Elliot Sweeny on A Killing in Paradise and surviving evil acts

 These are cruel men you’re after, Kasper. You’ll need to be cruel back to survive.’

Walk into the National Gallery in Trafalgar Square, and it won’t take long to encounter brilliant reproductions of violence, murderous, grotesque, raptly enjoyed by visitors. Dickens’ 1849 account of the public hanging in Southwark, and the odious glee on faces in the circus crowd as the ropes fall captured a similar glee. More recently, a 2019 Netflix documentary entitled Don’t F*** With Cats about Luka Magnotta, a cat and human killer who filmed and uploaded his work onto the internet, caused a viral shebang amongst viewers, and was an unprecedented hit.

The lure to watch suffering is ubiquitous, and nothing new. But what does seem new, and what disturbs me, is this intersection between these sadistic interests, and the age of digital commoditization in which we live. When fights erupt in public places, rather than intervene or flee, members of the public reach for their phones, and hit record. A few hours later, these shaky videos appear on the circuit, clickbait for YouTube, Insta-likes, ‘content’; they generate thumbs-up emojis on WhatsApp groups and Facebook, the gore seeming comic-book, desensitized, allowing consumers to snigger at the pain of others with impunity. As disturbing as the double murders of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry in 2021 was the discovery that two attending police officers charged with protecting the sisters’ bodies had in fact photographed them, and then shared the images amongst friends for their amusement and self-promotion. Why?

The second in the Dylan Kasper series, A Killing in Paradise, aims to explore this phenomenon: what is behind the draw to capturing and circulating brutality against the defenceless and vulnerable? Is evil of this sort inherent? Or a biproduct of the times we live in? The book, of course, is dark as hell.

The story picks up six months after the close of Book One, The Next to Die. Out-of-work PI and full-time misanthrope Dylan Kasper is commissioned to investigate the stabbing of a teenager from the notorious Paradise Estate where he was raised. The Met have made assumptions about the victim, based on socioeconomics and race; but Kasper uncovers the truth: he was killed because of something he stole, an art-snuff movie showing a prostitute being butchered.

Kasper is sickened by of the barbarity on this film and compelled to thwart the makers. He discovers that the victim on this snuff was only the latest, murdered by a nefarious organisation stretching into the higher echelons of society. Red Rose Productions cater to a buoyant market united by a love for exploitation and torture-porn. And when the ringleaders target Kasper, he must ask how far he is he willing to go to combat evil.

At times, writing this book felt like self-harm. In my day job I’m a mental health nurse, and regularly support the victims of abuse, violence, and extreme coercion; at times, it can have a gruelling, vicarious impact on my own state of mind. To then come home to these characters and themes felt harsh. 

But I persevered. In the same way a loose scab needs picking, once the story had set root, I couldn’t leave it until it was grown. For not only was this a vehicle in which I could write about the violence I see through my work; it was also a way to develop my protagonist’s own uncomfortable capacity for, and pull towards, the violence that has shaped him, and which he perpetrates and revels in.

Kasper – the name a fusion of the kids’ friendly ghost character but spelled with a ‘kicking-K’ for impact – is a protagonist of contradictions. A solipsistic, self-destructive pugilist, a heavy drinker, bereaved father, and self-imposed bachelor, he is nonetheless a man with a firm moral backbone, albeit hidden beneath a coating of boxing brawn and beer fat.

I am drawn to central characters like this – flawed, melancholic, reckless; yet ultimately good. No matter how dangerous Kasper’s adversary is – and in A Killing in Paradise, I’ve really gone to town with the bad guys – we know that the biggest villain will always be him, and his attempts to make the cruel world he inhabits a little less cruel is a way to placate, but never extinguish, the shadows that lurk in the recesses of his soul, and which will ultimately be his undoing.   

 A Killing in Paradise by Elliot Sweeney (Headline Publishing) Out Now.

A young man has been murdered on the notorious Paradise estate in London. The police have their assumptions; out-of-work private investigator Dylan Kasper, more than familiar with the neighbourhood, has his own. Kasper takes it upon himself to get to the bottom of the killing. He soon discovers the reason the boy was killed that the police will never find - or want to find. A highly incriminating piece of evidence tying an illegal production company to the government and police alike. But this is just the beginning. Kasper has made a name for himself getting under the skin of the most brutal killers in the capital. When those dearest to Kasper are suddenly thrust into view, he will have to make an impossible choice. Will the inhabitants of Paradise feel safe at last, if the price must be paid in blood?

More information about Elliott Sweeney and his writing can be found on his website. You can also follow him on "X" @ellywelly1

The World's First Crazy Golf Cosy Crime? by Glenda Young

My new cosy crime, Foul Play at the Seaview Hotel is set in the Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough, a place I adore.  My cosy crime series was shortlisted with Richard Osman and Val McDermid for Best New Crime Series in the category of New Kid on the Block at the Dead Good Reader Awards 2022 at Harrogate crime festival.

The book stars a team of obsessive crazy golfers who arrive in town to play a crazy golf tournament. They’re dressed in matching tracksuits. The team captain is Olga, she’s ex-military and keeps her team in order. Olga tells anyone who’ll listen that she aims to win the tournament by fair means or foul … then the rival team captain is murdered. 

