The Debut Dagger 2022 Long List has been announced
Henry's Bomb by Kevin Bartlett
Lufkin, Texas by Katherine Futers
Holloway Candle by Laura Ashton Hill
The 10-12 by Anna Maloney
The Mercy Seat by Rachel Nixon
The Two Murders at Manor Park by Elizabeth Opalka
Blood Castle by Shylashri Shankar
Dead Reckoning by Jennifer Slee and Jesica Slee
The Dead of Egypt by David Smith
The Dieppe Letter by Liz Rachel Walker
Congratulations to all the nominated authors.
Last summer, I had my first ever run-in with the Icelandic police, who put out an all-points alert for me and my hired car. In the end, I turned myself in.
I had spent most of lockdown writing my latest Magnus crime novel, Death in Dalvik. The problem was I had never been to Dalvík. I planned to go in May 2020 and then again in November 2020, but COVID stopped me. I had already finished the 3rd draft of the novel by the time I was eventually allowed to leave Britain for Iceland in June 2021.
Iceland is always a brilliant place to visit, but it is even more brilliant without tourists, as it was last summer. The COVID tests involved a certain amount of high-stakes form filling and app downloading and deleting, but I got there in the end.
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| Valley just to the south of Dalvik |
The nearest big town to Dalvík is Akureyri, in the north of Iceland. Akureyri is the regional police headquarters from where Magnus would be operating to solve his crime in Dalvík. So I took a photograph. Among some stiff competition, Akureyri is Iceland’s drabbest police station.
I took the picture before breakfast. Around lunchtime, I thought I would drop in for a chat. I was a little nervous about this. Policemen are almost always helpful in these situations, but you never know: in Qaqortoq in Greenland they refused to talk to me and booted me out of the station.
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| Akureyri police station |
I introduced myself to the receptionist, whose eyebrows rose. She scurried off. After several minutes a chief inspector showed up and led me outside the station to talk (for COVID reasons, I think). I said I was a British crime writer and was writing a novel set in Dalvík. The chief inspector smiled and said he knew. Apparently, the desk sergeant had seen me taking a photograph that morning and had come outside to speak to me. I remember seeing him emerge from the station – I assumed he was sneaking a quick cigarette – so without waiting for him, I drove off. He noted my rental car number and put out an all-points alert.
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| The Akureyri police in action |
Fortunately, I had parked my car on a side street all morning, so the police hadn’t found it. But they had contacted Avis who gave them my email address. From which they deduced my website and my Twitter feed. From which they learned I had just been in Dalvík, researching a crime novel.
I was impressed by their detection skills. I spoke to the Avis guy as I left Akureyri who was less impressed: he thought there just wasn’t enough crime in Akureyri to keep them properly occupied. Which is probably a good thing.
I returned to England without a criminal record or an Interpol red notice, and finished my book. The result, Death in Dalvik, is out on 20 April. Dísa is an intelligent 16-year-old schoolgirl who is given five Bitcoin by her father in 2017 and through astute trading turns it into enough money to bail out her grandparents’ bankrupt farm. Her mother is so impressed, that she too catches the cryptocurrency bug. She persuades the wealthier inhabitants of Dalvík to invest in a new cryptocurrency, Thomocoin, with predictable results. The poor woman is found dead on a mountainside, and my detective Magnus investigates.
Death in Dalvik by Michael Ridpath (Yarmer Head) Out Now
When sixteen-year-old Dísa is given five bitcoin by her divorced father she is unimpressed: she hasn't heard of the cryptocurrency, and five of anything can't be worth very much. But a year later, when her grandparents are about to lose the farm near the Icelandic village of Dalvik where their family has lived for centuries, quiet, unassuming Dísa is able to rescue it with the profits from her astute trading of her father's gift. Unknown to Dísa, her mother Helga catches the cryptocurrency bug. Not only does Helga invest in Thomocoin, a new cryptocurrency sweeping Iceland, but she persuades many of her neighbours in Dalvík to invest too, taking a cut for herself. Helga is found murdered on the hillside above the farm and Inspector Magnus Jonson investigates. Magnus realizes that Dísa, now a nineteen-year-old student, can help him unveil the shadowy forces behind Thomocoin. But torn between loyalty to her family and fear for her life, Dísa has other ideas.
More information about Michael Ridpath and his books can be found on his website. He can also be found on Facebook and you can follow him on Twitter @MichaelRidpath and on Instagram @michaelridpathauthor
The Big Library Crime Book Giveaway, organised by the UK’s biggest crime fiction convention CrimeFest, takes place at the end of April.
Roughly 650 crime books will be given to all 27 libraries across the city from 29 April – 1 May.
The initiative is being supported by bestselling author, Ann Cleeves, who is a vocal advocate of reading and libraries as a ‘lifeline’.
Ann, who is behind the phenomenal Vera and Shetland series, both adapted to prime-time TV, is a featured guest at the 2022 CrimeFest convention, which is hosted at the Mercure Bristol Grande Hotel from 12 to 15 May.
