Death Watch Cottage: 'A murdered tourist and a community tearing itself apart was too good to pass up'

Death Watch Cottage is the fourth novel in the CSI Ally Dymond series which is set in North Devon. When I began writing the CSI Ally Dymond series, I always knew I wanted to set it in North Devon.

Having grown up there, I returned to live there a few years ago and I know the area extremely well. I have always felt that North Devon’s blend of coastal communities, market towns, isolated farms and desolate moorlands would give me ample locations for my crime novel and so it has proved to be the case.

When called upon in my stories, North Devon has certainly done its fair share of the heavy lifting. It has provided an authentic backdrop for poor mobile signals, easy getaways down narrow roads that are barely mapped, slow police responses from an emergency service stretched thinly over a huge area and communities that sometimes know a little too much about each other.

But it isn’t just North Devon’s landscape that has provided me with inspiration for my novels. I am also interested in the issues facing the place I call home. 

First and foremost, I write crime novels which means there is a certain contract that I must fulfil with my reader but, beyond that, I also like to play with themes pertinent to the area. 

With my first novel, Breakneck Point, I wanted to look beyond the breath-taking landscape and that classic image of a thatched cottage and roses growing around the door which is why I set it in fictional Bidecombe, a struggling coastal town beset with problems relating to social deprivation. 

My latest novel Death Watch Cottage tackles the other end of the scale. It is set in a former fishing village a little further down the coast called Maidcombe, but, unlike Bidecombe, most of the properties in Maidcombe are holiday homes. 

Second homes and holiday lets are a live issue in North Devon. There are approximately 4,770 holiday rentals listed in the area, according to Airbnb. This has placed the permanent rental market under considerable pressure with local people finding it difficult to find a place that they can afford to live in. 

On the flipside, visitors generate around £600 million for the local economy, supporting in the region of 11,000 jobs. It’s against this backdrop that I wanted to write Death Watch Cottage.

The novel opens with a public meeting where tempers flare over the closure of the local school due to a fall in numbers. 

There are those who believe the fault lies with the increasing proliferation in holiday homes which are pushing up house prices and driving local families out of the area. Others at the meeting argue that many of the restaurants and pubs would not exist without tourists.

The meeting is interrupted by a teenage boy who, on seeing a light on in his father’s holiday, went to check, only to discover the body of a tourist in the shower. The only problem Leo Hawkins is meant to be staying at a different holiday let in the village. Is his death the result of a faulty CO alarm or is something more sinister at play.

As the investigation begins, it becomes clear that some locals resent outsiders enough to wage a campaign against them in an attempt to drive them away. Would they go as far as to murder a tourist?

Alongside the issues surrounding second homes, I am also taken with the idea of community. In North Devon, there are many close-knit communities, similar to the one I grew up in, where families have lived side by side for generations. But what exactly does it mean to belong to a community and what is the best way of protecting these communities? Those were the questions I wanted to try and answer in Death Watch Cottage.

It is often this sense of community that attracts visitors to the area, but there are those in my novel that feel their community is being eroded by the presence of holiday homes that remain empty for large parts of the year. 

On the other hand, there are those who believe communities must adapt to survive and that includes accepting villages can only remain viable if they offer holiday lets.

In reality, North Devon is as welcoming to visitors as it always has been but for a crime writer such as myself, a murdered tourist, along with a community tearing itself apart felt like a potent mix that was just too good to pass up.

Death Watch Cottage by T. Orr Munro (HarperCollins Publishers) Out Now

Assume nothing. The body of Leo Hawkins is found in a Devon holiday cottage, the cause of death carbon monoxide poisoning. Was this a tragic accident or something more sinister? CSI Ally Dymond will follow the evidence wherever it leads. Believe no-one. Leo’s wife gives an account of his final hours, but something isn’t adding up. Graffiti left by an anti-tourist group is discovered nearby. The only consistent thread in the investigation is that no one is telling the truth. Challenge everything When a second body turns up, Ally and the murder team must examine everything they thought they knew, untangling a web of suspects to get to the truth. Is there a single killer? Are there more deaths to come? Ally will need to uncover local loyalties to catch any killer before they strike again…

 T. Orr Munro can be found on Instagram @ t_orr_munro

Writing the Power of Spies by Ava Glass

I’ve written three novels from the perspective of spies. In these books we get inside the spies’ heads, and we see normal people at a kind of distance – as if spies are separate from our world in some way. Which they are. You and I don’t factor much in spies’ thoughts. They are entirely focussed on terrorists, foreign spies, international governments, illegal activity, and war. In a perfect world, those of us who don’t fit any of those descriptions would never knowingly encounter someone from their world. But just now and then because of fate or very bad luck, normal people do find themselves stepping through that looking glass. And when our world collides with that of the spies, trouble often follows.

