In The Spotlight: Vaseem Khan

Name: Vaseem Khan

Job: Author

Website:-www.vaseemkhan.com

Twitter: @VaseemKhanUK

Vaseem Khan is the author of the bestselling Baby Ganesh Agency series featuring Indian detective Ashwin Chopra and his baby elephant sidekick. The first book in the series, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was a Times bestseller and a Waterstones Paperback of the Year. The second won the Shamus Award in the US. In 2018, he was awarded the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Award for Literature. Vaseem was born in London, but spent a decade working in India. 

Current book?

The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen. This book won the Pulitzer Prize and you can see why. A satirical masterpiece, written with verve, flair and extraordinary skill, the novel follows a Vietnamese double-agent forced to flee Saigon at the end of the Vietnam War, and finding that life in 1970s America is not quite what he has been led to believe. The book slaughters both American and Vietnamese cultural icons, exposing the hypocrisy and lies that characterise that turbulent time in the history of the two nations. Wickedly funny. (Also I have crippling literary pretensions, and love high quality literary fiction.

Favourite book?

Snow Falling on Cedars. A historical crime novel written to a literary standard, this book examines the murder of an American on a small fishing island by a Japanese local. The plot is complicated by the fact that both men grew up as friends before becoming enemies when WW2 broke out and Japanese Americans found themselves placed into internment camps. 

Which two characters would you invite to dinner and why?

Sauron (a.k.a the Dark Lord) from Lord of the Rings. I’ve always wondered why he was so angry. I think all he really needed was a cuddle and a decent curry. It would also be nice to have Bernie Gunther at the table. I am a recent convert to these WW2 Germany-set crime novels by Phillip Kerr. Bernie Gunther is brilliantly drawn, a cynical, hardboiled detective, harking back to the novels of Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett (I love Sam Spade and Phillip Marlow – especially as played by Humphrey Bogart). He is part of the German machine, often morally compromised, yet at the same time contemptuous of its hateful rhetoric and actions. He’d be a good laugh I reckon.

How do you relax?

I play cricket. Badly. Also planning complex murders is very relaxing, I’ve found.

What book do you wish you had written and why?

Presumed Innocent. Lawyer Scott Turow’s debut was one of the great crime novels of the last century, rightly selling millions of copies and inspiring a fantastic Harrison Ford film. I enjoyed the novel, principally because I love Turow’s precise, lyrically formal prose. Each sentence is like finely spun wool. And that killer twist at the end!

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Murder a few people. Because authenticity has suddenly become everything in publishing. It’s all about proving that you have the right to write something… (rolls eyes, sighs loudly, makes a rude noise)

How would you describe your series character?

Inspector Chopra made his debut in The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra the first book of the Baby Ganesh Agency series. The book went on to become a Times bestseller and set the foundation for the series. Chopra is forced into retirement from the Mumbai Police Force in his late forties but cannot seem to let go of his desire to see justice done in a country where, frankly, if you have wealth and influence you can get away with anything – up to and including murder. A thoroughly decent man, one who believes in old-fashioned policing, and an even older-fashioned moral incorruptibility, he slogs his way through murders, robberies and kidnappings in one of the world’s most colourful cities – all with a baby elephant in tow. The relationship between Chopra and this unusual sidekick (Ganesha) allows me to weave in some gentle humour in between the gritty depictions of modern Mumbai and various dark crimes.

Bad Day at the Vulture Club, the latest book in the Baby Ganesh Agency series, focuses on the murder of a wealthy Parsee in Mumbai's notorious Towers of Silence where the Parsee dead are left to be eaten by vultures. Vaseem’s next book (out in August 2020) will be the start of a new series. Midnight at Malabar House, set in 1950 in Bombay, introduces Persis Wadia, India’s first female police detective, as she attempts to unravel the murder of a prominent British diplomat. 

Midnight at Malabar House by Vaseem Khan (Published by Hodder & Stoughton) Out Now

Bombay, New Year's Eve, 1949. As India celebrates the arrival of a momentous new decade, Inspector Persis Wadia stands vigil in the basement of Malabar House, home to the city's most unwanted unit of police officers. Six months after joining the force she remains India's first female police detective, mistrusted, sidelined and now consigned to the midnight shift. And so, when the phone rings to report the murder of prominent English diplomat Sir James Herriot, the country's most sensational case falls into her lap. As 1950 dawns and India prepares to become the world's largest republic, Persis, accompanied by Scotland Yard criminalist Archie Blackfinch, finds herself investigating a case that is becoming more political by the second. Navigating a country and society in turmoil, Persis, smart, stubborn and untested in the crucible of male hostility that surrounds her, must find a way to solve the murder - whatever the cost.