When writing this book, I wanted to include a scene set on the Central Tramway funicular. It was built in 1881, making it one of the oldest cliff railways running in the UK.

Although the funicular cars appear to travel slowly up and down the hill, at the moment they pass, it’s a ‘blink and you miss it’ moment if you’re inside the cars.  I wanted a scene where the amateur sleuth, hotel landlady Helen Dexter, was in the funicular car going and in the other was the murderer coming down. The idea was that Helen would spot the murderer and yell the immortal line “Stop that Funicular!”

But first I had to research to discover how much Helen could see of the murderer at the moment when the cars pass. Could she see the murderer’s face as the cars trundled past each other, or just the colour of their jacket, for instance? What if the murderer was sitting down in the car, what could she see of them then?

My husband Barry, always willing to help with research, especially when it involves being bribed with a few pints at his favourite pub in Scarborough (The North Riding), went to the bottom of the hill and entered the funicular. I entered the car at the top, notebook in hand. An employee of the Central Tramway was intrigued and offered to stop the funicular mid-flight for me to research. I still can’t believe this happened!  What a privilege it was to have the cars stopped just so I could make notes for my book. I can’t thank Central Tramway enough.  

Since that day, I’ve become good friends with the staff. So much so that they’re now selling my cosy crimes from their merchandise stall. And I’m planning to hold the paperback book launch in December with them too.  All being well, it’ll be held on Saturday 9 December and if you’re in Scarborough, it’d be great to see you there.

Foul Play at Seaview Hotel by Glenda Young (Headline Publishing) Out Now

In the charming Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough, a killer game is being played . . .  Helen Dexter is enjoying the new four-star status of the Seaview Hotel. But she begins to wonder if this accolade is cursed when a series of disasters strike. It starts when a crazy golf team arrive to play in a Scarborough tournament. Their odd behaviour heightens when the rival team captain turns up. Yet, there's worse to come for Helen when one of the guests is murdered playing crazy golf. Then the Seaview's prize-winning cook Jean quits, leaving Helen devastated. And so, as Helen's fiftieth birthday approaches, the last thing she's in the mood for is a celebration. However, mysterious invitations arrive to a party that Helen doesn't want. Can Helen unmask the crazy golf killer, save the reputation of the Seaview, win Jean back and solve the mystery of the party invitations? With her rescue greyhound Suki by her side, Helen Dexter is on the case.

Visit Glenda’s website at glendayoungbooks.com

You can also find Glenda Young on X and on Instagram @flaming_nora. You can also find her on Facebook.

Elliot Sweeney - How embedding social themes into crime fiction makes for rich stories

 There’s no hiding from it. 

Turn on the TV and we’re flooded with pictures of fuel poverty, the social care and NHS collapsing, strikes in public services; there’s the growth of foodbanks, a police force full of misogynists and sadists, kids knifing kids. Is the world becoming an increasingly barbed, hostile place?

I’m jaded of course. As well as being a crime fiction aficionado, I’m a mental health nurse, a vocation that means I regularly meet some of the most disadvantaged, vulnerable and stigmatize in society. Their human sufferings often seem needless, borne from inequity, and have left me hardened me in ways I haven’t reconciled, perhaps never will. 

As a writer, I’ve found the day job has proven to be fertile soil for stories. I don’t need to go hunting for characters: when you’re up close to the sharp edge of human emotions – anger, jealousy, hatred – they present themselves and become hard to ignore. 

The bereft mother of a schizophrenic teen lost to suicide seeks revenge on the systemic failures that led to her boy’s death. An orphan who witnesses his father’s murder at the hands of racist police grows into a sadist himself, fuelled by a propulsive need for revenge. Both characters, anonymised here for patient confidentiality, are based on real encounters. They and a list of others are calling out to be written about.

So long as the characters are razor sharp, I’m of the belief that a decent crime novel is possible, even if the plot is mediocre. And to make characters bear verisimilitude, the writing needs to seem socially accurate. James Lee Burke, George Pelecanos, and Elmore Leonard all pen slick, streetwise prose delivered by multicultural, often poorly educated locals whose prose integrates patois and swinging vernacular with masterful ease. To read them feels immersive and entirely natural; yet in less skilled hands, I’m sure such attempts would plunge into cliché. Indeed, while describing his research style, Pelecanos has commented on his habit of situating himself in bars and clubs, ordering a beer, and listening to the comings-and-goings of those around him, a method I have imitated (can my bar-tab be put through as a legitimate expense, I wonder?).

On a macro level, social themes have the capacity to provide a crime novel with an added dimension that resonates long after the final plot twist. A recent example was S.A.Crosby’s Razorblade Tears: two fathers investigating the murders of their sons is a fairly interesting, but not wholly original premise; but when those sons were in a gay relationship, and the fathers, one white, one black, both carry unresolved issues around race, homosexuality, masculinity and class, we have a tale for its time. In a similar vein, Will Dean’s The Last Thing to Burn, about a woman held captive by a psychopathic farmer, could have felt like a derivative locked room story akin to Misery or Room; but make her an illegal migrant smuggled into the UK and purchased into modern slavery, and there’s a cutting story with propulsive social importance.