Ann Cleeves said: “It’s fantastic that CrimeFest is giving away hundreds of books to libraries in Bristol. All genres owe a lot to the work of libraries, but crime fiction is the most borrowed genre. Accessible and popular, crime fiction offers a gateway into reading, and the many benefits that brings. I’ve long been a vocal champion of libraries and their importance for our communities, so I’m delighted to throw my support behind this initiative.”
CrimeFest has run the Big Library Crime Book Giveaway since 2016. In addition, it provides discounted tickets to its convention to librarians. The UK’s biggest crime fiction convention also donated £5k worth of books to inner city school libraries across Bristol, with support from the independent bookshop Max Minerva, and the convention’s title sponsor, Specsavers.
Books in the giveaway include titles by many authors who will be appearing in Bristol at the event this year, including Steve Mosby, Robert Goddard, Kia Abdullah and Sam Carrington.
Kate Murray, Head of Bristol’s Library Service, said: “We’re really pleased to be taking part in the Big Library Crime Book Giveaway again this year across all of our 27 libraries in Bristol. It is fantastic to get books into the hands of readers and get people into libraries where they can talk to staff and find out more about what’s on in their local library and the wide range of services we offer. Reading for pleasure can have such a positive impact on mental health and wellbeing so we’re really pleased to take part in this giveaway and share the joy of reading across the city.”
Crime novels dominate library lending, with Jack Reacher’s Lee Child regularly being the most borrowed author year-on-year. Lee’s brother Andrew Child will make his first UK appearance at CrimeFest since taking over the helm of the Jack Reacher series. An author in his own right as Andrew Grant, the younger brother of Lee Child has been hugely successful as the continuation author, dominating the bestseller lists. The books have also been dramatised for Amazon Prime.
Hosted in Bristol, CRIMEFEST is one of the biggest crime fiction events in Europe, and one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with circa 60 panel events and 150 authors over four days.
Adrian Muller, Co-host of CRIMEFEST, said: “Crime fiction is a popular gateway into reading. In a cost-of-living crisis, we want to encourage people to take advantage of the fact they can access a wealth of free books at their local library. School and community libraries and librarians play a role in transforming lives by fostering a love for reading. Reading can be transformative not only emotionally, but on an educational, economic and social level.”
Research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) has shown that reading for pleasure is a higher indication of academic success than parental status or income.
CrimeFest is at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel from 12-15 May, 2022
www.crimefest.com
We enjoy discovering intriguing debut novels, so after
penning our thoughts about ‘Nobody But Us’ by Laurie Van Rensburg, we had a few
questions.
“Prescient and jarring, this unexpected and
unheralded debut novel takes the current #MeToo and male-female dynamic and
refracts them through a dark prism making the reader question what is real and
what is artifice.
One has to atone for past sins, or does one?
That is the question for the reader, as is the adage ‘does retribution amount
to atonement’?
The reader must consider that when other eyes
are viewing the proceedings of our lives; are our friends, our lovers, and our
acquaintances really that friendly?
I have to leave a warning.
This novel is disturbing, nay, distressing –
but well worth the journey”
Read the full Shots Magazine Review HERE
We tracked the author down vis her publishers PenguinRandomHouse
to learn a little more about this startling debut novel for our readers -
Ali: Welcome Laure Van Rensburg
to Shots Magazine, so firstly tell us a little about yourself.
Laure: Even
though I have a very Dutch sounding surname I’m actually French. I moved to the
UK after I finished university in Paris and never went back. I now live outside
London with my rescue cat, Phoebe.
Nobody But Us is my
debut novel however I have been writing on and off since I was a child. I
stopped writing for a while after I moved to the UK because my French wasn’t
strong enough anymore to write in French but my English wasn’t good enough to
write in English, so I spent a few years in some kind of writer’s limbo.
I’m a big film buff so when
I’m not writing you can usually find me at the cinema, or watching classics on
Prime (I love old films from the 40s and 50s such as The Big Sleep, Notorious
or All About Eve…)
Ali: And so, what were the
early books that made an impression?
Laure: I still remember the first book I read as a kid that didn’t have pictures: Les Malheurs De Sophie (Sophie’s Misfortunes) by La Comtesse de Ségur. Another big turn in my reading childhood was The Hound of The Baskervilles, I read it under the cover after lights out because I just had to know what happened next, although my mother wasn’t thrilled to hear that I was falling asleep in class as a result. That book was my first taste of darker fiction.
Ali: And of contemporary work,
what would consider the work that engages you currently?
Laure: I am
a big fan of Chris Whitaker’s writing. He knows how to create a moving crime
story, populate with unforgettable characters, and all wrapped up in a
beautiful prose. We Begin At The End is one of the most devastating and
heart breaking novels I’ve read in a long time. I’ve read all of his books, and
the next one cannot come soon enough!
