Procedural or whodunnit?

 

This is a question I’ve been asking myself about recently as I finished writing The Monk the latest in my series of DS Cross novels. I had read a review on Amazon where a reader said he’d guessed correctly the killer in one of my books before the actual reveal and that it wasn’t the first time in one of my books. This was obviously a deficiency for him in the book. But it isn’t for me. As a writer I obviously want to hold onto the identity of my killer for as long as possible, but this is by no means the be-all and end-all for me. It’s simply not the most important thing to achieve or aim for when writing. It doesn’t bother me if the clues my investigator uncovers along the way allow certain readers to guess the identity of the culprit before it is confirmed. (As long as they continue to read till the end of the book obviously!) For me it’s actually a sign of successful and credible plotting if they are able to do so. I myself am not a fan of crime novels where the killer suddenly comes out of nowhere in a surprising fashion. This is a bit of a cop out to me. A con. Anyone can do that bring in a character at the last minute who the reader hasn’t had a chance to know and assess.

I would also hope the reader who is able to divine the identity of a killer early might be imbued with a self-congratulatory sense of satisfaction rather than disappointment. For me describing the path to finding the killer is one of the most enjoyable parts of writing a crime novel. The unique and often left field process by which my literal and idiosyncratic hero George Cross investigates his cases and comes to his conclusions is what I hope my readers respond to. For the case to be plausible the pool of suspects has to be readily available to the reader. This means the reader has every chance to come to their own conclusions, even if a little early, because of the evidence afforded them. My hero George Cross however would never be in such a rush to decide who the guilty party is. He has to be sure to the very last detail, constantly questioning what is in front of him, forever considering other possibilities and not charging a suspect until he is absolutely convinced. Confident that the evidence is solid enough to persuade a judge and jury to convict.

But it’s an interesting question and I think readers are interested in the process as opposed to just the procedure. This explains the current popularity of true crime alongside crime fiction. The fact that more often than not the viewer or reader will know who the killer is and doesn’t impede their interest or enjoyment is testament to this. They are more intrigued by the when and how rather than just the who. Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is of course the classic example of this, where the reader knows before they open the first page who the killers are. It is the examination of the circumstances, the characters and the timeline that draws the reader in and holds their attention.

 In a sense the idea that crime fiction is some kind of game between the writer and reader to keep the identity of the killer secret right until the end is quite old fashioned. It harks back to the closed room plots of the Golden Age nowadays reflected in the popular TV series Death in Paradise. The entire object of this kind of murder mystery is solely to guess the killer and the job of the writer to mislead the reader with red herrings and tangents.

I myself don’t write this way. I am more interested in the character and the method. To an extent the crimes in the Cross series are unsensational because I believe that is closer to the truth of murder in this country. The minor details that can so often be overlooked, that seem trivial, but often lead to a life taken, are what grip me. That’s why George Cross is obsessed with people’s routines and the patterns of their lives. When he sees these routines broken, patterns changed is often when he cracks a case.

 For me crime fiction is more than just a literary version of Where’s Wally or Spot the Ball. In The Monk the first question everyone asks is “Who would do this to a monk?” For Cross this is the wrong question. For him the most important first question is “Why?” and I think this must in some way be a reflection on my priorities when it comes to writing crime. It’s about the why, which in the end leads to the who.

The Monk by Tim Sullivan (Head of Zeus) Out Now

The Detective DS George Cross has always wondered why his mother left him when he was a child. Now she is back in his life, he suddenly has answers. But this unexpected reunion is not anything he's used to dealing with. When a disturbing case lands on his desk, he is almost thankful for the return to normality. The Question - The body of a monk is found savagely beaten to death in a woodland near Bristol. Nothing is known about Brother Dominic's past, which makes investigating difficult. How can Cross unpick a crime when they don't know anything about the victim? And why would someone want to harm a monk? The Past - Discovering who Brother Dominic once was only makes the picture more puzzling. He was a much-loved and respected friend, brother, son - he had no enemies. Or, at least, none that are obvious. But looking into his past reveals that he was a very wealthy man, that he sacrificed it all for his faith. For a man who has nothing, it seems strange that greed could be the motive for his murder. But greed is a sin after all... 