Part of the problem is their disproportionate power. When you think about it, spies have access to infinite information. They know everything about us, and we don’t even know their real names. Because of that, they can manipulate us with ease. I know this personally because, for five years I worked with spies in counter-terrorism communications. I had no background in espionage at all – I’d been a crime reporter before that. An acquaintance had offered me the government job at just the right moment, and I took it. But back then I didn’t fully understand what working with spies would mean. But I would soon learn.

The first thing that happened was I met a young woman in the office who was new, like me. We kept running into each other in the coffee shop and on the bus, and naturally began hanging out together. The office building was huge and lonely, and I was pleased to have made a friend. She was funny and quick, and asked a lot of questions about my family and my past. I happily chatted away. Until, after a couple of weeks, she disappeared. Her email didn’t work, her phone rang out. No one in the office seemed ever to have met her. It was as if I’d been friends with a ghost. Months went by before someone told me the truth: she had been part of my background security check. Just one last test to make sure I was who I said I was. I’d thought myself quite sophisticated, and yet she’d played me like a child.

In The Hiding Season, I wanted to look at what that felt like. That encounter was my first inspiration. My second inspiration came from an old friend. A few years ago, she’d worked at a private ski resort in the American state of Montana. Like all such resorts, this one had a range of slopes, ski lifts, ski patrols, a café at the top of the highest peak… everything you might expect, save for one thing – it was solely for the use of the 45 families who owned very expensive lodges on the mountain.

During the ski season, the resort was busy, but that’s only two months every winter. For the rest of the year it was empty. My friend often spent her entire day up on the mountain without seeing another person. At 8,000-feet elevation, her mobile had no signal. She was entirely cut off.

I used to tell her it would be an amazing place to commit a murder – there would be no witnesses and the body wouldn’t be found for weeks. But at a resort like that, a murder victim is bound to be someone important – someone with power and influence. And anyone who kills someone with that much power will be very determined never to be found. That sort of killer wouldn’t allow the sole witness to survive.

Combining those two things – the power of spies and the power of wealth – I came up with The Hiding Season. It’s a book about what happens when we are overpowered. And how to know whether it’s time to run. Or to fight back.

The Hiding Season by Ava Glass (Penguin, £16.99) Out Now

Maya Landry is in desperate need of a fresh start. Alone and heartbroken, she finds work as a caretaker at an exclusive ski resort for the elite in the mountains of Montana. Quiet and empty in the summer months, it's the perfect escape. All Maya wants is to be alone. But she's not alone on the mountain. Someone else is there. A killer with his next victim in his sights. After Maya finds a body, she must run for her life. One man tells her that he can save her. But can she trust him? Is he everything he claims to be? Only one thing is certain: the killer will stop at nothing. And Maya is the only witness to their crime. 

The Hiding Season is available to buy here.

More information about Ava Glass and her books can be found on her website.

You can also find her on Instagram and Facebook @avaglassbooks

The 2026 Barry Award Nominations

 

The winners of the 2026 Barry Awards will be announced at the Opening Ceremonies of Bouchercon (Calgary, Canada) on October 22, 2026. Congratulations to all those nominated. Deadline for voting: September 15, 2026. Readers of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine are eligible to vote. One vote per category. Send votes to george@deadlypleasures.com

Best Mystery

THE IMPOSSIBLE THING, Belinda Bauer (Atlantic Monthly)

 CROOKS, Lou Berney (William Morrow)

KING OF ASHES, S. A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

THE BLACK WOLF, Louise Penny (Minotaur Books)

THE WHITE CROW, Michael Robotham (Scribner)

PRESUMED GUILTY, Scott Turow (Grand Central)

Best First Mystery

LEVERAGE, Amran Gowani (Atria Books)

ALL THE OTHER MOTHERS HATE ME, Sarah Harman (Putnam)

DEAD MONEY, Jakob Kerr (Bantam)

THE VANISHING PLACE, Zoe Rankin (Berkley)

STILLWATER, Tanya Scott (Atlantic Monthly)

JULIE CHAN IS DEAD, Liann Zhang (Atria Books)

Best Paperback Original Mystery

CRIMSON THAW, Bruce Robert Coffin (Severn River)

SPLINTERED JUSTICE, Kim Hays (Seventh Street Books)

MAKING A KILLING, Cara Hunter (William Morrow)

IF TWO ARE DEAD, Rick Mofina (MIRA)

WOLF SIX, Alex Shaw (Boldwood Books)

THE DENTIST, Tim Sullivan (Atlantic Crime)

Best Thriller

WITNESS 8, Steve Cavanagh (Atria Books)

THE OLIGARCH’S DAUGHTER, Joseph Finder (Harper)

MIDNIGHT BLACK, Mark Greaney (Berkley)

CLOWN TOWN, Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

HEAD CASES, John McMahon (Minotaur Books)

THE MAILMAN, Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Mysterious Press)

Thanks to Members of the Barry Award Nominating Committee:

Oline Cogdill

Larry Gandle

Jeff Popple

Ted Hertel

Meredith Anthony

“Mystery” Mike Bursaw

Mike Dillman

Ayo Onatade

George Easter

Ali Karim

Robin Agnew

Craig Sisterson

Hank Wagner

Kevin Burton Smith

 

Len Deighton a personal appreciation by Mike Ripley

 

Have Pencil, Will Write.