Another contemporary writer
who I immensely enjoy is Catriona Ward. I am attracted to how she blends
beautiful prose with horror stories which are still deeply human. I have her
debut, Rawblood on my reading pile; I’m saving it for a special occasion
as I’ve already read all her other books.
Finally, I can’t talk about
contemporary work without mentioning Gillian
Flynn. Her work has been a big influence on my writing in general and Nobody
But Us in particular. I enjoy her portrayal of deeply flawed female
characters and how she is not afraid to make them the heroine of their own
stories.
Ali: And you path to
publication with the Michael Joseph imprint at Penguin Random House?
Laure: I
have a first novel in a drawer which I submitted to agents without success,
although I did get lots of complimentary comments about my writing. The
rejections stung, but after a short time wallowing, I picked myself off the
floor and got on with my second novel which would become Nobody But Us.
After eighteen months of writing and editing, I started submitting to agents.
That was back in December 2019. By March 2019 I was lucky to have three offers
of representation, including my dream agent who is now my agent, Juliet
Mushens.
I did a couple of rounds of
editing with Juliet, before Nobody But Us went out on submission to publishers
(the title at that time was The Downfall). The whole process was an
absolute rollercoaster and I am so grateful I had Juliet there to keep me sane
and talk me through everything. We got quite a bit of interest within 24 hours
from UK and foreign publishers, and ended up going to auction in the UK and the
US. When I spoke with Clio Cornish, at Michael Joseph it felt right. Clio was
so passionate about the story and the characters and I really like the vision
she had for the book.
Ali: And were conscious of the
backdrop of NOBODY BUT US, with the ‘#Metoo movement?
Laure: That
was a very deliberate choice. The #MeToo movement has open the door for women
to share and discuss their experiences. I was on Twitter that day and it was a
humbling moment realising that we weren’t alone and we all shared the same
lived experiences. I believe that those subjects can be explored in different
ways and media, including novels, or films, such as Promising Young Woman. I wanted
to talk about situations I believe most women have experienced in one shape or
another and the anger of feeling powerless against those, but put it in a
format I know how to write — that is psychological suspense.
Another big motivator to write
this book was to explore how women’s rage and anger is often dismissed and
brushed aside as being overly emotional. I wanted to create a story where I
could legitimise those feelings, and pose the question — how far would you go
if this happened to you or someone close? I’m not trying to provide an answer
though, but a opportunity for discussions.
Ali: I know much is made of
NOBODY BUT US being an audacious debut novel however I enjoyed your previous
short fiction, currently available on your website > https://www.laurevanrensburg.com/short-stories-online so
tell us a little about the context to your short fiction, and why you decided
to write a novel?
Laure: Thank
you! Funny enough I never really set out to write short stories in the first place. My mind was set on novel writing from the start. I have a first novel in
a drawer that didn’t find an agent, and around the time I was editing it I had
an idea for a story but not enough for a full novel so I ended up writing my
first short story as an exercise to practise my editing skills as you have to
make sure that every word counts. The ideas kept coming so I wrote more
stories. I wasn’t sure what to do with them. I thought why not try to get them
published. Submitting short stories and flash fiction was a really good lesson
as well about learning to handle rejections.
Unfortunately, between the
full-time day job and the full-time novel writing I haven’t had the chance to
write more short stories. I do miss it and I hope I can get back to it when
things settle.
Ali: And would like to give our
readers a little peek into what’s next in store for us?
Laure: I’m
currently editing my next book which is another psychological suspense, again with
feminist themes and undertones, set in South Carolina, this time during a
blistering summer. The story centres around a religious cult who lives in a
disused hotel/plantation house by the swamp. It opens with the aftermath of a
fire which has claimed the lives of the leader and his wife. The story flicks
back and forth, pre and post fire.
Ali: Thank you for your time.
Laure: Thank you for having me!
Shots Magazine would like to thank Jen Harlow
of PenguinRandomHouse, London for organising this interview.
More information on the work of Laure Van Rensburg is
available from >
https://www.laurevanrensburg.com
https://www.instagram.com/laurevanrensburg
http://www.shotsmag.co.uk/book_reviews_view.aspx?BOOK_REVIEW_ID=2672
I became a Scenes of Crime Officer (SOCO) by accident. After university, I wasn’t sure what to do with my life when my brother in law, a police officer, told me his force was recruiting civilian scenes of crime officers. I loved photography which was a significant part of the job and it seemed an incredibly exciting area of work so I applied. To my surprise, I got it and after an intensive three month residential training programme, I attended my first crime scene. Most Scenes of Crime work is taken up with minor crimes and I spent most my time attending break ins and car thefts involving people who had little to start with. But, every now and then, I’d be called to a scene that, well, you couldn’t make up.