Writing No Less The Devil by Stuart MacBride

Normally it can be quite difficult for me to identify the exact genesis of a story, but that’s not the case with No Less the Devil. Years and years ago, back when I was young and fresh faced… Well, that’s a lie. Back when I was slightly less haggard and grumpy. That’s more like the truth. Anyway, way back then I was asked to write a short story to be read out on Radio 4. I, being an international man of mysteries, was on my way to South Africa at the time to do a lovely wee festival there and a bit of a book tour, and as it was one of those overnight flights I decided to fulfil my short-story obligation on the plane. I never sleep on these things anyway – why not put the time to good use?

So, between Heathrow and Johannesburg I sat in my seat and came up with what I thought was a nice little family tale with a crime-fiction twist. Emailed it off when I got to my hotel, then forgot all about it.

Just before I was supposed to get on the plane back to the U.K, having enjoyed a very nice time in lovely South Africa, thank you very much, i got an email from the BBC saying that my nice little family tale was far too dark to broadcast on the radio!' with more than a whiff of ‘what’s wrong with you?’ about it.

Right.

In if they didn’t like that one (which has never been published, by the way), then I would write them something else on the plane home. And somewhere over Zambia or the Democratic Republic of the Congo, I had an idea. And I wrote a fragmented short story about a little girl called Lucy and her little brother and a very naughty dog called Mr Bitey. Which seemed to go down OK. Not too dark for the delicate sensibilities of the British radio-listening public. And that was that.

Or it should’ve been.

The trouble was that Lucy really intrigued me, not in a ‘thinking about it every day fashion’, more a ‘niggling away at the back of my skull’ kind of thing. As the years went on I’d come to from a dwam, and find I’d been staring out the window for a while, pondering what Lucy would be like when she grew up. Would she be happy? Would she have changed? What would she be doing now? And what would happen if she joined the police…

This is what we shall now refer to as: Tab A.

Slot B came into being before the first lockdown was announced, but it was a vague and fuzzy slot without clearly defined edges, and then the pandemic hit. And then all the stories of VIP lanes, and massive contracts worth hundreds of millions doled out by sleazy idiots to their avaricious cronies. Cronies with no experience supplying the things they were now being paid massive sums of tax-payers’ money to supply. Things that often didn’t work and cost twice as much as they should have.

It's been clear for years that we live not in a real, genuine, un-bought-and-paid-for-by-entities-and-individuals-who-do-not-have-our-best-interests-at-heart democracy, or even a kleptocracy (though it sometimes feels that way), but an ineptocracy. Where we’re governed by people wholly unfit for the task, whose only qualification is that they’re privately educated and sound a bit posh.

Which made me wonder – what if all the staggering displays of ineptitude on daily display weren’t just because these people had the intellectual heft of what could be dug from your average tumble dryer’s fluff filter after doing a load of socks and pants? What if they were part of a pattern? What if they were part of the plan?

Hell, what if they were the plan. What if the only reason these people had, to claw their way up the greasy political flagpole, was to enrich people exactly as venal and useless and overprivileged as they were?

At which point Tab A slid neatly into Slot B, and No Less the Devil was born.

Then all I had to was write it, which is a different story entirely…

No Less The Devil by Stuart MacBride (Transworld Publishers) Out Now 

We are each our own devil, and we make this world our hell. It's been seventeen months since the Bloodsmith butchered his first victim and Operation Maypole is still no nearer catching him. The media is whipping up a storm, the top brass are demanding results, but the investigation is sinking fast. Now isn't the time to get distracted with other cases, but Detective Sergeant Lucy McVeigh doesn't have much choice. When Benedict Strachan was just eleven, he hunted down and killed a homeless man. No one's ever figured out why Benedict did it, but now, after sixteen years, he's back on the streets again - battered, frightened, convinced a shadowy 'They' are out to get him, and begging Lucy for help.It sounds like paranoia, but what if he's right? What if he really is caught up in something bigger and darker than Lucy's ever dealt with before? What if the Bloodsmith isn't the only monster out there? And what's going to happen when Lucy goes after them?