They say you should never meet your heroes. Well, they are wrong.

One of the proudest moments of my life was when, as a student, I had an essay, on the economic policies of fascist states in Europe in the 1930s, returned from the tutor who had marked it with the added comment: Stop trying to write like Len Deighton! (Despite, or perhaps because of this, I got a good mark.)

Even earlier in my academic career, I had reason to be grateful to Len Deighton. As a teenage schoolboy I treated myself to the first hardback novel I ever bought, Billion Dollar Brain in 1966 (it cost 21 shillings). During a lesson with a notoriously sarcastic English master, we were asked to name the novel we had read most recently and I was immediately accused of lying as I could not have read Billion Dollar Brain because ‘it’s not out in paperback yet’. When I claimed I had the hardback first edition, and could bring it to school, the master said: ‘Can I borrow it?’ He did, and I got excellent marks for the rest of the term.

I have written extensively on the impact Len’s debut novel, The Ipcress File (1962), had on me and the whole spy-fiction genre and it is certainly the novel I have read more times than any other and for me, the anonymous hero of Ipcress, Horse Under Water, Funeral In Berlin and Billion Dollar Brain (‘Harry Palmer’ in the films) is an icon of the Sixties. With advancing age, I have come to realise that I belong to the early generation of Deighton fans, as there is a younger generation which believe his massive contribution to spy fiction began in the Eighties with his triple trilogy featuring the world-weary spy Bernard Samson. I’m sticking to my guns. Much as I enjoyed the Samson saga (and its background novel Winter) I think those first four books were Deighton’s greater achievement.

But they were not his only achievement. He had already established himself as a graphic artist (and noted designer of book covers) and combined this skill with a natural talent for cooking in his famous ‘cookstrips’ which even the most culinary illiterate male could follow. He also found time to be a film producer. At the end of the Sixties he broke new ground writing his WWII novel Bomber with the aid of a word-processor, gaining a reputation as a keen adopter of new technology, especially when it was reported that he had a personal telex machine and one of the first radio car telephones. I did once ask Len if it was true about the car phone and he replied with a cheeky grin: ‘And the first call I took on it was Bertrand Russell asking if I knew how to contact The Beatles…’ 

He put his interest in WWII to good use, establishing himself as a military historian of the conflict who had clearly considered and research the German side, in which he was assisted by his wife Ysabele and her fluency in numerous languages. The war was to feature in his fiction in novels such asiXPD, City of Gold and Goodbye Mickey Mouse, which he once told me was his favourite book, and spectacularly in his ‘alternate history’ SS-GB.

I first met Len in The Travellers’ Club in London, where he researched the background to the opening of his novel Winter – specifically New Year’s Eve 1899 in Vienna. Although we had corresponded via email through our mutual friend Harry Keating we had never actually met and Len must have sensed my nervousness, for he quickly set me at my ease and offered me his basic rules when attending any sort of business meeting: ‘Have a clean shirt, wear a tie and always be polite.’ I think he appreciated my reply: ‘Well two out of three ain’t bad’.

From then on we would meet for lunch whenever he was in London, and damn fine lunches they were even without alcohol. (I only ever saw Len drink once, a single glass of champagne at a lunch he hosted in Knightsbridge.) He introduced me to the cuisine of Anton Mosimann (and Anton himself) while I introduced him to the cooking of Marcus Waring, and though the food was good, it was the table talk which always made the occasion. 

At one lunch in a Japanese restaurant a discussion about the economy of Renaissance Florence somehow turned into an explanation (by Len) of how stolen money could be 'laundered' into US dollars in Vichy France. A month or so later, I asked him if I could use his idea as the basis of a plot. He agreed and it became the backbone of my novel Mr Campion's War.

On another occasion, I told him of a recent poll on Radio 5 to find the ‘best Bond villain’ and whilst Blofeld, Goldfinger, Oddjob, etc. all scored highly, one person voted for film producer Kevin McClory. I knew Len had known McClory, and worked with him on various Bond projects, and would be amused by the poll. He was, and immediately penned an eBook, James Bond: My Long and Eventful Search for his Father.

His stories about the film world and publishing in the Sixties were always entertaining, often self-depreciating and (almost) never rancorous. Although when published, Ipcress File was touted as the ‘anti-Bond’ and the media of the time would have loved a Fleming/Deighton confrontation. But Ian Fleming chose Ipcress as his book of the year for The Sunday Times and Deighton has credited the boom in spy stories in the 1960s to the success of the Bond films. He has always maintained that there were two strands: he wrote spy fiction, Ian Fleming (with many others aping him) wrote spy fantasy.

It was that definition which I used as a basic thesis in my history of British thrillers, Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, which I dedicated to Len Deighton. For that I remain eternal grateful, as well as for the many books he urged me to read (which I did) and the authors I should champion – Ted Allbeury being a case in point. And, of course, for the casual advice about writing and being an author which passed across those many tables.