One night, on late turn, I was working in the city centre when I caught snippets of a police pursuit on the police radio. At that time, car theft was a massive problem. The ‘twockers’ (Taken Without Consent) as we called them were usually teenagers who would take the car for a joyride before dumping and, occasionally, setting it alight. From what I could make out this particular chase ended in a multi-storey car park, a favourite destination of car thieves because it offered a variety of escape routes which is exactly what happened that night.
I didn’t take that much notice because, as a SOCO, I played no part in catching them. If necessary, we examine the abandoned vehicle the following. To my surprise, however, the police operator called me up and told me to go immediately to the car park.
I arrived to find two young boys, cheeks stained with tears, sitting in the back of the police car looking absolutely petrified: their reaction , I assumed, to being caught. However, I still couldn't work out what I was doing there. The officer then asked me to follow him into the dank stairwell which was in almost total darkness as the lights had been vandalised.
Halfway down a set of stairs, he stopped and shone his torch upwards. A metre or so in front of me dangled a pair of legs. Looking up, I could make out the dark outline of a woman’s body, suspended from the ceiling. The police officer explained that in the darkness the boys had run headlong into this poor woman's legs. One of them had flicked on a lighter to see what it was and, seeing the body, they had become hysterical and had run screaming back up the stairwell straight into the arms of the police officer.
The woman, it turned out, had a history of mental illness and had walked out of a nearby hospital straight to the car park where she ended her life before anyone had noticed she was gone.
My job was to take photos which I did before returning to my van to finish my shift. The last I saw of the two boys, still trembling, they were being driven to a police station. I don’t know what happened to them. The police officers said it was karma but I like to think that the experience shocked them enough to stop them stealing cars.
It was another thirty years before I decided to write a crime novel - Breakneck Point - featuring a SOCO or CSI as they're often called today. We see these white suited people on television going in and out of crime scenes. They are exposed to more horrors than just about anyone else in the police service and the job they do is nothing less than remarkable, but I’d never read a book which centred on a CSI so, drawing on my own experiences, I decided to write my own. I wanted to show what it is like to deal with crime scenes and, although it is a work of fiction, my main character's feelings and observations reflect my own experiences.
We are endlessly fascinated by crime, but I wanted to explore something more; I wanted to show the devastating impact crime can have on an individual - any crime. I attended many crime scenes that would leave an indelible impression on me, but what stayed with me most were the victims.
By the time I arrived often the enormity of what had happened had begun to sink in. They were frightened and vulnerable. Just like those two boys in the car park that night. What I learnt was that it wasn’t just the victims of serious crime whose lives were destroyed. It was also the victims of minor crimes too. Crime is devastating.
CSI Ally Dymond's commitment to justice has cost her a place on the major investigations team. After exposing corruption in the ranks, she's stuck working petty crimes on the sleepy North Devon coast. Then the body of nineteen-year-old Janie Warren turns up in the seaside town of Bidecombe, and Ally's expert skills are suddenly back in demand. But when the evidence she discovers contradicts the lead detective's theory, nobody wants to listen to the CSI who landed their colleagues in prison. Time is running out to catch a killer no one is looking for - no one except Ally. What she doesn't know is that he's watching, from her side of the crime scene tape, waiting for the moment to strike.
July 2022
Don't be ordinary, Leo. Passion has its price.'1883. Leo Stanhope, transgender journalist and amateur detective, and his wife Rosie have come to Portsmouth - but this is no simple seaside retreat. While Rosie's sister expects them for dinner, two young people have been killed by the docks. Having learned from experience, Leo wants to leave this to the police. When detectives dismiss the victims as only 'molly-lads' and misfits, though, he knows he has to help. But what connects the two victims, a boy from the streets and a young woman with a strange tattoo? And why is Leo himself being watched? As he begins to uncover a web of theft and secrets surrounding the murders, Leo's investigation draws him deeper into Portsmouth's underground nightlife, the dangers of the Navy dockyard - and uncomfortably close to the in-laws he had just begun to get to know. Can he find the truth without losing his chosen family? Just how much will he risk to bring the right people to justice? The Blood Flower is by Alex Reeve.
All I Said Was True is by Imran Mahmood. When Amy Blahn was murdered on a London office rooftop, Layla Mahoney was there. She held Amy as she died. But all she can say when police arrest her is that 'It was Michael. Find Michael and you'll find out everything you need to know.' The problem is, the police can't find Michael - there is no evidence that he exists. And time is running out before they have to either charge Layla with Amy's murder, or let her go. As a lawyer, Layla knows that she has only forty-eight hours to convince police to investigate the man she knows only as 'Michael' instead of her. But the more she attempts to control her interviews with police, the more the truth leaks out - and how much of that truth can Layla risk being exposed?
