crime

This weeks review is brought to you by our very own Laura Deacon   For the next three months we have more to look forward to than ballroom dancing, Z-list popstars and upstairs-downstairs costume drama. Yes, Antiques Roadshow returned last night much to my joy! But that’s not what I’m here to write about. Last night, nearly 3 million eager viewers tuned in to the return of Homeland. Each week we will write an episode review and we want to know what you think! Be warned, there are spoilers contained in this review! Read More

Former The Bill scriptwriter turned author, Paul Finch, tells us how his time working for the Manchester police force was the starting block for his passion of crime fiction writing. Read Paul's second instalment into the killer reads diary...   There’s no question that my police service gave me an excellent grounding from which to write crime fiction. It’s not just about procedure, you see – it’s an innate understanding of the police officer’s role in society, and more importantly, the role the police may play in his or her life.   Being a cop is not like any other work. You can’t just put it away at the end of your shift. By its very nature, the job can alienate you from everyone you know. It can depress you, frighten you, outrage you. But by the same token it can empower you, and be massively rewarding. Above all though, it’s a weird occupation – where the complexity of experience can truly be stranger than fiction. And this air of the unreal is something I feel honour-bound to try and bring to my crime-writing, particularly in my forthcoming trilogy of cop thrillers from Avon Books.   But where does having actually been a cop leave you as a crime writer? Read More

  You can say you’re sorry. You can say it a hundred times. But to the dead it doesn’t mean very much.   Bestselling author Zoran Drvenkar has written one of the most original and spine-chilling books that you will ever read. To give you a taster… Read More

This week marks the return of the world famous annual Agatha Christie week. Every September, thousands of Christie fans flock to Torquay to enjoy numerous Christie inspired games, activities and events that take place in and around Devon to celebrate the Queen of Crimes birthday (15th September). Whether it is attending the Vintage Ball, playing some 1920’s pitch-and-putt or indulging in the splendour of the Agatha Christie Theatre Company’s new production of Murder on the Nile, there’s so many ways to get involved and celebrate Agatha’s legacy.   This year’s celebrations kicked off on Sunday the 9th September with the traditional Agatha Christie Fete on Torquay seafront, where stallholders dressed up in their 1920s and ‘30s best, with jazz bands, a Punch and Judy show, and fairground rides. Read More

Stockholm, Sweden On a summer’s evening a young woman’s body is discovered aboard an abandoned boat. The likely cause of death is drowning, but her clothes are completely dry. A man is found hung in his apartment. His death looks like suicide, although there is nothing to climb… Read More

When we asked our beautiful New York based crime writer Alafair Burke, where she gained her passion and experience for all-things-crime we weren't expecting the incredible behind the (crime) scenes story she was about to tell. From childhood to her newest book, Never Tell, the article below uncovers why Alafair is just so good at writing crime:   Where it all began... It all began in Alafair's childhood. Her parents moved the family in the late 1970's from the chaos of a changing southern Florida to a supposedly quiet and provincial neighborhood in Wichita, Kansas. The moving boxes had just been unpacked when Wichita police announced a connection between seven unsolved murders of women and children. The man who claimed responsibility called himself BTK, a gruesome acronym, short for "Bind, Torture, Kill." The Burke's new home fell squarely within the serial killer's stalking territory. Like other children in Wichita in that era, Alafair learned to check the phone lines to make sure they weren't cut, to keep the basement door locked at all times, and to barricade herself in the bathroom with the phone if she had to call 911. Read More

  Our No.1 bestselling author Stuart MacBride talks ‘Tartan Noir’ on BBC Radio 4’s Open Book Channel – a term being used to  describe the abundance of exceptional crime fiction coming out of mighty Scotland. MacBride also explains how music  really helps  to influence his characterisations and thrilling storylines. Read More

This week sees our Killer Reader Kate Stephenson (pictured right) asking for your views on modern Twisted Thrillers Vs. the classic Murder Mystery... Earlier this year at the Oxford Lit Fest, Sophie Hannah and Simon Brett discussed the respective merits of the dark and twisted new school and the cosy old school of murder mysteries in a panel entitled Murder Mystery: Blood Bath or Brain Teaser? Has crime fiction become too gory? It’s a question hotly debated amongst readers and writers alike. Some hark back to the masters of the cosies like Agatha Christie and Dorothy L. Sayers, and despair that contemporary crime fiction has gone too far, indulging in graphic violence – particularly the torture of women and children – for sensationalist purposes. Others don’t have a problem with it, being that it is fiction, after all. The authors are not committing the violent crimes they describe, nor inciting readers to do so. And surely we’re all consenting adults, making our own reading choices – if what you’re reading offends you, all you need to do is put the book down. Read More

Oxford, 1583. A place of learning. And murderous schemes.  England is rife with plots to assassinate Queen Elizabeth and return the country to the Catholic faith. Defending the realm through his network of agents, the Queen’s spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham works tirelessly to hunt down all traitors.  His… Read More

A massive congratulations to Stuart MacBride who has reached number one again this year!… Read More

The Hypnotist is getting fantastic reviews at the moment, and it's not hard to see why. The Daily Mail said it was ‘ferocious, visceral storytelling that wraps you in a cloak of darkness which almost blots out the light, but still feeds the imagination. It's stunning.' The book has hit the Sunday Times bestseller charts this week and to give you taste of this phenomenon taking Europe by storm here's a Q & A with the authors.   Read More

HarperCollins imprint Blue Door is very proud to be publishing international bestseller, The Hypnotist by Lars Kepler. A thriller that has had the likes of Simon Beckett and Mo Hayder sleeping with the light on, it is already being hailed a classic. Having already taken Europe by storm, the wait… Read More