I especially remember him going suddenly serious and asking if I ever suffered from ‘writers’ block’. When I said ‘no’, he seemed relieved and dismissed the idea as ‘the blank wall we secretly know is incompetence’. He scoffed at associating writers’ block with technology, from electric typewriters to word processors to laptops. ‘The only implements needed to write book are pencil and paper, everything else is luxury.’

Len Deighton wrote a lot over thirty non-stop years and I thought, as a long-time fan, I had read it all, but I discover one piece which I have missed, his editing of Drinkmanship in 1964, which sounds right up my street.

What a hero!

In Memoriam - Lauren Milne Henderson

 In Memoriam

Lauren Milne Henderson (aka Rebecca Chance)

30th September 1966 - March 2026

It is with deep sadness that the crime writing community have learned of the recent death of the award-winning crime writer Lauren Milne Henderson. As well as being an author Lauren worked as a journalist for a number of well-known newspapers and magazines.

Under the name of Lauren Milne Henderson, she was the author of the Sam Jones series featuring sculptor turned sleuth Sam Jones. The first book in the series is Dead White Female was published in 1995 and it was followed by six more books.  Too Many Blondes (1996), The Black Rubber Dress (1997) Freeze My Margarita (1998) The Strawberry Tattoo (1999), Chained (2001) and Pretty Boy (2002)

 

Following on from her Sam Jones series she also wrote the Young Adult Kiss/Scarlett series starting with Kiss Me Kill Me in 2008 which featured 16-year-old Scarlett Wakefield who must clear her name after the last boy she kisses dies in her arms and she is accused of his death. There were 3 more books in this series published. Kisses and Lies (2009), Kisses in the Dark (2010) and Kisses of Death (2011). Kiss Me Kill Me was nominated for an Anthony Award in 2009.

For a long period, she was a regular attendee at a number of crime writing festivals especially Bouchercon during the 1990s and 2000s.

Under the name Rebecca Chance she was also the author of 10 glamourous thrillers and what was known as ‘Bonkbusters’.  Whilst all standalones previous characters could be found in other books.  The first book in the series was Divas (2009) and the last book Killer Affair (2017). Killer Heels (2012), Bad Angels (2012) Killer Queens (2013) and Bad Brides (2014) all made the Sunday Times Best seller list.

In 2002 together with Stella Duffy, Lauren edited Tart Noir an anthology of women-behaving-badly crime stories.

Lauren also wrote 3 romantic comedies between 2003 and 2005.

As a non-fiction author she wrote the Jane Austen’s Guide to Dating (2005). Alongside over 100 well-known crime writers she contributed to the Anthony, Agatha and Macavity Award wining Books to Die For where she wrote two personal essays under the names Lauren Henderson on Agatha Christie’s Endless Night and as Rebecca Chance on Have His Carcass by Dorothy L Sayers.

 Lauren was also one of the contributors to Barry Forshaw’s 2 volume British Crime Writing: An Encyclopaedia. She wrote the essay on Peter O’Donnell and Modesty Blaise. She was also featured in the Encyclopaedia as an author in her own right.

In 2014 under the name of Rebecca Chance and along with crime writer Laura Lippman a travel article was published in The New York Times entitled ‘Murder, They Wrote’ about a trip that they took on the Orient Express.

In 2020 Lauren Henderson short story #MeTwo won the CWA Short Story Dagger. It was published in the anthology Invisible Blood which was edited by Maxim Jakubowski and brought together various short stories focusing on themes of contemporary crime and social issues.

In 2024 Lauren attended the CWA Daggers that took place in London.  Rather sadly and with

much regret it was the last time we saw each other.   I have incredibly fond memories of hanging out with her especially when we managed to find ourselves attending the same Bouchercon. I specifically remember closing the bar with her in Baltimore. It was the first one I attended and it was a joy to see her as at the time I knew very few people.

Lauren’s death is a great loss to the crime writing community and she will be sorely missed by not only fellow crime writers but all her fans. Our condolences to all of her family and friends.

 

 

500 Square Foot of History

“His bedroom and his bathroom looked out on a tiny court containing a sundial and a silversmith. Few people who walked down St James’s Street knew of the court’s existence.” – The Human Factor by Graham Greene

One November day, many years ago, I was walking back from a meeting near St James’s Park in London and spotted an intriguing passageway I’d never noticed before. Lined with dark panels, it appeared to lead to a little courtyard and the sign on the wall named it Pickering Place. Peering down the covered passage, what I glimpsed of the courtyard appeared secluded and private, so I carried on my way but, curiosity piqued, I looked it up on the train home.

As a teenager, my father had given me Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City to read, and, as an already-avid crime fiction fan, the idea of a varied and eccentric community investigating a murder immediately popped into my head. The idea recurred several times over the years, and I even spent a month in San Francisco in my twenties, staying in a Barbary Lane-style courtyard, exploring the city I’d read so much about, but the idea was transient and unfixed, and the exact way in which I could bring these people together in a UK setting eluded me.