When I set out to write The Next to Die, the first in the Dylan Kasper series, my aim was to fuse the hardboiled crime genre I fell for as a teen with difficult topics I’d encountered in my career in psychiatry – specifically, men’s mental health, the mess left by suicide, and the harsh realities of post-traumatic stress and abuse. I was compelled to tackle these topics gloves off, and inject the story with both the grim irresolution, but also the dark humour that can come when immersed in a world like this. 

Although the novel has been labelled bleak, and according to some, in need of trigger warnings (is this a bad thing in crime fiction, I wonder?), the writing process was strangely lilting. It has allowed me to form a semblance of order out of the chaos and re-evaluate some tough memories that had hitherto been unresolved. 

And if readers found Book One heavy going, wait till they get a load of Book Two...

The Next To Die by Elliot Sweeney (Wildfire) (Headline Publishers)) Out Now.

Five years since his daughter's death. Now it's happening again. Dylan Kasper is stuck. Living in self-imposed reclusion from his former life in the police, he's been in a downward spiral since his daughter's death five years ago. All that changes when the son of an esteemed professor jumps under an inner-city train. His former colleagues call it suicide, but Kasper knows different. This has all happened before - to him, and his dead daughter. Taking on the investigation himself, Kasper soon realises the terrible trouble young Tommy had found himself in. With nowhere to run, he thought suicide was the only way to keep his family safe. But before long, Kasper's investigation makes him target number one. Can he keep his demons in check and stay alive long enough to bring those responsible to justice?

More information about Elliot Sweeney and his work can be found on his website. You can also follow him on Twitter @elliotfsweeney.

Forthcoming Books from Headline

 January 2023

Dead Man's Creek is by Chris Hammer. Old bones sink - but secrets always rise to the surface. Newly-minted homicide detective Nell Buchanan returns to her hometown, annoyed at being assigned a decades-old murder - a 'file and forget'. But this is no ordinary cold case, her arrival provoking an unwelcome and threatening response from the small-town community. As more bodies are discovered, and she begins to question how well she truly knows those closest to her, Nell realises that finding the truth could prove more difficult - and dangerous - than she'd ever expected. The nearer Nell comes to uncovering the secrets of the past, the more treacherous her path becomes. Can she survive to root out the truth, and what price will she have to pay for it?

February 2023

Five years since his daughter's death. Now it's happening again. Dylan Kasper is stuck. Living in self-imposed reclusion from his former life in the police, he's been in a downward spiral since his daughter's death five years ago. All that changes when the son of an esteemed professor jumps under an inner-city train. His former colleagues call it suicide, but Kasper knows different. This has all happened before - to him, and his dead daughter. Taking on the investigation himself, Kasper soon realises the terrible trouble young Tommy had found himself in. With nowhere to run, he thought suicide was the only way to keep his family safe. But before long, Kasper's investigation makes him target number one. Can he keep his demons in check and stay alive long enough to bring those responsible to justice? The Next To Die is by Elliot Sweeney.

Red Dirt Road is by S R White. One outback town. Two puzzling murders. Fifty suspects.  In Unamurra, a drought-scarred, one-pub town deep in the outback, two men are savagely murdered a month apart - their bodies elaborately arranged like angels. With no witnesses, no obvious motives and no apparent connections between the killings, how can lone police officer Detective Dana Russo - flown in from hundreds of kilometres away - possibly solve such a baffling, brutal case? Met with silence and suspicion from locals who live by their own set of rules, Dana must take over a stalled investigation with only a week to make progress. But with a murderer hiding in plain sight, and the parched days rapidly passing, Dana is determined to uncover the shocking secrets of this forgotten town - a place where anyone could be a killer.

BERLIN. JANUARY 1941. Evil cannot bring about good . . . After Germany's invasion of Poland, the world is holding its breath and hoping for peace. At home, the Nazi Party's hold on power is absolute. One freezing night, an SS doctor and his wife return from an evening mingling with their fellow Nazis at the concert hall. By the time the sun rises, the doctor will be lying lifeless in a pool of blood. Was it murder or suicide? Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is told that under no circumstances should he investigate. The doctor's widow, however, is convinced her husband was the target of a hit. But why would anyone murder an apparently obscure doctor? Compelled to dig deeper, Schenke learns of the mysterious death of a child. The cases seem unconnected, but soon chilling links begin to emerge that point to a terrifying secret. Even in times of war, under a ruthless regime, there are places in hell no man should ever enter. And Schenke fears he may not return alive . . . Dead of Night is by Simon Scarrow.

Welcome to The McMasters Conservatory for the Applied Arts - a luxurious, clandestine college dedicated to the fine art of murder where earnest students study how best to "delete" their most deserving victim. Who hasn't wondered for a split second what the world would be like the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you've probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this "Poison Ivy League" college-its location unknown to even those who study there-is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate...and where one's mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live. Prepare for an education you'll never forget. A delightful mix of witty wordplay, breathtaking twists and genuine intrigue, Murder Your Employer is by Rupert Holmes and will gain you admission into a wholly original world, cocooned within the most entertaining book about well-intentioned would-be murderers you'll ever read.