In The Spotlight: Andrew Wilson

Name: Andrew Wilson

Job: Author and journalist

Website: https://www.andrewwilsonauthor.co.uk

Twitter: @andrewwilsonaw

Introduction:

Andrew Wilson is an award winning journalist and author. He is the author on books on Patricia Highsmith, Harold Robbins, Sylvia Plath and Alexander McQueen. In 2003 he won both an Edgar® Award and a Lambda Award for his biography Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith. He has also written a series of novels featuring Agatha Christie as a character. These include: - Talent for Murder, about the real-life disappearance of Agatha Christie in 1926 (2017), A Different Kind of Evil (2018), Death in a Desert Land (2019). His most recently published book is I saw Him Die (August 2020)

Current book?

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell. I’ve been seeing the hype about it for the last six months — Stephen King called it ‘a package of dynamite’. I’m always a bit wary of books that come with an extraordinary level of pre-publication buzz, but at the moment — I’m 150 pages in — I’m hooked. 

Favourite book? 

So difficult to choose, but I would have to go for either The Murder of Roger Ackroyd (see below) or The Talented Mr Ripley, by Patricia Highsmith. I like to think that I’ve learnt something from these two very different crime writers. 

Which two characters would you invite to dinner and why?

I’d love to have Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple over and quiz them about their differing investigative methods. I wonder if they’d get on? 

How do you relax?

I read - of course - and I go on long walks. I’m lucky enough to live in South Devon, and I can walk to the sea from my house. It’s magical at all times, but I’ve never been more grateful for it than this year.

What book do you wish you had written and why?

Agatha Christie’s The Murder of Roger Ackroyd because of its technical achievement and the audacious, jaw-dropping moment when the identity of the murderer is revealed. No wonder Christie’s book from 1926 is regularly voted the best crime novel of the twentieth century.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

When I was writing Beautiful Shadow, the first biography of Patricia Highsmith, I was astounded to learn how heavily she was edited. One of her editors, Joan Kahn, was particularly tough with her and some of her novels were rejected out of hand. You need a tough skin to survive. 

I’d also flag up that wonderful piece of advice from Stephen King: tell the story!

How would you describe your series character?

Agatha Christie is the central character in all four novels: A Talent for Murder, about her famous 1926 disappearance; A Different Kind of Evil; Death in a Desert Land; and the new one, I Saw Him Die. 

Agatha uses her skills as a novelist to investigate deaths for the British Secret Intelligence Service. She is an acute observer, she has an eye for detail, she’s a wonderful listener. But she’s sharp as a tack, cool under pressure, and, as you’d expert from the world’s bestselling crime writer, she is expert at picking up hidden clues. 

When people think of Agatha they often see her as an elderly woman. But at the beginning of my series she is only 36. She’s lost her mother, her first marriage is breaking down, she’s emotionally distraught and she’s at the lowest ebb of her life. We follow her through the next four years of her life, and we see her grow in onfidence.

Information about 202o St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book tckets can be found here.

NOIRELAND 2020 Update

Hello!

It has been a while since we were last in touch and I hope you have kept safe and well in the intervening months

Back in March we were forced to postpone NOIRELAND 2020, moving it to October this year in the hope that life would be back to normal by then. Sadly, it seems we were a little optimistic! The risk to public health from Covid-19 is still significant and unlikely to change for some time. As the wellbeing of our audiences, our authors and our many wonderful volunteers is paramount, we have concluded that in the circumstances we cannot go ahead with NOIRELAND this year. 

We will be refunding ticketholders over the next 7-10 working days – it should be a straightforward process, but apologies if it takes a little longer than anticipated. Some people were kind enough to include a donation as part of their ticket purchase which will also be refunded – it’s not that we’re not grateful, we really are – but it’s a function of our box office software

Finally, on behalf of the team I would like to thank you for your continued support of the NOIRELAND International Crime Fiction Festival. We hope to bring you another great programme of events in 2021, but in the meantime please keep safe and healthy and we’ll see you next year.you have any questions please email:-info@noireland.com.