Until the day I discovered Pickering Place. Described as the smallest residential square in London – and it really is small, about 500 square feet – it was rich with history. Sometimes, it only takes a word or a phrase to spark an idea for a writer, and ‘the smallest square in London’ was enough for me. The idea for a crime novel set in a London square immediately began to form, and that was before I read the wealth of history in this tiny place. 

Formerly part of Henry VIII’s real tennis courts, it was acquired by builder Thomas Stroud in 1731, who built many of the houses surrounding the square. By 1741 however, William Pickering, a coffee merchant, had taken ownership. He was son-in-law to Widow Bourne, the founder of Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd, the historic wine merchants who have been operating next door on St James’s Street since 1698.

In the 18th century, Pickering Place became something of a ‘scene’ and, as a secluded, unseen corner of St James’s, attracted all sorts of unsavoury activity from the aristocratic society in the neighbourhood. It gained a reputation for gambling, bear-baiting, cock-fighting, bare-knuckle boxing, and even as a location for illegal duels. One of its most famous duellists was rumoured to be Beau Brummell, famous dandy and inventor of the cravat, whose statue stands in nearby Jermyn Street. It has even been suggested that the last duel in London was fought there, but since pistols were the weapon of choice for duellists by then, the limited square footage would make that unlikely. The words ‘fish’ and ‘barrel’ spring to mind.

The square appeared to clean up its act in the 19th century however, becoming home to the Texan Republic’s legation until Texas joined the United States in 1845, and in 1914 was put to use as a temporary recruitment and sign-up spot for The Royal Fusiliers. The historians at Berry Bros. & Rudd even discovered photographs in their archive from 1922 showing Pickering Place being used as a film set, the film’s title unknown but featuring two duelling, costumed swordsmen. A source of those ‘last duel’ rumours, perhaps. In the 1950s, writer Graham Greene lived there, in a flat above an oyster bar and below General Auchinleck, using the square as inspiration for the living quarters of Colonel Daintry in his novel, The Human Factor. 

Did you know London still had lamplighters? I didn’t, until I went back to Pickering Place to explore. I found that not only was the square truly tiny, it was also very beautiful, with Georgian architecture, iron railings, and an original, still-used Victorian gas lamp. My fictional Marchfield Square sprang fully to life for me that day, albeit on a larger plot and with fewer people, and the story of a special and quite improbable place in London was born.

Sadly, Pickering Place’s gas lamp has now been converted to LED but there are still over 250 left in the area, looked after by a devoted group of skilled engineers. The commitment of others to preserve and document our history also inspired the second book in the Marchfield Mysteries, Murder Like Clockwork, although setting the books in London has provided an embarrassment of riches in that respect.

While the idea for Marchfield Square appeared to download itself to my brain in a single moment – an eclectic residential community in the heart of London, overlooked by a wealthy, somewhat mysterious widow – the rest of the story came in snippets, inspired by the history of the square. The characters include a coffee addicted writer, a military man, and a retired film actor, all part of a community of found family hiding their secrets in the shadows… And then I asked the question: what would happen to that community if the wrong person moved in? 

When I finally sat down to write 10 Marchfield Square it was 2021. Even for me, that was a long time for an idea to percolate, but sometimes, the moment is just right. Publishing was rediscovering the joy of crime novels with heart and humour, and the book flowed easily, and I had a great time planting little references to Pickering Place in its pages.

One thing most writers have in common is our curiosity, our need to look up (and subsequently rabbit-hole) even the idlest of thoughts. And even if that research never makes it into a book, I sure none of us would have it any other way. 

For more in depth history about Pickering Place, do visit the sites of Berry Bros. and Rudd, The London Gasketeers, and The Paris Review.

Murder Like Clockwork by Nicola Whyte. (Bloomsbury Publishing)

An empty house that isn't empty. A victim who vanishes. An impossible crime? Every Thursday at midday Audrey Brooks cleans the Petrov house. Mr Petrov is never home - in fact he seems to use the house purely as storage for his impressive collection of antiques - but that doesn't affect the care with which Audrey mops, polishes, and carefully winds each of the dozens of beautiful clocks that decorate the tall, elegant, empty London mansion. Until the morning she finds a corpse in the back bedroom, the pristine walls and floor covered in blood, and flees the house in panic. Fifteen minutes later, the police arrive... and find nothing. No body. No blood. The only thing slightly out of the ordinary is the clock in that back bedroom, which is now running four minutes slow. With no victim, the police are convinced there was no murder, but Audrey knows better. A man has been killed, and if they won't do anything about it, she - and her annoying friend Lewis - will. Whodunnit is one thing, but this detective duo must also wrestle with when - and where on earth is the body? It's not long since they solved the murder of their neighbour, so they're not rookie sleuths, and at least this time the case has no connection to their home. Does it?

More information about Nicola Whyte and her books can be found on her website. She can also be found on Facebook. She can also be found on Instagram, X, Bluesky and Threads @nixawhy.

