INFLUENCES: Murder Down a Dark Alleyway by TOM CALLAGHAN

Name: TOM CALLAGHAN Author of: A KILLING WINTER (2015) A SPRING BETRAYAL (2016) A SUMMER REVENGE (2017) A WINTER HUNTING (2018) On the web: tomcallaghanwriter.com On Twitter: @tomcwriter I’ve always been a voracious reader, and an indiscriminate one. My bookshelves are like a party where no-one knows anyone else and wonders if […]

LITTLE BOY FOUND by L.K. Fox

LITTLE BOY FOUND L.K. Fox (http://www.christopherfowler.co.uk/) Quercus (https://www.quercusbooks.co.uk/) £0.99 As he does every morning, Nick drops his son at school. As he is pulling away from the school gates, he is involved in a minor collision with a car that doesn’t stop. Nick acts quickly, snapping a picture of the receding car on his phone […]

Extract: A HARVEST OF THORNS by Corban Addison

A HARVEST OF THORNS Corban Addison (corbanaddison.com) Quercus Books (www.quercusbooks.co.uk) £13.99 Millennium Fashions Factory, Dhaka, Bangladesh November 4 2013, 8:53 p.m. The sparks danced like fireflies in the semidarkness of the storeroom. They emerged from the wall outlet in a shower of white-gold radiance, casting a flickering glow across the concrete slab beneath them. The […]

GUEST POST: On Research by PHILIP KERR

Name: Philip Kerr Author of: FIELD GREY (2010) PRAGUE FATALE (2011) A MAN WITHOUT BREATH (2013) PRAYER (2013) RESEARCH (2014) On the web: http://www.philipkerr.org July saw the publication of Philip Kerr’s latest standalone novel, Research, a thriller that takes more than a passing poke at the British publishing industry (we’ll have […]

GUEST POST: Writing About Drugs in the 60s by WILLIAM SHAW

Name: WILLIAM SHAW Author of: A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS (2013) A HOUSE OF KNIVES (2014) On the web: williamshaw.com On Twitter: @william1shaw Photograph © Ellen Shaw When you write a book about recent history, what’s important is the difference between then and now. There are the blindingly obvious differences. Want to set […]

A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS by William Shaw

A SONG FROM DEAD LIPS William Shaw (williamshaw.com) Quercus (www.quercusbooks.co.uk) £7.99 When a young woman is found strangled and naked yards away from the recording studio on Abbey Road made famous by The Beatles, the case falls to Cathal Breen, a member of the Met’s D Division. Still recovering from the death of his father, […]

THE LEAGUE OF SHARKS by David Logan

THE LEAGUE OF SHARKS David Logan (davidloganwriter.com) Quercus (www.quercusbooks.co.uk) £6.99 Junk Doyle was twelve years old when his mother stopped loving him. When he is twelve years old, a strange-looking giant of a man sneaks into Colin "Junk" Doyle’s home and abducts his six-year-old sister, Ambeline. His parents find him at a nearby cliff top, […]

The 2012 Round-Up

It’s that time of the year again when the “best of the year” lists start to appear. Not wanting to be left out, and because I had some fun with it last year, I’ve decided to do another round-up, and remind everyone what my top ten (or so) books of 2012 are. THE ROUND-UP By […]

LET THE OLD DREAMS DIE AND OTHER STORIES by John Ajvide Lindqvist

LET THE OLD DREAMS DIE AND OTHER STORIES John Ajvide Lindqvist (johnajvide.com) Translated by Marlaine Delargy Quercus (www.quercusbooks.co.uk) £16.99 It’s difficult to believe that it has been a mere five years since John Ajvide Lindqvist’s first novel, Let The Right One In, was first published in English by Quercus. It’s a ten-year-old book that has […]

GRANDAD, THERE’S A HEAD ON THE BEACH by Colin Cotterill

GRANDAD, THERE’S A HEAD ON THE BEACH Colin Cotterill (www.colincotterill.com) Quercus (www.quercusbooks.co.uk) £16.99 When we first met Thai crime journalist Jimm Juree in last year’s Killed at the Whim of a Hat, she had been forcibly relocated to the somewhat backwards Maprao in southern Thailand with her mother – slowly succumbing to Alzheimer’s – and […]