Forty years with Varg Veum by Gunnar Staalesen

In June it is forty years since the first novel about Varg Veum was published in Norway. It bears the title Bukken til havresekken and is still not translated into English. The title comes from an old Norwegian saying: ‘You do not tell the buck to watch the bag of oats.’ (Bukken til havresekken translates directly as: ‘The buck to the bag of oats’.) The French edition was called: Le Loup dans la bergerie, which means ‘The wolf in the sheepfold’ and therefore has a similar meaning: ‘You don’t ask a wolf to look after the sheep.’ But in Germany it was simply called it: Das Haus mit der grünen Tür (‘The House with the Green Door’, which, interestingly, was my working title for the book, although I never told anyone about that. How did they know?!)

The book was an experiment. I wanted to move the traditional private eye novel from America to Norway, while taking account of the differences between the US of the 1930s, 40s and 50s, and Norway in the 1970s. So Varg Veum was without doubt a close relative of Philip Marlowe and Lew Archer; but he was transformed into a Scandinavian, left-wing social democrat, with whom many of my readers at the time could sympathise. He had a different type of background too: he was originally a social worker, employed by the local authority to help children who were in difficult situations or came from families where their parents were not able to take care of them.

My inspiration as a crime writer originally came from the Swedish couple, Sjöwall & Wahlöö, who, between 1965 and 1975, had a huge impact on international crime fiction with their ten novels about the Stockholm-based police inspector Martin Beck. My first two crime novels (and the fourth) were police procedurals in more or less the same style as Sjöwall & Wahlöö, with added inspiration coming from the American writer Chester Himes and his books about Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones. In the back of my head, however, there was also the traditional plotting I’d learnt by reading Agatha Christie, Quentin Patrick, Erle Stanley Gardner and many other great plot constructors. And I had, of course, read Arthur Conan Doyle and been fascinated by the combination of Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson since I first read The Hound of the Baskervilles when I was twelve years old.

However, it was only when I read Raymond Chandler for the first time, in 1971, that I really understood what good literature a crime novel could be. At that time I had published two experimental novels that were more inspired by Jack Kerouac than by crime writers, but I could see the similarities between Kerouac and Chandler, particularly the poetic and playful language. This made me think: Perhaps – some day – a crime novel? After having more or less failed (I have to admit) as a mainstream, ‘serious’ novelist, I then started my career as a crime writer in 1975, with the first of my police procedurals, and in 1977 the first Varg Veum novel.

I have to admit that I was sceptical about the experiment myself: was it possible to transfer this American style of crime writing to Norway in the 70s? But no critic protested that you couldn’t set a private detective story in contemporary Bergen, and the readers loved it. Having finished my third and last police procedural, in 1979, I then wrote number two in what was now going to be the Varg Veum series: Yours until Death. This book is available in English.

In June 2017, my seventeenth novel in the series, Wolves in the Dark, is published in the UK and will be available as an ebook all over the world. During the forty years between the first book and this, Varg has aged only twenty-five years. (The action in this book takes place in 2002, when he is almost sixty.) But he is still has the same roots: shooting off one-liners like a stressed Philip Marlowe, and solving mysteries like a sad and disturbed Lew Archer. In this book Varg deals with one of the most difficult cases of his career: he is on the run from the police himself, at the same time as trying to find out who is seeking revenge on him, and why? The combination of these ‘who’ and ‘why’ questions forms the basis for most modern crime novels. But it is the ‘why’ that is perhaps even more important now than in the earlier periods of the genre; and this is certainly the case in Wolves in the Dark. 

The book also deals with a couple of big themes: the problem of hacking into private computers; and – more tragically – the abuse of children carried out by international groups; a problem that has been demonstrated by a big investigation being conducted by the police in Bergen right now, as I write these words.