Very best wishes,

Angela McMahon

Festival Director

NOIRELAND International Crime Fiction Festival

2020 CWA Daggers - Shortlists Announced

The 2020 shortlists for the prestigious CWA Dagger awards, which honour the very best in the crime writing genre, have been announced.

The world-famous Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Daggers are the oldest awards in the genre and have been synonymous with quality crime writing for over half a century.

Mick Herron’s Joe Country, Claire Askew’s What You Pay For and Lou Berney’s November Road are all in contention for the CWA Gold Dagger, awarded to the best crime novel. November Road is also on the shortlist for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller, up against One Way Out by AA Dhand, Between Two Evils by Eva Dolan and the Richard and Judy pick The Whisper Man by Alex North.

Linda Stratmann, Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, said: “As the CWA Daggers are unmatched for their reputation and longevity, these shortlists offer a showcase of the finest writing in crime fiction and non-fiction. They reveal the remarkable variety and huge relevance of the genre, which continues to dominate book sales and to shape our cultural landscape.”

The much-anticipated John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger highlights the best debut novels. Among the six shortlisted debuts are Little White Lies by Philippa East, acclaimed as ‘unputdownable’, and Trevor Wood, who served in the Royal Navy for 16 years, makes the list with The Man on the Street, featuring a homeless veteran grappling with PTSD, dubbed by Lee Child as ‘an instant classic’.

Abir Mukherjee’s Death in the East is not only shortlisted for the Gold Dagger but also the Sapere Books Historical Dagger. He contends with Metropolis, completed just before Philip Kerr’s untimely death and SG Maclean, who won the Dagger last year for Destroying Angel; she returns with The Bear Pit.

The Crime Fiction in Translation Dagger shortlist features Finland’s acclaimed and award-winning writer, Antti Tuomainen, with Little Siberia translated by David Hackston. The king of Helsinki noir is up against Marion Brunet, the winner of the prestigious Grand Prix de Littérature policière in 2018, whose novel Summer of Reckoning is translated by Katherine Gregor.

The CWA Daggers are one of the few high-profile awards that honour the short story.

Syd Moore, who was shortlisted in the category in 2019, returns with her short story “Easily Made” in 12 Strange Days of Christmas. Paul Finch, a former cop and journalist turned bestselling crime writer, sees his short story “The New Lad” (published in the anthology Exit Wounds) make the shortlist. They are up against established authors including Christopher Fowler, author of over fifty novels and short-story collections, and the blockbuster American mystery writer Jeffery Deaver, who won the Short Story Dagger in 2004.

The shortlist for the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction includes Casey Cep, a staff writer at the New York Times whose first book Furious Hours: Murder, Fraud and the Last Trial of Harper Lee, has received acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic. Also on the shortlist is Caroline Goode for Honour: Achieving Justice for Banaz Mahmod. It’s the heart-breaking true story of Banaz Mahmod, the young Londoner murdered by her own family for falling in love with the wrong man, adapted for TV starring Keeley Hawes as Detective Chief Inspector Caroline Goode.

The Dagger in the Library is voted on exclusively by librarians, chosen for the author’s body of work and support of libraries. This year’s shortlisted nominees are Christopher Brookmyre, Jane Casey, Alex Gray and Quintin Jardine.

One of the anticipated highlights of the awards is the Debut Dagger competition, open to unknown and uncontracted writers. Settings for the shortlisted novels are varied and range from modern-day America, rural Australia, an organic farm near Bern, 2011 Cuba, a contemporary offshore oil platform and sixteenth century Orkney.

This year also features the Best Crime and Mystery Publisher of the Year Dagger, launched in 2019, which celebrates publishers and imprints demonstrating excellence and diversity in crime writing.

The winners of the 2020 Daggers will be announced at an awards ceremony, due to take place on 22 October.