September 2022
Turning Blue is by Benjamin Myers In the depths of winter in an isolated Yorkshire hamlet, a teenage girl, Melanie Muncy, is missing. The elite detective unit Cold Storage dispatches its best man to investigate. DI Jim Brindle may be obsessive, taciturn and solitary, but nobody on the force is more relentless in pursuing justice. Local journalist Roddy Mace has sacrificed a high-flying career as a reporter in London to take up a role with the local newspaper. For him the Muncy case offers the chance of redemption. Darker forces are at work than either man has realised. On a farm high above the hamlet, Steven Rutter, a destitute loner, harbours secrets that will shock even the hardened Brindle. Nobody knows the bleak moors and their hiding places better than him. As Brindle and Mace begin to prise the secrets of the case from the tight-lipped locals, their investigation leads first to the pillars of the community and finally to a local celebrity who has his own hiding places, and his own dark tastes.
As autumn draws in, a series of unexplained vicious attacks occur in a small northern town renowned for being a bohemian backwater. As the national media descends, local journalist Roddy Mace attempts to tell the story, but finds the very nature of truth brought into question. He turns to disgraced detective James Brindle for help. When further attacks occur the shattered community becomes the focus of an accelerating media that favours immediacy over truth. Murder and myth collide in a folk-crime story about place, identity and the tangled lives of those who never leave. These Darkening Days is by Benjamin Myers.
Left Coast Crime have presented the Lefty Awards at the 32nd annual convention.
The awards were voted on at the convention and presented at the banquet. LCC is delighted to announce the 2022 Lefty winners for books published in 2021:
Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel.
Mango, Mambo, and Murder by Raquel V. Reyes (Crooked Lane Books)
Bill Gottfried Memorial Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel for books set before 1970.
Clark and Division by Naomi Hirahara, (Soho Crime)
Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel.
All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris (William Morrow)
Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories).
Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger (Atria Books)
Congratulations to all the winners and the nominated authors.
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The Left Coast Crime Convention is an annual event sponsored by mystery fans, both readers and authors. Usually held in the western half of North America, LCC’s intent is to host an event where readers, authors, critics, librarians, publishers, and other fans can gather in convivial surroundings to pursue their mutual interests. Lefty Awards have been given since 1996.
Left Coast Crime is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation holding annual mystery conventions in the West. Each LCC convention raises money to support a local literary organization and is staffed entirely by volunteers.
When Katharine Armstrong, a 48 year-old mother of three, died in her bed one morning in February 1921 no one thought other than that she had died of natural causes. Yet, within 15 months, her husband Herbert, would be arrested, tried for murdering her and attempting to poison a rival, at a sensational trial. The proceedings were reported all over the western world as he was found guilty and executed exactly one hundred years ago – the only British solicitor ever to be hanged for murder.
The case was extraordinary because it was on the surface so ordinary: a tale arising out of small town professional rivalries in remote Hay-on-Wye on the English-Welsh border. But the twists and turns of the story could have been written by any of the then fashionable crime writers such as Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers or Anthony Berkeley who were just starting their careers and who would all reference the Armstrong case in one way or another in their stories over the coming years.
The tale, so famous at the time, has long fascinated me, not just because of the social milieu, ripe in period detail, in which it took place just after the First World War, but because its outcome remains contested. Much remains to be unravelled. Only two full length books have been published in the last fifty years: one convinced that Armstrong was guilty and the other that he was innocent and should never have been hanged. On the centenary of his trial I took up the very cold case and discovered not only poignant details about what happened, but also a previously overlooked witness whose evidence casts a new light on the story.
Katharine was more highly strung and nervous. She became delusional and depressive, worried that she was letting the family down, to such an extent that in 1920 she was committed to an asylum for six months. After she came home in January 1921 she was clearly not cured and went rapidly down hill, dying a month later. Within months Herbert was getting entangled with the town’s rival solicitor Oswald Martin over a land sale which was proving difficult to resolve and becoming acrimonious. One afternoon that October they met for tea at Herbert’s house, during the course of which he handed Oswald a scone, apparently with the words: “’scuse fingers”. After he got home later that evening Oswald fell violently ill, though he soon recovered.
His father-in-law, the local chemist Fred Davies, remembered selling Herbert Armstrong arsenic over the counter (as you could in those days) to make weedkiller to tackle the dandelions in his lawn. It was Davies who suggested his son-in-law might have been poisoned. They remembered that the Martins had received an anonymous box of chocolates shortly before, one of which had made Oswald’s sister-in-law ill.
The local doctor, Tom Hincks, who had treated Katharine and Oswald without any suspicions of foul play, was convinced now that they might both have been poisoned. The Home Office and Scotland Yard were surreptitiously called in and on New Year’s Eve, Herbert Armstrong was arrested in his office. A small, lethal dose of arsenic was found in one of his pockets. Charged with the attempted poisoning of Oswald, Armstrong was in custody when his wife’s body was exhumed from the local churchyard. It was found to contain a large amount of arsenic.