Simon Mason on The Dangerous Man

The Dangerous Stranger is the fifth story in a series featuring a pair of mis-matched detectives in Oxford, both called Wilkins. Ryan Wilkins is Oxford born and bred, white, a chav who grew up on what the Americans would call a ‘trailer park,’ badly dressed, badly behaved, semi-feral in fact, with a chip on his shoulder and anger-management issues generally brought into play by encounters with privileged elites. Ray Wilkins is a member of the privileged elites, London-Nigerian, privately educated with a double first in PPE from Balliol College, Oxford, handsome, nattily dressed, articulate and suave, the golden boy of Thames Valley Police – until, much against his will, he was paired with Ryan. They are not related. They do not get on.

Oddly, what they get are results.

This new story is a thought-experiment. What if Oxford – gentle city of poets and scholars – had experienced a riot, as so many cities in the UK did, after the Southport murders? An out-of-control crowd lobbing Molotov cocktails at a hotel housing asylum seekers. And also: what if a young refugee was actually burned to death? (It’s an Oxford tradition, after all, if in abeyance for many centuries and formerly restricted to Jews and archbishops.) And furthermore: what if the victim then turned out not to be a refugee at all?

Perhaps it sounds very political. But the impulse wasn’t to discuss politics; the story seemed to arise naturally out of the anger and fear. There is action, for sure, but as Chandler said, what counts is emotion; and it seemed to me that there were unusual amounts of this arising, unstoppably, chaotically, from the basic situation I imagined.

This emotion affects all the characters, in different ways. Because it’s the fifth book in a series, some of the characters have naturally been around for a while. Little Ryan, for instance, Ryan’s four-year-old son. And his father, Ryan Senior, released early from prison (overcrowding issues) and now resident, to his disgust, in a hostel for rehabilitating prisoners. The Wilkins’s Superintendent is familiar too, fresh, steely and blonde as ever, but having to cope with a disciplinary enquiry, which tests her considerable reserves to the limit, and the Chief Constable, a massive, battered, malevolent presence, who openly hopes to get rid of those Wilkins ‘clowns’.

But there are new characters too. A sly criminal from Rotherhithe who hates Oxford even as his job keeps him there. An eager new DC, William, who simply won’t shut up and is a little too naïve for his own good. ‘Milky’ Nolan, twelve years old, excited to find himself at his first riot. Yemi Kosoko, world food grocery shopkeeper in Oxford’s ethnic Cowley Road and his friend, the chess-playing eccentric academic Nicholas Kinghorn, who dyes his beard lilac to remind him of weddings in Ghana. And finally, most important of all, Jallo (other names unknown, age unknown, country of origin unknown) who finds himself sleeping rough in Oxford’s nooks and crannies, and knows himself to be in horrible danger.

I like Oxford’s nooks and crannies, I must admit. I like the city’s double nature. Its deep Englishness (dons and quadrangles, meadows and river), and simultaneous air of foreignness (all those foreign post-grads, language students and care workers). I like its strange blend of permanence (we who live here) and transience (those who arrive and go, students, tourists). And I like its rooted elderly and great waves of youth. It seems to me excitingly unstable. Perhaps it’s that quality that gives rise to stories, not all of which it wants to tell.

The Dangerous Man by Simon Mason (Quercus Publishing) £16.99 Out Now

On a warm and pleasant evening in Oxford, gentle city of poets and scholars, rioters outside a hotel full of asylum seekers set a young refugee on fire. The city - the country - convulses in shock. Is this who we are? It's international news of the very worst kind, and the Chief Constable demands immediate and exemplary action in bringing the perpetrators to justice. The detectives leading the investigation fill him with misgivings, however: DIs Ryan and Ray Wilkins (no relation), Thames Valley's detective pantomime horse, one Oxford-educated, the other Oxford-trailer park. He doesn't understand why they work together. 'Do they even get on?' 'Somehow that doesn't seem necessary,' their Superintendent replies. Who burned the boy alive? Was it a far-right extremist? Was it an ordinary person who had simply gone along to watch and got caught up in the emotion? Could it even be one of the children who were there? Deploying a range of investigative skills, some standard, some unconventional and some frankly nuts, the Wilkinses do what they do: results with chaos. But when they discover that the victim was not an asylum seeker after all, or even a resident of the hotel, the whole investigation kicks into a completely different configuration.

The Shots review of The Dangerous Man can be found here.

Useful Idiots by Neil Lancaster

Writers are generally divided into two camps in how they deal with the difficult task of coming up with an idea for a book and then how to attack the job of getting the words down. 

We are either known as “plotters,” which is kind of self-explanatory, as in you plot all the story out, you know the story beats, and you know how it ends. 

Or.. we can be what is known in the trade as “pantsers,” which of course isn’t a word. However, it basically means you write by the “seat of your pants.” Sounds great, right?

So, as a dedicated “pantser,” mind I decided when planning the 7th Max Craigie novel I would change how I work, and come up with a cogent plot before I started typing onto the blank word document. 