The Shortlists in Full:

GOLD DAGGER

What You Pay For by Claire Askew (Hodder & Stoughton)

November Road by Lou Berney(Harper Fiction)

Forced Confessions by John Fairfax (Little, Brown)

Joe Country by Mick Herron (John Murray)

Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)

Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham (Sphere)

IAN FLEMING STEEL DAGGER

November Road by Lou Berney (Harper Fiction)

This is Gomorrah by Tom Chatfield (Hodder & Stoughton)

One Way Out by AA Dhand (Bantam Press)

Between Two Evils by Eva Dolan (Raven Books)

Cold Storage by David Koepp(HQ)

The Whisper Man by Alex North:(Michael Joseph)

JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER

Your House Will Pay by Steph Cha (Faber & Faber)

My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing (Michael Joseph)

Little White Lies by Philippa East (HQ)

The Wreckage by Robin Morgan-Bentley (Trapeze)

The Man on the Street by Trevor Wood(Quercus Fiction)

SAPERE BOOKS HISTORICAL DAGGER

In Two Minds by Alis Hawkins (The Dome Press)

Metropolis by Philip Kerr(Quercus Fiction)

The Bear Pit by SG MacLean (Quercus Fiction)

Death in the East by Abir Mukherjee (Harvill Secker)

The Anarchists’ Club by Alex Reeve (Raven Books)

The Paper Bark Tree Mystery by Ovidia Yu (Constable)

CRIME FICTION IN TRANSLATION DAGGER

Summer of Reckoning by Marion Brunet, translated by Katherine Gregor (Bitter Lemon Press)

The Godmother by Hannelore Cayre, translated by Stephanie Smee (Old Street Publishing)

Like Flies from Afar by K Ferrari, translated by Adrian Nathan West (Canongate Books)

November by Jorge Galán, translated by Jason Wilson (Constable)

The Fragility of Bodies by Sergio Olguín, translated by Miranda France (Bitter Lemon Press)

Little Siberia by Antti Tuomainen, translated by David Hackston (Orenda Books)

SHORT STORY DAGGER

The Bully by Jeffery Deaver in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan Books)

The New Lad by Paul Finch in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan Books)

The Washing by Christopher Fowler in Invisible Blood, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Titan Books)

#Me Too by Lauren Henderson in Invisible Blood, edited by Maxim Jakubowski (Titan Books)

The Recipe by Louise Jensen in Exit Wounds, edited by Paul B Kane and Marie O’Regan (Titan Books)

Easily Made by Syd Moore in 12 Strange Days of Christmas (Point Blank Press)

ALCS GOLD DAGGER FOR NON-FICTION

Furious Hours by Casey Cep (William Heinemann)

Corrupt Bodies by Peter Everett (Icon Books)

Honour: Achieving Justice for Banaz Mahmod by Caroline Goode (Oneworld Publications)

The Fatal Passion of Alma Rattenbury by Sean O’Connor (Simon & Schuster)

The Professor and the Parson: A Story of Desire, Deceit and Defrocking by Adam Sisman (Profile Books)

The Adventures of Maud West, Lady Detective by Susannah Stapleton (Picador)

DAGGER IN THE LIBRARY

Christopher Brookmyre

Jane Casey

Alex Gray

Quintin Jardine

DEBUT DAGGER

The Spae-Wife by Anna Caig

Whipstick by Leanne Fry

Pesticide by Kim Hays

Emergency Drill by Nicholas Morrish

Revolution Never Lies by Josephine Moulds

Bitter Lake by Michael Munro

PUBLISHERS’ DAGGER

Bitter Lemon Press

Harvill Secker

Head of Zeus

HQ

Michael Joseph

Orenda

Raven Books

Severn House

Julia Haeberlin talks about We Are All The Same in The Dark

My thrillers always begin the same way—with a tiny visual in my head that won’t go away. In the case of BLACK-EYED SUSANS, it was the bird’s-eye view of a young woman lying in a field of yellow and black flowers with a bunch of scattered old bones.

A younger, wispier girl began to haunt me for WE ARE ALL THE SAME IN THE DARK. She was wishing on dandelions on the side of a Texas road that yawned with desperate emptiness. I couldn’t see her face. But I knew two things for sure: She only had one eye. And she was lost.

The gritty atmosphere of this cold case thriller overwhelmed me, even sneaking into my dreams. An ominous Texas town had taken an ugly shape down the road, with a mystery of its own. I had already decided not to give it a name to enhance its creepiness and myth.

Even before I wrote the first word, I was warning my one-eyed girl not to go there. 