March 2023

The last thing Anna needs is a baby. Abandoned, adopted and living hand to mouth, she never dreamt of having a real family. But when she meets her birth mother, everything changes - because the same day, she learns she's going to be a mother too. Marlene is eccentric, generous with her considerable fortune and overjoyed to become a grandmother. Anna's living the dream. But is it her dream, or someone else's? Now she will have to decide what she's willing to sacrifice for a real family - her future, her freedom, even her unborn child. Mother's Day is by Abigail Burdess.

Cold Blooded Liar is by Karen Rose. Colton Driscoll is a compulsive liar. But there's one thing his psychologist Sam Reeves fears he is telling the truth about: murder. Concerned his patient has committed an awful crime and that the life of another girl could be under threat, Sam calls in an anonymous tip to the San Diego Police Department. Detective Kit McKittrick works homicide in the hope that one day she will find out what happened to her foster sister, Wren. When a tip comes in from an anonymous caller it leads her to the body of a girl whose murder has the hallmarks of a serial killer that has been at large for almost twenty years. It also leads her to the source of the information: Dr Sam Reeves. Will Kit be able to crack the cold case in time to stop another murder being committed? And is Sam Reeves being a concerned citizen trying to help, or is there another more sinister reason he has so much information?

April 2023

After his son is convicted of murder, Vietnam War veteran Jeremiah Fitzjurls takes over the care of his granddaughter, Joanna, raising her with as much warmth as can be found in an Ozark junkyard outfitted to be an armory. He teaches her how to shoot and fight, but there is not enough training in the world to protect her when the dreaded Ledfords, notorious meth dealers and fanatical white supremacists, come to collect on Joanna as payment for a long-overdue blood debt. Headed by rancorous patriarch Bunn and smooth-talking, erudite Evail, the Ledfords have never forgotten what the Fitzjurls family did to them, and they will not be satisfied until they have taken an eye for an eye. As they seek revenge, and as Jeremiah desperately searches for his granddaughter, their narratives collide in this immersive story about family and how far some will go to honor, defend-or in some cases, destroy it. Ozark Dogs by Eli Cranor.

Rivers of Treason is by K J Maitland. From the stark Yorkshire landscape to the dark underbelly of Jacobean London, Daniel Pursglove's new mission sees him fall prey to a ruthless copycat killer... London, 1607. As dawn breaks, Daniel Pursglove rides north, away from the watchful eye of the King and his spies. He returns, disguised, to his childhood home in Yorkshire - with his own score to settle. The locals have little reason to trust a prying stranger, and those who remember Daniel do so with contempt. When a body is found with rope burns about the neck, Daniel falls under suspicion. On the run, across the country, he is pursued by a ruthless killer whose victims all share the same gallows mark. Are these the crimes of someone with a cruel personal vendetta - or has Daniel become embroiled in a bigger, and far more sinister, conspiracy? A new river of treason is rising, flowing from the fields of Yorkshire right to the heart of the King's court . . .

In The Red Hotel: The Untold Story of Stalin's Disinformation War by Alan Philps he sets out the way Stalin created his own reality by constraining and muzzling the British and American reporters covering the eastern front during the war and forcing them to reproduce kremlin propaganda. War correspondents were both bullied and pampered in a gilded cage of the Metropol Hotel. They enjoyed lavish supplies of caviar and had their choice of young women to employ as translators and to share their beds. While some of these translators turned journalists into robotic conveyors of Kremlin propaganda, others were brave secret dissenters who whispered to reporters the reality of Soviet life and were punished with sentences in the Gulag. Through the use of British archives and Russian sources, the story of the role of the women of the Metropol Hotel and the foreign reporters they worked with is told for the first time. With a riveting narrative very much in the same wheelhouse as Ben McIntyre's Agent Sonya this revelatory story will finally lift the lid on Stalin's operation to muzzle and control what the western allies' writers and foreign correspondents knew of his regime's policies to prosecute the war against Hitler's rampaging armies from June 1941 onwards.

May 2023

After years of working as an FBI agent, Titus Crown returns home to Charon County, land of moonshine and cornbread, fist fights and honeysuckle. Seeing his hometown struggling with a bigoted police force inspires him to run for sheriff. He wins, and becomes the first Black sheriff in the history of the county. Then a year to the day after his election, a young Black man is fatally shot by Titus's deputies. Titus pledges to follow the truth wherever it leads. But no one expected he would unearth a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight, haunting the dirt lanes and woodland clearings of Charon. Now, Titus must pull off the impossible: stay true to his instincts, prevent outright panic, and investigate a shocking crime in a small town where everyone knows everyone yet secrets flourish. All while also breaking up backroads bar fights and being forced to protect racist Confederate pride marchers. For a Black man wearing a police uniform in the American South, that's no easy feat. But Charon is Titus's home and his heart, and he won't let the darkness overtake it. Even as it threatens to consume him... All The Sinners Bleed is by S A Cosby.

