• Man excited about reading
    Questions

    Intense Feelings

    Are you a reader who gets hot under the collar about tense? As a member of several crime fiction groups on Facebook, the question of tense crops up from time to time. Or should I say it cropped up from time to time? One’s immediate. It’s happening now, right before your eyes. The other happened at some point in the past. It’s a memory at best. However you phrase it, the subject of tense seems to evoke strong passions on either side, like most things on Facebook. Whether you’ve given it any thought before, it only takes someone to belittle a story you love and you come out with both…

  • Food hygiene rating sticker
    Questions

    An environmental health officer solving murders?

    ‘Kent Fisher is a wonderful creation and unique in crime literature.‘ Susan Corcoran, wrote this on 14th April 2018 when she reviewed No Bodies, the second Kent Fisher murder mystery. While I’d never considered him like this, I hope he joins a long list of amateur sleuths who’ve graced literature and TV screens. A quick glance at crime fiction novels reveals sleuths who are village gossips, ecologists, forensic archaeologists, taxi drivers, obituary writers, magicians, or retired people in a care home. TV crime has had local radio presenters, pensioners and gardeners solving murders. But let’s take a reality check for a moment. You wouldn’t pop into your local town hall…

  • No Cure for Death by Colin Garrow
    Reviews

    No Cure for Death by Colin Garrow

    3rd January 2023. What a terrific story to start the New Year. In his fifth outing, taxi driver and sleuth Terry Bell faces his most challenging investigation to date. His best friend from school, who disappeared 27 years ago, is back and leaving cryptic notes that suggest he has a hit list of ten people to murder. Is Terry on the list? He feels partly responsible for his friend’s disappearance. Even with the help of his partner Carol, and DI Brown, he can’t prevent the murders. His only hope is to get one step ahead, but when the clues stop, is Terry next? From the start to the finish, the…

  • Cover of Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie
    Reviews

    Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie

    2nd January 2023. Agatha Christie’s most famous book reveals her mastery of plot, character and setting. At the time it was written, I imagine the plot was ground breaking – a locked room murder with a difference. Hercule Poirot is on hand to investigate as the Orient Express is stopped by snowfall and left isolated on the tracks. As no one could have escaped, the murderer must still be on the train. With only observation, interviews of the witnesses and deduction, Poirot has to solve a seemingly insoluble puzzle. And he does it with style, pulling apart an elaborate plot that must have taken some creating. The directness to the…

  • Robert with his westie, Harvey
    Questions

    Moi? A cosy mystery author?

    From the moment No Accident was released by a US publisher in 2016, I’ve refuted any claim that my novels are cosy mysteries. Why would I do this, you might ask? The cosy mystery genre offers a huge market within crime fiction. A simple search on Amazon will confirm this. Yet under this extensive umbrella, there are a significant number of single, elderly ladies solving murders in quaint villages, or on cruise ships, or in stately homes. Many of them bake cakes, arrange flowers or run bookshops. Many have cute dogs or cats. It’s all sweet, friendly and safe – even though people are being bumped off at an alarming…

  • Lieutenant Columbo
    Write

    My Favourite Five Fictional Sleuths

    I’m often asked about my favourite fictional detectives and sleuths. It comes with the territory when you write murder mystery novels. Readers want to know which writers and detectives you like and why, whether they inspire or influence your writing. The five I’ve chosen have all inspired and influenced me and what I write. They have all provided me with hours of terrific viewing and reading. They still do, which is always a good indicator of how much you like someone. Best of all, I often find something new or something I missed before. They also have one thing in common – apart from being on this list. They were…

  • Who do you think you are? image
    Write

    Who Do You Think You Are?

    A Writer’s Journey Part 1 Becoming a celebrity could help me solve a couple of problems. If I was a household name, it would be easier to get a book deal and sell thousands of novels. Quicker too. There’s also a chance of being invited onto the BBC ancestry series, Who Do You Think You Are. If nothing else, it might help me to discover whether I have ancestors who passed down their creative DNA to me because I’ve no idea why I wanted to become a writer. Okay, in case you’re thinking I’m a tormented soul in an ivory tower, or one of those people who papers their bedroom…

  • Boy reading a book
    Robservations

    When you’re different (Part One)

    Is being different a blessing or a curse? I guess it depends on your viewpoint and your experiences. In my case, the sense I was not the same as others began when I started school at the age of four.  My sin was that I could already read a little. I wasn’t trying to show off or be better than anyone else, but that’s not how I felt after the dressing down I received from the teacher. It left me with a sense of injustice I still feel today, especially when I see others treated unfairly. [bctt tweet=”It left me with a sense of injustice I still feel today, especially…

  • New voice
    Write

    The blog that led to murder

    Would you believe a blog could lead to murder? Me neither. Not that anyone was killed, of course. Not in real life anyway. It started when I gave up smoking. It took minutes to discover I couldn’t write without cigarettes. Life, eh? In March 2007, ten months later, I wondered if I would ever write again. It sounds a little dramatic, it’s how I felt. No Accident, my killer crime novel lay unfinished on my PC. I couldn’t work out how my hero could solve the murder. My joy at having created the perfect crime soon evaporated. Not solving a murder is not an acceptable ending for a classic whodunit.…

  • Write

    More than a Murder Mystery

    Isn’t it lovely when readers surprise you? Here I am, writing murder mysteries for crime fiction lovers, doing my best to create the most baffling and convoluted plots possible. Being a huge fan and admirer of Agatha Christie, I’ve studied her approach and techniques, determined to learn from the best-selling crime writer of all time. When the reviews and feedback come in, I’m delighted when readers enjoy the plots, the complexity and the unexpected twists that lead to an exciting climax. But many of them love the characters and the backstory. They want Kent Fisher to find the woman of his dreams, to deal with his boss and the bureaucracy…

  • Sue Grafton
    Write

    A hero for today’s murder mysteries

    Have you ever read a book or watched a TV programme and wished you could write something as good? Neither had I until I saw the original Inspector Morse series. The superb characterisation, complex and intriguing plots, and the beautiful Oxford settings captivated me. About the same time, BBC 1 aired the Miss Marple series, adapted from Agatha Christie’s books. Both programmes evoked the same emotion and desire to write a complex murder mystery. At this point, I should tell you I was already a writer. Not a successful one, unless you include the national short story competition I won at the age of 12. That early enthusiasm and promise…