It seems that the stuff crime novels are made of never goes away.

Books To Die For - A snappy interview with John Connolly and Declan Burke

With the publication of Books To Die For John Connolly and Declan Burke have jointly edited one of the most widely anticipated books this year.  Despite their busy schedule, I managed to persuade the two of them to answer a few questions for Shots on Books To Die For  and the task they took on.

How did you come to the list / narrow down the list of authors you wanted to approach for a contribution?

DB: “Picking the list of contributors was pretty straightforward, in theory at least.  We just wanted the best living crime writers, so we set out to get in touch with them all.  I have to say that I was astonished by the response - I know that crime writers have a reputation (and well deserved) for being pretty helpful to one another, but the reaction to our proposal was amazing.  I guess that is in part, because every writer is at heart a reader, or is a reader first, and if you’re really serious about your books there’s no more enjoyable question than, ‘What’s your favourite book?’  That’s a question that could conceivably take hours to answer.”

 

JC: Most authors did seem to get it straight off, and those that didn't never came around to the idea, to be honest.  We had a bit of back-and-forth with a couple, but I think we both rather sensed that any hesitancy was likely to translate into a 'no'.  I guess my view was that we shouldn't ask anyone whose work we didn't respect.  Once we established that as a benchmark, it became fairly easy to create a wish list.  

Would you have been able to guess the books chosen by the individual authors?

DB: “That’s an interesting question.  I suppose the knee-jerk answer, before we began, would have been a cautious ‘Yes’.  I mean, I had a pretty good idea, having interviewed him last year and spent about half the interview in a very enjoyable digression chatting about Raymond Chandler, that Michael Connelly would pick a Chandler novel.  That said, I was very surprised that he picked the one he did - if I’d been writing about Chandler, I’d have picked two other titles before I picked Michael’s choice.  But that was one of the real joys of the process for me, the fact that the contributors’ choices were so personal to them, and the way they talked about the impact a particular book had on them on an emotional level, say, or the way it spoke to them at a particular age, or a period in their life.  Linwood Barclay’s piece on Ross Macdonald is a good example of that, I think.  The contributors aren’t just talking about books that they believe to be technically brilliant, or a master-class in style / language, etc.  They’re talking about books they love.  And when it comes to something like picking your favourite book, I’ll take passion over perfection every time.”

JC: I was surprised by some of the choices, but not that many.  Rita Mae Brown's decision to write on A TALE OF TWO CITIES by Charles Dickens raised an eyebrow, I must admit.  I think she makes a valiant effort to justify it, but she's one of the authors - Julia Wallis Martin on Poe is another - who used the choice of book or writer as a springboard to dive into other issues and concerns.  Most of the choices were, if not anticipated, then not unexpected.  I knew, for example, that Paul Johnston regarded Philip Kerr's A PHILOSOPHICAL INVESTIGATION very highly because we'd discussed it - and disagreed about it - over the years.  Similarly, I knew that when I asked Chris Mooney, he'd pick either Stephen King, Thomas Harris or Dennis Lehane, and I felt that, given their shared Boston background, he'd do the best job on Lehane's MYSTIC RIVER.  I called that one right, as that's one of my favourite essays in the book.  In that sense, I suppose we sometimes had contributors in mind for particular titles or writers, but we didn't pressure anyone to pick a particular author or book.  That said, it took a long time to find someone to write on Dorothy L. Sayers, for some reason.  I guess she was one of those writers who was greatly admired, but perhaps didn't inspire passion in everyone.  Lauren Henderson in her Rebecca Chance guise did a lovely essay on Sayers in the end, though.

Were there any surprises or disappointments?