When the son of a feared Istanbul gang leader is accused of murdering his gypsy girlfriend, feelings of vengeance are ignited amongst rival Turkish gangs. But the son suffers from a terrible psychosis, whereby he constantly sees people's doubles, and Inspector Suleyman and his team are about to discover that there is a long list of suspects who might have framed him for a murder he didn't commit. Double Illusion is by Barbara Nadel.

June 2023

My Murder is by Katie Williams. Lou has been murdered. She was the fifth victim of the serial killer Edward Early. A young wife and new mother, Lou's death outraged a public breathlessly following the story of the serial murders. Lou has been cloned. Along with Early's other four victims, Lou has been brought back to life by the government-funded replication commission. The women gather at a weekly support group, helping each other to navigate a society obsessed with their very existence. Lou has been lied to. But when Lou agrees to help fellow murder victim Fern secure a visit with Edward Early, a shocking revelation causes Lou to investigate the events around her death and question everything she thought she knew about her murder. Can she finally uncover the truth?

Performing the Perfect Crime

 

My second cosy crime CURTAIN CALL AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL launches in ebook, hardback and audiobook on May 12 2022 (paperback coming in October). 

It’s another fun, cosy crime set in Scarborough and published by Headline. It stars an acting troupe who arrive at the Seaview Hotel to rehearse a play they hope will save a much-loved local theatre. There’s a lot riding on this play. However, the leading lady is a diva, the playwright is highly strung and tensions in the troupe run high. When one of the actors is found dead on the beach, landlady Helen Dexter sets out to solve the crime. And just when Helen thinks things can’t get any worse after one of her guests is murdered, the hotel inspector arrives! 

It's the second in the series of my cosy crimes, the first one being MURDER AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL which stars 12 Elvis impersonators (called Twelvis!) and one is found dead with his blue suede shoes missing. I’ve already written about MURDER AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL here on the Shots Blog. 

So, now that CURTAIN CALL AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL is released, it means I’ve now written two cosy crimes about people pretending to be someone else, whether actors of Elvis impersonators. It’s started me wondering what it is about the role of performance I enjoy so much and why it lends itself to writing crime. Whether it’s actors in a play or singers pretending to be the king of rock and roll, there’s something I find appealing in pretending and faking. Not in real life, I must stress, but in fiction. In the real world I prefer an honest, straightforward kind of life but in fiction, well, I’m all for smokescreens and people who aren’t what they seem. And what better way to disguise what your motives are for doing something horrid than by protecting yourself behind the job that you do?

It all happens in CURTAIN CALL AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL. So, settle into your favourite chair with a bag of popcorn, put your feet up and enjoy the performance!

Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel by Glenda Young is published by Headline on May 12 in ebook, hardback and audiobook. It is released in paperback in August 2022.

Helen Dexter has started a new chapter in her life as sole proprietor of the Seaview Hotel. But things take a dramatic turn when an acting troupe book into the hotel to rehearse a play they hope will save a much-loved theatre from being closed down. Helen immediately picks up on tension between the actors, but there is worse to come when the charismatic leading lady is found dead. With so much at stake, it's clear the show must go on. Helen is roped into helping the troupe with their performance, giving her ample opportunity to discover who wanted their diva dead. However, the murder is not the only thing on Helen's mind. She's receiving threatening phone calls, her car is vandalised - and she's just learned of an impending visit from a hotel inspector which could change the fortunes of the Seaview Hotel. With her trusty greyhound Suki by her side, Helen is determined to uncover the identity of the killer - even if it means she has to give the performance of her life.

You can watch a very short teaser video of Curtain Call at the Seaview Hotel below

Find out more about Glenda Young on her website at http://glendayoungbooks.com 
Follow her on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/flaming_nora 
You can also find her on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/GlendaYoungAuthor

Lies That History Tells Us by Dominic Nolan

 

HISTORY IS NOT FACT, IT IS NARRATIVE. That’s worth repeating a few times. History is constantly changing. As I write this, historians have dated an Egyptian mummy to a thousand years before the sophisticated mummification process that preserved it was previously thought to have existed, significantly altering what we thought we knew about the Age of the Pyramids. As Professor Salima Ikram, head of Egyptology at the American University in Cairo, notes: “If this is indeed an Old Kingdom mummy, all books about mummification and the history of the Old Kingdom will need to be revised.”

History is not fact, it is narrative. English can be an unhelpfully ambiguous language at times. Let’s look at that word, “history.” It is commonly used to refer to the events of the past, yet it also isn’t the events of the past at all but is the discourse we have with those events. The continuous record we create of the past. We shape the past into a narrative from a multitude of sources – physical evidence, for sure, but also written testimonies, i.e., other narratives. History, like fiction, is a way people have of coming to terms with themselves, of defining themselves through the agency of words. All narratives are ultimately attempts at saying what the world feels like.  