But what? I’ve written about, drug runners, corrupt cops, long-term missing people, and even a psychotic serial killer stalking the Scottish Highlands. Then it hit me. Espionage. I’m a huge fan of spy novels, but really, as an ex-cop, police procedurals are where my expertise lies. Could I mix the two? 

You bet I could, but what’s the angle that links the words of counter-espionage, and modern policing in Scotland? So, I did what I always do. I stared into space, and hoped. It’s not that proactive, but it’s a thing, and so far, I’ve been lucky. Something would show up. 

And it did! 

Real life came to the rescue, with a shocking and high-profile case that hit the news right when I needed it. On the 20th March 2024 a large fire was set using an accelerant at a warehouse in East London. Eight fire appliances were required along with 60 firefighters to quell the blaze, which caused in excess of £1.4 million in damage.

But this was a factory with a difference. This premises was storing property and aid that was bound for Ukrainian forces engaged in the blood-soaked war that was still raging on that continent.

Not an insurance job. Not revenge. Not even wanton damage for damage’s sake, which we see plenty of. This was an attack commissioned by the proscribed Russian state proxy Wagner Group but carried out by a group of petty London criminals in exchange for comparatively modest sums of cash. 

The ringleader Dylan Earl, a petty criminal from London made contact with the Wagner group by joining a broadcast channel on the social messaging application Telegram.

He began chatting with two account handles called ‘Privet Bot’ and ‘Lucky Strike.’ Earl knew that these accounts were supportive of Russia, and he accepted an offer of money to undertake operations, the first of which as the East London factory attack.

His Co-conspirator Jake Reeves had helped Earl recruit a group of men, all petty criminals involved in drug supply to carry out the arson. 

After the group’s arrests, the whole plot was essentially uncovered by their communications on secure messaging sites where they openly talked of working for Wagner, and the sums they were being paid. None of the group had ever received training, nor travelled to Russia. They were just useful idiots. Petty criminals willing to be exploited in exchange for cash, who are now all serving long prison sentences.

This is hardly Le Carre, is it? I mean, where are the gadgets? Where are the double-agents? 

So what had changed?

The reality is that operational nature of Russian intelligence operations has changed. The world has changed, and it was two distinct events which propagated this. 

The poisoning of Sergei, and Yulia Skripal by deploying the weapons grade nerve-agent Novichok on British soil in Salisbury in 2018. This caused a massive response from the UK by the expulsion of 153 Russian “diplomats,” by the end of 2018. 

The next incident was a little more explosive. 

Russia invaded Ukraine.

Russia’s ability to propagate operational activity was severely compromised firstly by the lack of agents working undercover in Embassies, and secondly because of how the world has changing. Everyone now has a digital footprint. It’s harder to work covertly in a hostile foreign state in a perpetually online world.

So, the use of the criminal proxy model is attractive for a number of reasons. 

Firstly, a low-level petty criminal is cheap. The sums in the Dylan Earl case were comparatively modest. £2-3, 000 to torch a factory. 

Russia no doubt could carry out these acts with agents of the GRU, as they did in Salisbury. Or, for less money, and less risk, they could deploy useful idiots, who they never even have to meet. 

As a writer, this is manna from heaven, serious though it is. Espionage is no longer the preserve of a suave guy in a dinner suit, driving an Aston Martin. It could be the 17-year-old hoodie-wearing yob from a rough estate in inner London.

So, the sixth in the DS Max Craigie series, The Dark Heart was born. It’s a story that opens with a car bomb in York, when a renowned is killed in a devastating explosion in York, authorities quickly attribute the attack to Islamic extremists. But as the investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. Are dark forces really trying to sow division in the UK, and if so, why? 

The Dark Heart by Neil Lancaster. (HarperCollins Publishers) Out Now

A deadly bombing. When renowned author Dr. Daniel Solomon is killed in a devastating explosion in York, authorities quickly attribute the attack to Islamic extremists. But as the investigation unfolds, it becomes clear that all is not as it seems. A dark conspiracy. DS Max Craigie uncovers a chilling connection between a series of brutal murders, each victim linked by a secret that someone is determined to protect. A dangerous game. With the number of victims growing and an elusive figure known as The Cashier operating in the shadows, Max must navigate a web of corruption and hatred. Can he unravel the truth before more lives are lost?

More information can be found on his website.  He can also be found on Facebook @NeilLancasterCrime. On Instagram @neil_lancaster_crime and on X @neillancaster66 

 

Left Coast Crime - Lefty Awards

Left Coast Crime 2026 San Francisco Schemin' presented the Lefty Awards in four categories at our 36th annual convention. The categories were: Humorous, Historical, Debut, and Best. 