Herbert was tried at Hereford Assizes before Mr Justice Darling, a hanging judge who seems to have set out to find him guilty from the start. In summing up he ignored most of the evidence in Armstrong’s favour – which was quite substantial – and pressed for his conviction. The jury of local famers duly obliged, taking just 48 minutes to reach a verdict. Herbert was hanged at Gloucester prison five months to the day after his arrest. The hangman claimed to have heard him mutter: “I’m coming Kate!” as the trapdoor opened beneath his feet.
Was he guilty? As one reviewer has said of my book: “It’s for you to decide.” And there’s a twist on the very last page.
The Poisoner Solicitor: The True Story of a 1920s Murder Mystery by Stephen Bates.(Icon Books) Out Now
A brilliant narrative investigation into the 1920s case that inspired Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers and Margery Allingham. On a bleak Tuesday morning in February 1921, 48-year-old Katharine Armstrong died in her bedroom on the first floor of an imposing Edwardian villa overlooking the rolling hills of the isolated borderlands between Wales and England. Within fifteen months of such a sad domestic tragedy, her husband, Herbert Rowse Armstrong, would be arrested, tried and hanged for poisoning her with arsenic, the only solicitor ever to be executed in England. Armstrong's story was retold again and again, decade after decade, in a thousand newspaper articles across the world, and may have also inspired the new breed of popular detective writers seeking to create a cunning criminal at the centre of their thrillers. With all the ingredients of a classic murder mystery, the case is a near-perfect whodunnit. But who, in fact, did it? Was Armstrong really a murderer? One hundred years after the execution, Stephen Bates examines and retells the story of the case, evoking the period and atmosphere of the early 1920s, and questioning the fatal judgement.
More information about Stephen Bates can be found on his website. You can find him on Facebook and you can also follow him on Twitter @StephenBatesEsq
That’s what they say in conventional publishing, and by that, I mean the world of print and paper, Waterstones and WH Smiths, the big five and their huge marketing departments.
And, broadly speaking, they are right.
Male action heroes don’t sell that many either, with a few exceptions like Lee Child’s Jack Reacher. Even spy thrillers don’t shift in huge numbers, apart from those by John Le Carré and a select handful of others. If you want a UK spy thriller (the reading public reasons) you go to John Le Carré, king of the genre. Why would you go anywhere else? No need to reinvent the wheel. Le Carré’s appeal is broad - he is read equally by men and women and beloved by both, something he shares with Lee Child. And this is the key to their success.
Because it is women who buy fiction.
According to Helen Taylor in Why Women Read Fiction (and I see no reason to doubt her) 80% of fiction books are bought by women. Pretty staggering, right? And it’s not that women don’t like action, it’s just that, all things being equal, they prefer other genres, and if they are reading action, they seem to prefer (for whatever reason) male heroes.
Now let’s consider the brave new world of content consumption that is Netflix, YouTube, Audible, Amazon Prime, Tiktok etc. Compared to twenty or thirty years ago, there is vastly more content being delivered now, in vastly more original ways, and every bit of it is in direct competition with print books. Books are up against it in the fight of their lives.
On the plus side, the amount of content being consumed is also going up. Accurate data is hard to come by but, in the last couple of decades, it is estimated our content consumption has more than tripled. Smartphones have a lot to do with this. They are with us all the time – when we’re walking, driving, at the gym, in the house. And earbuds make it so easy. They carve out a space for new content where there wasn’t a space before. It is no surprise, therefore, that audio, as a means of delivering content, is increasing its market share fast.
And here’s the thing - the absolute game changer for conventional publishing - the audio audience is not the same as the audience who buy print books. Because half of them are men.
Granted, they are not all listening to fiction. There are podcasts and an ever-expanding array of non-fiction titles to choose from, but still. The numbers of men, and the quantity of fiction they are consuming, is steadily rising.
This is good news if you write spy thrillers with a female lead because here’s the other thing.
Men like stories with action heroines.
I guess it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise. Kick-ass women have been popular on screen (and gaming consoles) for years: Ripley, Buffy, Nikita, Lara Croft, the Black Widow, Electra, Trinity, Dark Angel, Sydney in Alias (to name but a very few). Popular on screen that is, but not in conventional publishing.
The only place in a bookshop you will find a kick-ass action heroine is young adult fantasy. The Hunger Games, The Cruel Prince, A Court of Thorns and Roses, Throne of Glass (basically everything by Sarah J. Maas) feature action heroines kicking butt. In fact, if you were to try to sell fantasy YA to an editor, without a strong female lead, you would probably struggle. That’s a whole generation who are growing up loving Katniss and Feyre and Aelin, who have had their tastes shaped at a formative age, and who, when they grow to adulthood, will likely find the current fiction offerings lacking. Put it together with the rise of the male reader, and conventional publishing is going to need to up their female-action game.
There is a certain amount of talking my own book here, of course. I write a kick-ass female spy called Winter, for Audible. Winter is what Bond would be if he was being created today. For a start, in our surveillance age, he would work at GCHQ (snoop central), not MI6, and would be good at coding. Also, there’s a chance he’d be a she. Some things would stay the same – the promiscuity, the weapons proficiency, the combat prowess. The smug invincibility. Winter is all these things.