 History is not fact, it is narrative. There is really less to distinguish fiction from nonfiction than might commonly be believed. Historians make choices, just like novelists. No historian simply compiles an itinerary of past events. They emphasize, they project, they disproportion. These are all things I did when writing Vine Street, which starts with a series of real-life murders in 1930s Soho. They remain unsolved to this day, but that fact was inconvenient, so I changed it. For a historian, facts are things to be proved and documented. For me, they are things to be manipulated, or even destroyed.

History is not fact, it is narrative. To misquote F. Scott Fitzgerald, being a writer is to hold two opposing ideas in the mind at the same time and retain the ability to function. On the one hand, as a writer my personal priority is not fidelity to historical facts, but fidelity to authenticity. My Soho is populated by real figures from history, some of them doing things they actually did, and others doing things they certainly did not. My hope is that the reader finds it all so plausible that in the end it makes no difference what did happen and what did not. Research and a genuine knowledge of the period in question allow me to roam freely within my subject, but also unfetter me from any particular historical data.

History is not fact, it is narrative. On the other hand, whilst embracing an irresponsibly cavalier attitude toward fact myself, I am always aware of the immense debt I owe historians. The work they do proving and documenting facts is essential for me – without them first establishing “what could be possible,” it would be impossible for me to write my fictional narratives. Without them establishing ground rules of historical fact, I could not establish authenticity in my fiction. However, when that fiction is written, it must stand on its own legs, provide its own moral context, otherwise as an art form we are saying it is reducible to a dependent offshoot of other, purer forms of narrative, such as history and sociology. I don’t believe that to be true.

History is not fact, it is narrative. Probably we want historians to be more responsible liars than I am. Raymond Carver’s last published short story before his death, “Errand,” dramatizes the death of one of his literary heroes, Chekhov, at the Hotel Sommer in Badenweiler (an event his widow Olga recounted in her memoir). For details, Carver leaned heavily on Henri Troyat’s biography, written just a few years previously, but also added a healthy dollop of poetic licence with the introduction of a dishevelled porter bringing champagne to the dying writer’s room. In Reading Chekhov, Janet Malcom reminds us that this imagined character seeped into a later biography of Chekhov, with Philip Callow inexplicably including him (as well as other unattributed colour created by Carver) in Chekhov: The Hidden Ground.

History is not fact, it is narrative. That a biographer would document fictional composition as historical fact would mortify historians, but as a writer of fiction it is surely the highest honour. To write something fictional, and yet so historically authentic that it was mistaken for proven fact, is surely what all novelists dream of. Although he didn’t live to see it, Carver literally changed history. What I would give for an imagined aspect of my Soho to turn up in some future historian’s narrative, to worm its way into the historical record. I want the Soho of Vine Street to feel that real.

Vine Street is published in hardback, digital, and audio by Headline on 11^th November 2021.

Soho, 1935. Sergeant Leon Geats' patch.  A snarling, skull-cracking misanthrope, Geats marshals the grimy rabble according to his own elastic moral code.  The narrow alleys are brimming with jazz bars, bookies, blackshirts, ponces and tarts so when a body is found above the Windmill Club, detectives are content to dismiss the case as just another young woman who topped herself early. But Geats - a good man prepared to be a bad one if it keeps the worst of them at bay - knows the dark seams of the city.  Working with his former partner, mercenary Flying Squad sergeant Mark Cassar, Geats obsessively dedicates himself to finding a warped killer - a decision that will reverberate for a lifetime and transform both men in ways they could never expect.

You can follow Dominic Nolan on Twitter @NolanDom.

From Coalmining to Crime By Glenda Young

My debut cosy crime MURDER AT THE SEAVIEW HOTEL launches on August 5, 2021 and is published by Headline in ebook, hardback and audiobook (the paperback is coming out in November). It’s set in the seaside town of Scarborough on the Yorkshire coast and is about a group of twelve Elvis impersonators, called Twelvis. When a Twelvis member is murdered with his blue suede shoes stolen, Helen Dexter, landlady of the Seaview Hotel, is on the case to solve the crime, with the help of her rescue greyhound, Suki. The book is the first in a series of three signed up by Headline, all set at the Seaview Hotel starring Helen Dexter and Suki.

It’s the first time I’ve had a crime novel published, but not the first time I’ve written crime. I’ve been successful with short stories in the past which have included murder and mystery, death and deceit, fakers and fraud. Those stories have won competitions or been placed in anthologies. However, it’s not my first time as a novelist. I’ve already written six historical sagas which are published by Headline and there’s another two sagas in the pipeline. These historical books are set in a coalmining village in the northeast, in 1919. It’s the same village as the one I grew up in. I was always aware of its coalmining past and it’s been illuminating researching the place I thought I knew/ The sagas are dark and gritty and they all star young women whom I chuck everything and the kitchen sink at. Oh, those poor girls! My debut saga even includes a murder, and there are villains and ne’er-do-wells in all of my books, a dark streak runs through them all. So why have I started writing cosy crimes?