She didn’t reply. No matter how much I tugged her arm, she stayed in the shadows behind a barbed wire fence. 

This was a big problem for a novelist who is not an outliner. My characters always drive the plot on a twisted road where I can never see around the curve. Every day of writing, I want to be surprised as much as the reader.

I wouldn’t describe myself as someone who struggles with writer’s block, but when I’m typing cliches and blather, I know that I need to do one of two things. Go read poetry. Or research. 

Both open up my brain. As a writer, I need to fly with poetry’s bird of freedom when my words are too straightforward. And as a tactile journalist, I want all of my underlying themes—the Texas death penalty, mitochondrial DNA, or, in this case, prosthetics—to be based on solid ground, on the advice of experts.

I realized that for my character to reveal herself, she wanted my respect. I needed to understand as much as I could what it felt like physically and emotionally to be missing an eye. 

I began with Randy Trawnik, a legendary ocularist in Dallas, Texas, who can create a prosthetic eye so beautiful, so much a perfect twin to a natural eye, that women and men are able to keep them a secret. 

And they do. Beauty queens, actresses, professional athletes, models. Kids trying to navigate through the tribal phase of childhood. The thousands of other people who don’t want to be defined first by what they are missing. What did Shakespeare say? The eyes are the windows of the soul, and by extension the soul itself? Well, he was wrong.

I began to meet some of Randy Trawnik’s patients. An Instagram model whose eye was blown apart by a firecracker set off by a family member on her grandmother’s Oklahoma ranch when she was nine.

A teenager who could not remember a time she did not wear a prosthetic eye—almost since birth—and still only told her closest friends. 

A woman accidentally hit with a ping-pong ball by a boy she had a crush on, who started her freshman year of high school with a crude prosthesis she called her “teddy-bear eye.” 

And Lauren Scruggs, a popular athletic U.S. influencer, whose arm and eye were destroyed by a small plane’s propeller but who can do almost every single thing she did before the accident. 

She posed this question to me: “What do ‘disabled’ and ‘differently abled’ even mean?” 

When I hung up the phone with her, I decided to avoid using those labels for the rest of my life.

I broadened my scope, to a veteran and ex-cop who lost a leg but still trains SWAT teams, and a college student who lost a hand and almost her life when she slammed into the back of a car parked with its lights off on a dark highway. Now she works in the prosthetics industry herself.

Two ferocious female heroines began to take shape instead of one.

My perceptions of physical beauty, so muddled by stereotypes that persist on social media and beyond, were transformed into something deeper, more transcendant. 

I didn’t know what I needed to know. 

I find that I ask myself that a lot these days, as the world explodes in shocking ways around us, as we sort out the kind of humans we want to be.

I hope you will love the thrill ride of this novel but mostly I hope that it makes you think twice—about how we are either all missing pieces, or none of us are.

The two heroines, one without a leg, one without an eye, are no different than any of my other characters.

They are defined by their guts, maneuvering a path to redemption.

And isn’t that how we all want to be defined?

We Are All the Same in The Dark by Julia Haeberlin (Published by Michael Joseph on 6 August 2020)

It's been a decade since the town's sweetheart Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Since her disappearance, Tru's brother, Wyatt, has lived as an outcast, desperate to know what happened to his sister. So when Wyatt finds a lost girl, he believes she is a sign. But for new cop, Odette Tucker, this girl's appearance reopens old wounds. Determined to solve both cases, Odette fights to save a lost girl in the present and in doing so digs up a shocking truth about that fateful night in the past . . . the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town's dark, violent mythology.

An Audio Exclusive that didn’t fall ‘Far from the Tree’

As big fans of audio thrillers, Shots Magazine were excited to read that crime writer Rob Parker is penning an intriguing trilogy commissioned by Audible Studios.

The first title, Far from the Tree, will be released exclusively in audio on 2nd July 2020. Publication dates for the next two titles will follow in due course. 

Set in Warrington, Far from the Tree follows DI Foley, who finds himself in charge of one of the largest murder cases the country has ever seen. Twenty-seven bodies are found buried in a woodland trench, as the discoveries unfold, DI Foley must decide whether to solve the crime if it risks his family.