DB: “Well, I was very pleasantly surprised at how readily and enthusiastically the contributors responded to the idea.  That was the first thing.  In terms of their choices, certainly, there are plenty of surprises in there, for me at least.  One was how popular an author Josephine Tey remains - at one point it seemed as if every second writer was offering to write about a Josephine Tey novel.  Another very nice surprise was the way some entirely unexpected patterns started to emerge as the pieces of the jigsaw began to fit into place.  It became possible to chart the evolution of the crime / mystery novel as it responded to various social and cultural changes over the last 150 years or so, which was an unexpected bonus and very gratifying.  I was also nicely surprised by some names popping up that I’d never heard of before, Kem Nunn and his ‘surf noir’ being a very good example, and a writer that I’ll be checking out once the dust settles on this project.

JC: Like Declan, Tey was the big surprise for me.  She seems to be as iconic as Chandler is for a couple of generations of female writers, but I had never read her.  I took THE DAUGHTER OF TIME with me to South Africa, and then ended up giving it away before I'd finished it.  It wasn't because I wasn't enjoying it, but I was telling an audience about Tey, and I mentioned that particular book, and a man came up to me afterwards and said that he didn't read fiction at all, but he was intrigued by the sound of THE DAUGHTER OF TIME.  By coincidence, he was in a wheelchair, having contracted some terrible virus while working in Africa, and had spent months immobile, staring at the ceiling of a hospital room.  As THE DAUGHTER OF TIME begins with Alan Grant hospitalized and staring at the ceiling of his room, it seemed like one of those moments when a particular book was meant to be with a particular reader, so I gave my copy to him.  I hope he enjoys it.  I have to buy another copy now just to find out what happens at the end.

DB: “In terms of disappointments, well, I guess we knew before we began that the book couldn’t accommodate every single book we’d have liked to have seen in it.  It simply wouldn’t be possible.  But then, the book isn’t supposed to be a kind of sterile list of every crime / mystery novel you could possibly imagine, and nor is supposed to be a list of my favourite books, or John’s.  It was always intended as a labour of love, and not just on our part, but also on the part of the contributors.  And as I said before, love is an imperfect thing at the best of times, and it has its fair share of flaws and disappointments.  Ultimately, though, any small disappointments were far outweighed by the quality of the contributions, and the way in which the contributors engaged with their subjects.  I’ll be honest with you, I felt pretty humbled by the time we got through with this book.”

JC: In a way, it would have been easier if we could have put a gun to contributors' heads and said, "You must write about..."  David Goodis and Horace McCoy are two omissions that rankle with me, but nobody picked them.  Someone agreed to do Eco's THE NAME OF THE ROSE, and then never responded to emails afterwards.  I wish someone had written on Joe Wambaugh too.  By and large, though, there are very few grating absences among the subjects, and those significant authors who were unable to contribute, or who just didn't want to, were covered in essays about them by other people.  For example, Jim Burke declined very gracefully, but I knew that someone would write about him, and if they didn't then I would.  Similarly for P.D. James and Ruth Rendell.  If I had to confess to one particular disappointment, it would be that I'd have liked it if more writers from outside the Anglo-American tradition had been willing to participate.  At one point, I was engaged in negotiations with writers from South Korea and Japan, and trying to hunt down someone in India, but all those efforts came to naught.  We also had great difficulty in getting a French writer to contribute.  I'm not sure why, but every author we contacted seemed to decline.  It may be that it was easier to convince Anglo-American authors, or Irish authors, because we knew a lot of them personally, and therefore there was a degree of trust there from the start.  When it comes to authors from outside that tradition, though, the only place to meet them is in passing at book festivals abroad, and often there are language barriers, or you simply never get to spend any significant time with them.  Then again, the book would have swollen to an unmanageable length.  It's big enough as it is.

DB: If I can indulge my personal wish list for a few moments, I’d have loved to have seen William Goldman’s MARATHON MAN in there.  A seminal thriller, I think.  And I love Alistair MacLean’s WHEN EIGHT BELLS TOLL.  I’m also a big fan of Barry Gifford’s Sailor and Lula story-cycle.  I think Horace McCoy’s KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE is an omission, and I’d loved to have seen Edward Anderson’s THIEVES LIKE US in there.  The Jim Thompson book, if I’d been writing about him, would have been THE KILLER INSIDE ME … and so on, for pages and pages.  THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE.  BUILD MY GALLOWS HIGH …

Would you work on a similar project again?

