends for a re-union we get to see a wider pool of characters. As the story flashes backwards and forwards between prior to the incident and post, you get to learn more and more about their relationships and how close they all are. With very subtle clues and good use of the journalist trope this was a very interesting ..read more

Although this may be my first year as a published writer, this is the 4th or 5th occasion that I’ve done an event for Bloody Scotland’s online book group and one of the elements of this group is to relook at a classic. Ironically, Graham Greene’s Brighton Rock was also chosen as one of the books to read for my crime writing course with Julia Crouch. For it to appear in both lists and also to be a book that I remember so fondly from the film, I was able to read it more quickly, because of that context. A coming of age novel is always fascinating, but to add the spice of violence and intrigue i ..read more

Sarah Hilary was best known for her Marnie Rome series, but recently has started on a series of stand alone books, the first of these being Fragile. Stand alone’s allow for a more in-depth look at complex themes as they do not have the tie downs of a large character arc, and Black Thorn the book I will be reviewing for the Bloody Scotland book group is one of these with a rarely discussed theme of corporate manslaughter, and a protagonist with autism, this duel time line structure will have readers having to concentrate all the way through. With half the book being post-incident and half pre ..read more

Heather Critchlow’s Unburied is the second in the Cal Lovett podcast series and is the first of the Bloody Scotland book group trilogy that I’ve got to read for the end of March. I’m really looking forward to discussing this new talent with the other panellists. Heather was kindly available to do an interview with me on my own author page, soon after her first book was published, so I’ve now read both of them in relatively quick succession. Podcasts are becoming quite popular in crime fiction and could probably form their own panel at a festival. For Cal, it is the death of his sister that ma ..read more

Tom Hindle’s The Murder Game is a great preparation for my talk with Victoria Dowd and Kate Rhodes on mystery’s involving isolated locations and a closed circle of characters. Will and a variety of village residents including a journalist, local shop owner, hotelier and a cast of murder mystery actors are left to deal with what could be seemingly a normal New Years Eve party until the guy that everybody hates appears. With one road in and poor mobile signal, a murder happens, somebody there must be responsible, but why, and what is the importance of the relationship of all the characters. Why ..read more

On the eve of my recording for Crime Cymru, I finished yet another book inspired by my joy of watching interviews and festival related books. There are so many books out there, that knowing that a book has appeared at a festival, or been on a shortlist, like The Maiden, that it gives me a reassurance of some quality, although I’m aware that this is subjective. As someone who will soon be constructing and compiling my first novel, I can learn a lot from the writing styles of these highly regarded books. Although there is one problem with the historical genre, which I struggle to deal with as a ..read more

With my appearance on the Bloody Scotland Facebook group within the coming week and with a gap in my schedule and no idea what to read, I had a look through my audible wish list to try and spot something new that I’d not read. Going back to 2021, I found Mark Wightman’s Betancourt series. With the fact that I was on the verge of finishing a first draft of my book on police procedurals, looking how things were done in pre-war Singapore seemed like a good option. With a highly complex plot involving people smuggling, prostitution, gangs and a whole new culture that I wasn’t aware of, I’m really ..read more