Parker commented: "To be able to write a crime trilogy set in the area I grew up in — an area which doesn’t receive much limelight or exposure — is a real delight, and I’m supremely thankful to Audible for giving me this opportunity. I’m taking this chance with both hands and aim to repay their faith in spades and I’m determined to show you ain’t seen nothing yet."

Read More from the Bookseller HERE

Audible UK are to be applauded for the support they provide the crime and thriller fiction genre, especially as the importance of audiobooks increases within publishing. They commission new work such as the pseudonymous Alex Callister’s thrillers and supporting the genre, including sponsoring one of Crimefest’s annual awards.

After listening to the start of this trilogy by Rob Parker, it came as no surprise to discover that Far from the Tree is July’s Audible thriller of the month.

So, what’s in store?

Brendan Foley has worked to balance the responsibilities of a demanding job and a troublesome family. He’s managed to keep these two worlds separate, until the discovery of a mass grave sends them into a headlong collision. When one of the dead turns out to be a familiar face, he’s taken off the case.

Iona Madison keeps everything under control. She works hard as a detective sergeant and trains harder as a boxer. But when her superior, DI Foley, is removed from the case, her certainties are tested like never before.

With stories of the Warrington 27 plastered over the news, they set out to solve the crime before anyone else. The local constabulary is small and under-funded – Brendan knows they can’t crack this case alone, and he’s not letting a rival force take over. Not with the secrets he fears are lurking. Their investigations lead them into the murky underworlds of Manchester and Liverpool, where one more murder means little to drug-dealing gangs, desperate to control their power bases.

But as Madison steps into the ring for the fight of her life, the criminals come to them. It’s no coincidence that the corpses have been buried in Foley’s hometown. The question is, why? Foley might not like the answer....

Not to be confused with the legendary creator of the Boston based Spenser and Hawk series, penned by the legendary Robert B Parker; the British Robert Parker, better known as “Rob” to his growing band of readers [and now listeners] hails from the British North West, where his acclaimed Ben Bracken thrillers are set - A Wanted Man, Morte Point, The Penny Black, Till Morning Is Nigh and the standalone post-Brexit country-noir Crook’s Hollow. A member of the Northern Crime Syndicate and a co-host of the For Your Reconsideration film podcast, Rob is also a regular voice on the Blood Brothers Crime Podcast. A champion of encouraging literacy and creative writing, Rob spends a lot of time travelling to schools giving talks across the country. Rob Parker lives in Warrington with his family.

Far from the Tree is the first in a trilogy, and narrated by actor Warren Brown. Currently he can be seen as 'Sergeant Thomas 'Mac' McAllister' in the highly anticipated reboot of the Emmy-nominated action series, Strike Back, for Sky/HBO Cinemax. Other television credits include Doctor Who, Liar, X Company and RTS Best Drama winning, Good Cop. Film credits include Cargo, Captain Webb and The Dark Knight Rises. Audio drama for Big Finish include multiple series of Doctor Who, U.N.I.T. and the standalone Audible series Transference. Through this former Thai-Boxer, is probably best known for his role of “DS Ripley”, in the BBC series Luther, co-starring with Idris Elba who plays the eponymous [and troubled] detective.

For the crime-fiction geeks a little digression –

Luther is written by Neil Cross, and when I interviewed him several years ago [for Jeff Peirce’s THE RAP SHEET] about his own writing, I indicated that I felt he had read the works of Patricia Highsmith..………

AK: I’m guessing you must have read Patricia Highsmith, then.

NC: I’m obsessed by Patricia Highsmith.

AK: [Laughing] So am I. I am totally obsessed with her Tom Ripley books. In fact, I have what my wife terms my white “Tom Ripley suit.” Coincidentally, a number of critics have described your first novel, Burial, as being distinctly Hitchcockian. And it was Hitchcock, of course, who made a movie from Highsmith’s 1950 debut novel, Strangers on a Train.

NC: Yes, there’s a psychological marriage between Hitchcock and Highsmith; they suit each other very well.

AK: So, going back to Highsmith, is it just her Tom Ripley novels that you enjoy, or do you find pleasure in her other amoral tales?

NC: I’ve read many of her books and short stories, though not all of her canon, and of course there are a few that are just not up to her best work. But one non-Ripley novel that sticks to my mind is Cry of the Owl [1962], which features a woman who falls in love with her own stalker. It would barely be publishable today, but in Highsmith’s world it makes perfect sense.