But more than this, she is the hero. The Alpha if you like. The mythic hero. She’s not ‘making it in a man’s world’. She is the world. She is exactly what conventional publishers don’t like and audio and screen audiences love. She’s a fantasy. A John Wick, Vin Diesel, fight-to-the-death fantasy. Off the top of my head, I can’t think of many other heroines in modern fiction who can claim this. She is one of the first, but you can be absolutely sure she won’t be the last.
Winter Falling by Alex Callister is available exclusively on Audible from 7th April 2022.
If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster....Firestorm is down - the assassin for hire website that had the world by its throat, gone. Alek Konstantin, king of the underworld, is in hiding. But while the world celebrates, Winter is bracing for what must surely follow. All the world’s cut-throats, assassins and thugs are unemployed, roaming the globe without a leader - and nature abhors a vacuum. Or watch the things you gave your life to, broken....Something’s not right, and it’s not only that Winter’s body is in pieces. A boy held captive. An attempted assassination. Thirty men gunned down in rural South Wales. What sinister hand is directing these events, and to what end? GCHQ is a place of secrets, and they follow Winter everywhere. There is so much she must conceal, and Control is keeping something from her, something vital about her past. As she crashes towards the ultimate showdown, Winter faces the hardest decision of her life - and she must ask herself the question - whose side is she really on?
More information about the author can be found on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter @CallisterAuthor. You can also find her on Facebook.
LISBETH SALANDER AND THE ‘DRAGON TATTOO’ SERIES GIVEN NEW LIFE BY ONE OF SWEDEN’S MOST SUCCESSFUL NOVELISTS
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Karin Smirnoff lives on a farm in northern Sweden, just a short car journey away from Stieg Larsson’s birth place. She is a bestselling author whose novels have sold over 700,000 copies in her home country, has a black belt in karate, and enjoys spending time with her mother and kids. But now, her life is due to change completely as she is about to become one of the world’s most famous novelists after taking on the Stieg Larsson mantel to write about one of Sweden’s most iconic women, Lisbeth Salander. With approval of the Stieg Larsson estate, Karin Smirnoff has taken on the monumental task of writing the next three books in the ‘Dragon Tattoo’ series. The first novel (number 7 in the series) is due to be published in the UK on 31 August 2023.
Karin was born in Umeå in the north of Sweden, grew up in Stockholm, and left school at 17 to travel. Now, she has returned to her birthplace and lives on a farm which has been in her family for many decades. Karin has hinted in interviews that the main storyline for Millennium 7 (as the as-yet-untitled novel is called) will move from Stockholm and the south to the wild expanses of northern Sweden that are so familiar to her. She read the Millennium novels when the first three books came out and is familiar with the universe created by Larsson and continued by fellow Swede David Lagercrantz.
With Karin Smirnoff as the new writer of the series, and its acquisition by Katharina Bielenberg of the MacLehose Press, an imprint of Quercus Books, the series – which has sold over 100 million copies worldwide – will have a female author and publisher, with a female translator also being lined up.
Katharina Bielenberg says, “The Millennium series has been a constant at MacLehose Press and
Quercus since Christopher MacLehose acquired Stieg Larsson’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo back in 2008. Everything we know about Karin Smirnoff and her work tells us she has the perfect sensibility not only to continue on from David Lagercrantz’s trilogy with great drive and imagination, but also to make the series her own. And it feels just right that Lisbeth Salander’s universe should now be brought to life by a woman. We are absolutely thrilled to be working with Karin on these next instalments.”
Jon Butler, MD at Quercus Books, says, “The Millennium series – ‘the Dragon Tattoo books’ to most people in the English-speaking world – of course constitute one of the biggest publishing stories of the last twenty years, selling over 100 million copies worldwide. Stieg Larsson’s iconic creation, and the brilliant sequels written by David Lagercrantz, reached people who rarely buy books, which is the holy grail for any publisher. So, we couldn’t be more excited to announce a new trilogy; except that I probably am more excited. Karin Smirnoff is a literary talent of the highest order, and a huge bestseller in her native Sweden. We can’t wait to launch her creation to the widest possible English-language readership next year.”
The trailer for the Millennium 7 can be watched below.
For further information, please contact Corinna Zifko, corinna.zifko@quercusbooks.co.uk / 07917 158 986.
The chosen applicants will be offered a place on The Novelry’s Ninety Day Novel Course, jointly sponsored by The Novelry and one of eight bestselling guest authors, including Sophie Kinsella and Rachel Joyce (full details below). The Ninety Day Novel Course is aimed at first-time writers, or writers who are on their first draft. The course has daily lessons, providing aspiring authors with the tools and guidance to put pen to paper (or hand to keyboard!) and turn their story idea into a reality.