2026 Lefty Award nominees for books published in 2025:

Lefty for Best Humorous Mystery Novel: 

Scot’s Eggs by Catriona McPherson

Lefty for Best Historical Mystery Novel for books set before 1970. (The Bill Gottfried Memorial): 

The Case of the Missing Maid by Rob Osler

Lefty for Best Debut Mystery Novel: 

Whiskey Business by Adrian Andover

Lefty for Best Mystery Novel (not in other categories): 

Rivers of Lies by James L’Etoile

Left Coast Crime Conventions are annual events sponsored by mystery fans, both readers and authors. 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. 

Returning to The City, where Left Coast Crime held its first two conventions, the 36th Annual Left Coast Crime Convention took place in San Francisco, February 26 – March 1, 2026. This year’s Guests of Honor were authors Robin Burcell and Gary Phillips. Randal Brandt was the Fan Guest of Honor, and author Leslie Karst served as Toastmaster.

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 organisation, and is staffed entirely by volunteers. This year the charity was the San Francisco Public Library literacy program.

Congratulations to all the nominated authors and winners.

Tracy Maton on Writing What You Love

I began writing The Artful Anna Harris as an act of rebellion. After many false starts, two previous novels had come close but ultimately failed to find a publisher so, dripping with disappointment, I decided to have one last shot. If that didn’t work I’d shut my laptop and use it as a tray. Bizarrely, this decision was freeing. Self-censorship went out of the window. In came a delicious playfulness.

Writers are advised to ‘Write what you love’ and ‘Write what you know’ and ‘Kill your darlings,’ which is the much-quoted idea that you must cut aspects you adore if they do not serve the narrative or the character. Not overly keen on being told what to do, I adopted two out of three.

What do I love? I love The Talented Mr Ripley, coming to the book from Minghella’s wonderful 1999 film adaptation. I carried on to read many of Highsmith’s other novels, all of which feature excellent anti-heroes. Highsmith had a talent for creating often unlikeable, in many ways ordinary characters who commit heinous acts that are, in the context of the story, entirely justifiable. By offering a window into the minds of these flawed people, the sort of people you pass by every day, we are invited to collude. And colluding is all too easy. I think I’ve always enjoyed rooting for those who behave badly, from my teenage reading of Bronte’s Wuthering Heights – Heathcliffe is detestable – to Frank Cauldhame, the violent, isolated teenage narrator of Banks’ The Wasp Factory; from Tartt’s The Secret History which features a whole cast of anti-heroes to the emotionally stunted Istvan in David Szalay’s Flesh, last year’s winner of the Booker Prize. How much more interesting to side with someone you know you shouldn’t?

So, onto what do I know. I know English villages, their community spirit and their spitefulness, their hidden secrets and their open lies.

Put the two together and I give you my Ripley-esque anti-hero, Anna Harris, who is living in a suffocatingly pretty village surrounded by her boyfriend’s extended family. Everything in the garden is rosy until the vivacious Sofia arrives on the scene and unleashes what Anna tries so hard to keep at bay. As Anna shares her innermost thoughts, she invites you to take her side. I’m biased, but I don’t think that’s too much to ask. 

The book is full of darlings that I refused to kill. Choosing instead to give you Anna in all her glory, the beautiful and the ugly. As a nod to Highsmith, or maybe just for fun, I wove little vignettes from Ripley’s story. Fans will spot the references.

Despite her morally ambiguous character, I like Anna very much. I wonder who else will become a fan.

Warning: if you like justice to be done, look away.

The Artful Anna Harris by Tracy Maton (Profile Books) Out Now '

You are quite the chameleon, aren't you? You could wear anything, do anything, and yet you choose plain, plain, plain. Is it all a front for a secret life?' When the vivacious Sofia Carstairs arrives in her sleepy country village, Anna knows her life will never be the same again. Her new best friend is carefree, elegant and intoxicating. Her life doesn't revolve around church flower arrangements or Sunday lunches with the in-laws. Sofia reminds Anna of the person she used to be, before she worked so hard to fit in that she practically disappeared. But is it enough to just be Sofia's friend? Anna wonders what it would be like to be Sofia, if only for a little while. But once Anna starts pretending, she finds it easy to pretend the rules don't apply to her. How far will Anna go to get what she wants.And what will she do to those that stand in her way?

You can find Tracy Maton on Instagram @tracymatonwriter

 

American Mystery Classics Collection

Penguin presents timeless reads for slower summers: the American Mystery Classics collection is a chance to revisit the great American crime novels that shaped the genre, perfect for fans of golden age detectives, locked-room stories, and mysteries featuring cats. Curated by Otto Penzler, the world’s foremost authority on crime fiction, the series brings together the smartest, cosiest, most ingenious mysteries of the Golden Age and beyond, newly presented for modern readers

Timeless Reads 

for Slower Summers

14th May 2026        14th May 2026            11th June 2026

             9th July 2026,    17th September 2026  17th September 2026

Discover a collection of forgotten classics – the ultimate suitcase library

 

About the Author

Otto Penzler owns The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City and founded the Mysterious Press and Otto Penzler Books. He has written and edited several books, including the Edgar Award-winning Encyclopaedia of Mystery and Detection, and is the series editor of the annual Best American Mystery Stories of the Year.