AK: The weird thing about Patricia Highsmith was that she was highly acclaimed in Europe, but rather less so in her native America; in fact, she lived for many years in the UK before making Switzerland her home. Maybe Tom Ripley was the precursor to Dr. Hannibal Lecter, the amoral, but charming psychopath/sociopath--the sort of figure who doesn’t settle as well in the American psyche as he does in the European one.

NC: That links to my theme of “free will exercised as sin,” [something that] must be punished. And Highsmith just doesn’t punish, she observes; in fact, she was known to sign books as Tom Ripley from time to time.

Read the full interview at THE RAP SHEET, from Theakstons Crime Writing Festival 2010 HERE

Neil Cross told me that he named DS Ripley, Idris Elba / Luther’s sidekick as played by Warren Brown as a personal homage to Patricia Highsmith’s amoral character, The Talented Mr Ripley.

End of digression

So with Warren Brown narrating Rob Parker’s FAR FROM THE TREE, what’s not to like? If like me, you are an Audible Member [on the £7.99 / month deal, which allows you one audio credit per month], you can have the start of the trilogy for just one credit – or for non-members it’s £21.41 – More information CLICK HERE

We’ll leave the last word to the author and his peers –

‘Working with Audible has been both a joy and a game-changer. I’m honoured and thrilled to have their faith with this canvas on which to tell a much larger, more complete story than I could ever have dreamed previously. Not only this, but to be able to write a crime trilogy set in the area I grew up in - an area which doesn’t receive much limelight or exposure - is a real delight, and I’m supremely thankful to Audible for giving me this opportunity. I’m taking this chance with both hands, aim to repay their faith in spades and I’m determined to show you ain’t seen nothing yet.’  

Rob Parker

"...A big departure from Rob’s previous work, I hope he won’t mind when I say it exceeds his already sky high standards. A dark, powerful & utterly compelling tale of Northern gangsters tied together by blood, it just drips with real life."

Tony Kent

"Rob Parker doesn’t mess around. Far from the Tree is a gritty, propulsive [listen]. Drawn in shades of grey, DI Brendan Foley is a complex, morally ambiguous character I couldn’t stop rooting for. A punchy, powerful tale well told."

Adam Hamdy

For more information on the work of Rob Parker – CLICK HERE

The Secret Language of Rogues and Gangsters by Amanda Lees

I love a good slang word. So do thieves, rogues and gang members, not least because having a secret argot, or language, is one way of keeping the authorities at bay.

Possibly my favourite part of writing my Crime Dictionary involved tracing slang words from their origins in the Thieves’ Cant of the 16th century until today. 

Cant is a jargon belonging to and used by a particular group or sub-group. From the 16th to 19th centuries in England, thieves, hustlers and other marginal members of society had their own cant known as Thieves’ Cant, which they used to communicate without being rumbled by the authorities.

The Artful Dodger in Dickens’ Oliver Twist speaks almost entirely in cant, and Dickens helpfully included a thieves’ cant glossary at the back of the book. Thieves’ Cant was also known as Rogues' Cant, Thieves' Argot, Flash or Peddler’s French and existed across Europe in different forms.

It began to flourish in 16th Century England when there was less work available and, as a result, crime started to rise. The new burgeoning underclass of thieves and rogues met in public gathering places or ‘flash houses’ in order to share tips and information.

Much as people have an interest in true crime today to arm themselves with knowledge, so the general population became fascinated with this underclass and several thieves’ cant dictionaries were published as a result. Although many of the words in those dictionaries are now archaic or extinct, some filtered down the centuries, finding their way into our everyday vocabulary.

Think ‘referring to blood as ‘claret’ is the preserve of Cockney detectives and East End villains? Think again. Highwaymen and footpads were using it way back when, along with ‘canary bird,’ thieves’ cant for a prison inmate which has evolved into the modern phrase ‘doing bird,’ or serving time in prison. When you say ‘filch,’ meaning to steal or talk about a ‘fence’ handling stolen goods, you are again echoing your 16th century ancestors. 

Of the archaic words and phrases we no longer use, my particular favourites include ‘buttock and file’ for a pickpocket, a ‘bulldog with six teeth,’ meaning a gun in Victorian slang, ‘dollymop’ to refer to a part-time sex worker or prostitute and the aforementioned ‘footpad’ to refer to a highwayman or thief who stole on foot from pedestrians.