One-to-one mentoring with one of The Novelry’s author tutors is included in the course. There are eight tutors to choose from: Louise Dean, The Novelry founder and prize-winning author, Emylia Hall, Polly Ho-Yen, Jack Jordan, Katie Khan, Kate Riordan, Mahsuda Snaith, and Tasha Suri. Alongside personal author coaching, and the daily lessons, one year’s membership to The Novelry will be included, providing applicants with all they need to get to the end of their novel.
To apply for The Octopus Scheme please email The Novelry at hello@thenovelry.com with the subject heading 'The Octopus Scheme'. All applications are considered in total confidence by The Novelry. They do not require proof of eligibility but would be grateful if applicants could explain in their own words about their circumstances. Applicants should include a 500-word sample of their writing and include in their covering email your answers to the following questions:
About my circumstances and why I would like to be considered for The Octopus Scheme
What I hope to gain from the Ninety Day Novel Course
A tip from The Novelry: if you're feeling modest about your work, and nervous about applying – do it! Often it's the case that those least certain about their writing are very good writers indeed!
For more information please visit https://www.thenovelry.com/scholarships. The deadline for applications is 31st May 2022 midnight UTC. For more information on the course, please see https://www.thenovelry.com/the-ninety-day-novel-course.
Like most writers, when I started out I didn’t have a clear understanding of what genres were or how they worked. I didn’t have a clue what genre my first novel might be, or that it might matter where it would sit on a bookshop shelf one day.
That novel (mercifully rejected by editors - who are gatekeepers, yes, but for a reason!) was a passionate love story, but it ended with a very grisly suicide on a remote beach. So definitely not one that could be filed on the ‘romance’ shelf…
Some of the feedback I got for that novel said that they couldn’t work out whether it was meant to be a horror. A horror?! It had never occurred to me. I’d just sat down to write the story that was inside my head. I thought I was writing ‘fiction’. But without any conscious planning on my part, I’d been drawn to the dark side.
I hope if you asked anyone who knew me in real life, they’d say that I’m not a particularly dark person. I love a moan (I’m British after all) but I’m generally pretty cheerful and laid-back and I try to see the positives in life where possible.
But I’m also a terrible wimp. I’ve written eight novels now – 6 of which have been published (or are going to be). I’ve covered subjects such as postpartum psychosis, sexual assault, baby-loss, stalking, murder, toxic masculinity and accidental death. My latest novel, The Sanctuary, explores the dark side of wellness culture, and how dangerous it can be to put your life in the hands of self-declared ‘gurus’.
And finally, eight books in, I think I’ve worked out why all my novels, in their own ways, are pretty dark.
I believe it’s one of my brain’s ways of dealing with anxiety. I have an extremely low scare threshold – I can’t watch any kind of violence on screen and I find the news endlessly upsetting and terrifying (although who doesn’t these days, to be fair).
I have anxiety about so many things and yet I am drawn to the things I am most anxious about. I find myself researching things that terrify me. I think by writing about the things that scare me the most, I’m able to get my fears out into the light, to examine them from every angle. And somehow, this makes them less frightening. Knowledge is power, after all.
Over the course of my writing career, I’ve also realised that writing is my therapy. I know that without it, my mental health wouldn’t be as robust as it is. Writing is my way of processing the world, my fears and thoughts, and a way of emptying my noisy, cruel brain of all the things that it likes to haunt me with.
When I write a dark character or dark situation, I know that I am in complete control. I have the ultimate say, and I can determine the outcome of their stories. I think this gives me a safety net to explore my fears.
(I secretly think many writers are control freaks. I certainly am.)
However, as you’d imagine, I’ve often wished my brain worked differently. I would love to write happy, uplifting books and have great admiration for those who do so. It’s true what they say – it’s far harder to write convincingly about happiness than it is about misery.
Most of all, I’m in awe of people who manage to write in multiple genres, and especially those who write thrillers as well as romance – how do they do it? I can start off with the happiest of happy couples and yet within a few thousand words one of them will be plotting the sinister downfall of the other.
I’m determined one day to write a genuine love story, with no horror or cruel fate lying in wait for my protagonists. As writers, we’re always learning, and there’s always room to improve. And perhaps this is why I love this job so much – there’s always something to aspire to, a new challenge to overcome. A new way of looking at the world, and processing what you see.
The Sanctuary by Charlotte Duckworth (Quercus Books) Out Now.
Four pregnant women. Three nights of pampering at an exclusive yoga retreat. One too many deadly secrets . . .On a remote farm in the deepest Devonshire countryside, four pregnant women arrive at an exclusive yoga retreat for a five-star weekend of prenatal pampering. The location is idyllic. Their host, Selina, is eager to teach them all she knows about pregnancy and motherhood. But, like Selina, each of the women has a secret. And secrets can be deadly . . .
You can find out more information about Charlotte and her books on her website. You can also follow her on Twitter @charduck and on Instagram @charduck.
Picture © Charlotte Duckworth