Well, I haven’t switched to cosy crimes at the expense of my sagas. I’m writing both genres alternately, using my real name for both. I haven’t chosen a pseudonym as some authors do. I’m proud of my name, it makes me unique, one thing I can call my own. I first pitched the idea of the cosy crime to my agent, Caroline Sheldon of Caroline Sheldon Literary Agency in the first lockdown of 2020. I had so much time on my hands then, with nothing else to do after I’d turned in the saga I was writing for Headline months ahead of schedule. My agent loved the crime synopsis I’d sent her and encouraged me to write a couple of chapters to ensure I could successfully turn my hand to a new genre after writing sagas for a few years. The sample chapters went down a storm with my agent, who encouraged me to write the full novel. 

As the book is about twelve Elvis impersonators, I based each chapter on the title of an Elvis song. And each morning, when I sat down to write, the first thing I did was listen to that chapter’s song online. It got me in the right mood for writing, it set the right tone for the book which is frothy and fast moving, uplifting and fun, albeit with a murder involved. There are red herrings galore, jokes a-plenty, lots of fantastic characters and a very strong storyline. I chose to set the story in Scarborough, my favourite place in the world, my happy place, the town where I spent many happy holidays as a I child, the town where I was married over ten years ago. 

Writing about Scarborough and Elvis, listening to his upbeat music daily was the perfect way to help me through the first lockdown. I couldn’t wait to begin writing each day, transporting myself in my head to the seaside and into my story with Helen and her friends, her dog, and twelve Elvis impersonators. I’ve even created a playlist so you can sing along as you read the book. 

I hope that enjoy reading Murder at the Seaview Hotel as much as I enjoyed writing it. 

Murder at the Seaview Hotel by Glenda Young is published by Headline on August 5 in ebook, hardback and audiobook. It is released in paperback in November 2021. 

In the charming Yorkshire seaside town of Scarborough, a murder is nothing to sing about... After the death of her husband Tom, Helen Dexter is contemplating her future as the now-sole proprietor of the Seaview hotel. There's an offer from a hotel chain developer to consider, but also a booking from a group of twelve Elvis impersonators, a singing troupe called Twelvis. Tom loved Elvis and for Helen this is a sign that she should stay. But the series of mysterious events which follow, suggests that the developer is not going to give up easily. Then, shortly after Twelvis arrive, one of the group disappears. His body is found floating in a lake, with his blue suede shoes missing. Could the two be connected? With the reputation of the Seaview on the line, Helen isn't going to wait for the murderer to strike again. With her trusty greyhound Suki by her side, she decides to find out more about her guests and who wanted to make sure this Elvis never sang again.

The Playlist is at Spotify and YouTube.

A teaser video for the book can be watched below. 

Find out more about Glenda Young on her website.

Follow her on Twitter @flaming_nora.  You can also find her on Facebook.

Books to Look Forward to From Headline Publishers

January 2021

On a bright sunny day in Port Silver, ex-journalist Martin Scarsden misses a call from his girlfriend Mandy. Checking his voicemail later, all he hears is her terrified scream before the phone cuts off. Back at the house, he finds a policeman unconscious on the floor, and Mandy gone. So starts a twisting tale of intrigue and danger, as Martin probes the past of the woman he loves, a woman who has buried her former life deep. And for the first time, Mandy finds denial impossible, now the body of a man has been discovered - a man to whom she was engaged to marry. It's time to face her demons once and for all; it's time she learned how to trust. Trust is by Chris Hammer.

Run For Cover is by Michael Ledwidge. On the run from a shadowy cabal of the world's most powerful men, ex-Navy Seal Michael Gannon heads to the safest place he can think of: his war buddy's ranch in the wilds of Utah. But when his friend's brother is found dead in the rocky mountains, Gannon realizes he can't stay off grid. Is the death connected to a string of grisly murders occurring in national parks...or something even more sinister? Flushed from cover, Gannon finds himself sucked into a lethal conspiracy that has infiltrated the highest levels of the US government.

February 2021

Shiver is by Allie Reynolds. When Milla is invited to a reunion in the French Alps resort that saw the peak of her snowboarding career, she drops everything to go. While she would rather forget the events of that winter, the invitation comes from Curtis, the one person she can't seem to let go. The five friends haven't seen each other for ten years, since the disappearance of the beautiful and enigmatic Saskia. But when an icebreaker game turns menacing, they realise they don't know who has really gathered them there and how far they will go to find the truth. In a deserted lodge high up a mountain, the secrets of the past are about to come to light.

The charred remains of an elderly woman are discovered in a burned-out game-keepers cottage, hidden away in woodland to the west of Edinburgh. Clearly no accidental fire, Detective Inspector Tony McLean suspects that neither is this simply a grim arson attack. There is far more to the victim than her humble surroundings might suggest, and something ritualistic to her horrific murder. Nor will it be the only case of death by fire that Tony and his team will be faced with. This is only the beginning, and with such evil clouding the air, Tony begins to wonder what else will burn . . . What Will Burn is by James Oswald.

Finlay Donovan is Killing It is by Elle Cosimano. Finlay Donovan, single mum and floundering crime writer, is having a hard time. Her ex-husband went behind her back to fire the nanny, and this morning she sent her four-year-old to school with hair duct-taped to her head after an unfortunate incident with scissors. Making it to lunch with her literary agent is a minor victory but, as she's discussing the plot of her latest crime novel, the conversation is misinterpreted by a woman sitting nearby as that of a hit-woman offering her services to dispose of a 'problem' husband. And when the woman slips Finlay a name and a promise of a large sum of cash, Finlay finds herself plotting something much bigger than her novel. And, after all, they do always say: write what you know. . .