Contemporary gang slang works on the same principle as thieves’ cant, acting as a form of ever evolving code that keeps the cops on their toes, if not scratching their heads. Drill music and its attendant culture has given rise to some particularly rich gang slang, including a ‘hand ting’ to refer to a pistol or hand gun, a ‘mop’ to mean a larger gun and the short and not too sweet ‘K’ meaning to kill or to signify at least one kill if added to the end of a name.

Naturally, that same gang slang finds its way into prisons both in the UK and the US where rival factions continue the bitter feuds they maintain on the outside. Once inside, every prisoner has to learn the prison code or slang that peppers life behind bars. So a warder or ‘screw’ becomes a ‘kanga,’ derived from Cockney rhyming slang, a ‘rub down’ or ‘spin’ happens when your cell is searched and if you are ‘ghosted’ it means you’ve been moved to another prison without warning rather than being dumped on social media.

In the US, gang slang is arguably even richer, with Mafiosi rivalling Hispanic and Jamaican street gangs for linguistic jewels. When a street gangster ‘serves’ you in the States it’s not with a nice side of fries but a swift and merciless beating. CC does not refer to the designer label Chanel but is a warning that there are cops on the corner while to ‘ride with’ a gang or other inmate in prison has nothing to do with jumping in a car and everything to do with providing favours in return for protection.

When a Mafiosi refers to a ‘G’ that’s a thousand dollars, or a grand, which is often ‘kicked up’ or passed up the chain of command to reach the fat cat capo dei capi. A Jamaican gang member yelling ‘fire’ is not an order but a warning that the cops are coming. While a ‘farmero’ might conjure up an image of a rustic type leaning on a pitchfork, in reality this is a member of a notorious Hispanic prison gang known as Nuestra Familia. The US also has its share of historical slang, including such charmers as moll buzzers, bum steers and cheap thieves. I put them all, and much more, in the dictionary.

For someone who relishes words as I do, writing this book was as much a romp through some of the finest to ever roll off a tongue as a deep dive into etymology. Of course, slang only makes up a small part of it but what an enjoyable part, with police acronyms, spy lingo and Danish swear words adding to the fun. As I casually speak of swindlers, corn or cooking the books, I know that there is a whole history and other meaning behind what I am saying. It is a constant delight and education, one that I carry on as I collect yet more words to add to future editions of the dictionary.

Aconite to the Zodiac Killer: The Dictionary of Crime by Amanda Lees (Published by Little, Brown) Out Now

This is an indispensable guide for fans of true crime and crime fiction, whether in books, film or on TV, who want to look behind the crime, to understand the mechanics of an investigation, to walk in their favourite detectives' shoes and, most importantly, to solve the clues. To do that, one needs to be fluent in the language of the world of crime. We need to know what that world-weary DI is talking about when she refers to another MISPER. We have to immediately grasp the significance of the presence of paraquat, and precisely why it is still a poison of choice. If you want to know how many murders it takes for a killer to be defined as a serial killer, what Philip Marlowe means when he talks about being 'on a confidential lay' and why the 'fruit of a poisonous tree' is a legal term rather than something you should avoid on a country walk, this is the reference book you've been waiting for. It covers police and procedural terms and jargon of many different countries; acronyms; murder methods; criminal definitions, including different types of killers; infamous killers and famous detectives; notorious cases often referred to in crime fiction and true crime; gangster slang, including that of the Eastern European mafia; definitions of illegal drugs; weapons; forensic terminology; types of poisons; words and phrases used in major crime genres, including detective fiction, legal thrillers, courtroom dramas, hardboiled crime, Scandi and Tartan Noir, cosy crime and psychological thrillers; criminology terms; and the language of the courts and the legal systems of British, American, French, Nordic and other countries. From Aconite to the Zodiac Killer is an essential, go-to resource for readers and even for writers of crime fiction. More than simply a glossary, this is a guide that provides a doorway into a supergenre, and one that is not just for readers, but also for the many fans of film and TV dramas, of podcasts, and crime blogs. It is also an indispensable resource for writers or would-be writers of crime fiction.

More information about Amanda can be found on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter @amandalees.