March 2021

Blackout is by Simon Scarrow. Berlin, December 1939As Germany goes to war, the Nazis tighten their terrifying grip. Paranoia in the capital is intensified by a rigidly enforced blackout that plunges the city into oppressive darkness every night, as the bleak winter sun set.When a young woman is found brutally murdered, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is under immense pressure to solve the case, swiftly. Treated with suspicion by his superiors for his failure to join the Nazi Party, Schenke walks a perilous line - for disloyalty is a death sentence.The discovery of a second victim confirms Schenke's worst fears. He must uncover the truth before evil strikes again.As the investigation takes him closer to the sinister heart of the regime, Schenke realises there is danger everywhere - and the warring factions of the Reich can be as deadly as a killer stalking the streets . ..

What if today was your last day... A bomb has exploded during a fashion show, killing a beautiful model on the catwalk. The murderer is still at large... and he may strike again. Yet this is the least of Police Commissioner Christian Verger's worries. His fiancee Viola has left him. He has to keep his tumultuous past a secret. To make things worse, his voice assistant Alexa is 99.74% sure he will die tomorrow. Moving from snowy 1980s Montana to chic 1990s Manhattan to a drone-filled 2030s Britain, Future Perfect is by Felicia Yap and is an electrifying race to solve a murder before it's too late. Yet it is also a love story, a riveting portrait of a couple torn apart by secrets, grief and guilt. A twisted tale of how the past can haunt a person's future and be used to predict if he will die... or kill.

Breakout is by Paul Herron. A lethal storm. The most deadly prison. Who will survive the night? Jack Constantine - a former cop who killed one of his wife's murderers in an act of vengeance - is serving his time in Ravenhill penitentiary, a notorious 'supermax' home to the most dangerous convicts in the country. When an apocalyptic superstorm wreaks havoc across the USA, the correctional officers flee the prison...but not before opening every cell door. The inmates must fend for themselves as lethal floodwaters rise and violent anarchy is unleashed. Teaming up with Kiera Sawyer, a Correctional Officer left behind on her first day of work, Constantine has one chance of survival - he must break out of a maximum security prison. But with the building on the verge of collapse, and deadly chaos around him, time is running out...

April 2021

1606. A year to the day that men were executed for conspiring to blow up Parliament, a towering wave devastates the Bristol Channel. Some proclaim God's vengeance. Others seek to take advantage.In London, Daniel Pursglove lies in prison waiting to die. But Charles FitzAlan, close adviser to King James I, has a job in mind that will free a man of Daniel's skill from the horrors of Newgate. If he succeeds.For Bristol is a hotbed of Catholic spies, and where better for the lone conspirator who evaded arrest, one Spero Pettingar, to gather allies than in the chaos of a drowned city? Daniel journeys there to investigate FitzAlan's lead, but soon finds himself at the heart of a dark Jesuit conspiracy - and in pursuit of a killer. The Drowned City is by K J Maitland.

A Darker Reality is by Anne Perry. The threat of a second world war means no one is safe... Elena Standish, a young English photographer working for MI5, is on holiday in America, attending her grandparents’ golden wedding anniversary party in Washington DC, when one of the guests is murdered. It is a hit and run by a car that belongs to Elena’s grandfather and he is immediately arrested. With connections to many political circles, including a close link to the President, Elena’s grandfather is convinced that his enemies are trying to frame him. And with the help of handsome British spy James Allenby, Elena must uncover the truth before it is too late... 

Forfeit is by Barbara Nadel. Double murder. Dark secrets Bitter betrayal It is the early hours of the morning when Turkish TV star Erol Gencer and Syrian refugee Wael Al Hussain are found dead at a house on the outskirts of Istanbul, but it is unclear whether Erol killed Wael before committing suicide or if it was a double murder. Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is on leave, as his teenage son is visiting from Ireland, but when Detective Kemil Gursel’s transsexual ex-lover, Pembe, is also murdered shortly after confessing that Wael had been one of her clients, Suleyman knows he must step in to help Kemil solve this complex case. Meanwhile, retired inspector Cetin Ikmen is pursuing the truth behind Wael’s wife’s story that she and Erol’s wife, Betul, had met over a year ago and plotted to kill each other’s husbands. From different directions, Ikmen and Suleyman close in on a killer whose double life has lead to greed, betrayal and murder... 

Inspector Lu Fei is a weary cop in a remote, northern Chinese town where the theft of a few chickens counts as a major crime. But when a young woman is brutally murdered - with her heart, lungs and liver removed - he suddenly finds himself under intense scrutiny from the ruling party in Beijing. Determined to find her killer, Lu Fei must navigate a society where politics can be deadly, corruption is rife, and the powerful are protected. As evidence connects the case a string of unsolved murders, Lu must decide what he is prepared to risk in search of justice. City of Ice is by Brian Klingborg.