DB: “Never.  Not a chance.  You have NO IDEA how difficult John Connolly is to work with.  The man’s a complete diva … “No, I’d definitely work on a similar project at some point in the future, once I’ve forgotten how much time and effort this one took.  I wouldn’t mind so much, but John did pretty much everything except design the cover.  And I’m not entirely sure he didn’t do that too …” 

JC: I think Declan is being far too modest.  He was the voice of reason on this.  Margie Orford said to me that it was just as well that Declan was the main channel of communication with a lot of the contributors, as she didn't think I'd be as diplomatic as he was.  She was probably right.  I don't think anyone will do anything quite this ambitious within the genre again, or at least not for some time.  We've covered a huge spread of the major authors, as both subjects and contributors.  I suppose that there is scope for a volume that includes far more authors who don't write in English, but I'm not sure I'll be the one to tackle it.  I found doing this absolutely exhausting, and massively time-consuming.  I don't think I realised at the start just how difficult it would be, from sourcing contributors, to obtaining copy (deadlines were, by and large, merrily ignored by many of those involved!) and, ultimately, fact-checking all of those essays.  It's hard enough checking your own work.  It's massively, massively difficult checking other people's.  Every detail in every essay had to be checked, and we did it over and over, yet with every new proofread some previously unseen error came to light.  It almost broke me.

Any editorial disagreements?

DB: “I can’t remember any disagreements.  It wasn’t really that kind of book, because the vast majority of the contributors were self-selecting, in that we pretty much went out and tried to get the best crime and mystery writers working today.  And once that was achieved, it was up to the authors themselves to pick their own favourites.  A piece of cake, really …”

JC: I think that I was more inclined to be the bad guy when it came to editing.  For the most part - there were maybe only two exceptions, if that - any requests for rewrites were fairly minor, and the contributors understood immediately what was required.  That's the good thing about dealing with professionals: they're used to being edited, and they understand that no editor ever made a book, story, or essay worse.  

Any authors you would have loved to have included but could not for various reasons?

DB: “Well, as I said above, there were a couple of disappointments.  In terms of contributing authors, yes, there were a few people I’d have liked to have seen involved, but the timing wasn’t good for everyone.  That was always going to be the case and we knew that from the start.  You know how it is, there were some people we asked who were in the throes of putting their latest books to bed, for example, and couldn’t risk writing in a completely different style in case it might affect their own writing.  And that’s perfectly understandable, I think.  “To be honest, though, I never really looked at the list of contributors in that way.  It was always about who was involved, and how enthusiastic they were, and the way in which some of the biggest names in publishing responded to an idea that started out maybe a little whimsical but very quickly became a very serious prospect, and all because of the way people answered the call.  I don’t want to come over all Pollyanna about it, but to be honest, for such a supposedly hardboiled crew, the crime writing community is made up of an incredibly generous bunch of people.”

JC: I wish P.D. James had said yes.  We went through a certain amount of back-and-forth with her before she politely declined, but she's a perceptive critic, even if I don't necessarily agree with everything she has to say about the genre.  On a personal level, I'd love to have had an essay from James Lee Burke, but he's always declined to become involved in anthologies like this, and I can see why he wouldn't want to start writing for them at this stage in his life.  On the other hand, for every author who couldn't contribute there was one wonderful contribution from someone who I might have hoped would become involved, but regarded as a long shot.  Joseph Wambaugh was one of those.  I've been an admirer of Wambaugh ever since I read THE CHOIRBOYS as a teenager, but I'd never met him, or even corresponded with him.  He said yes immediately, and delivered a wonderful essay on meeting Truman Capote, which is an adornment to the anthology.  It all balanced out in the end...

John Connolly is the author (and is best known) for the highly acclaimed and award winning Charlie Parker series.  He has also written a number of standalone novels.  His latest Charlie Parker novel Wrath of Angels has recently been published.  More information on John and his work can be found on his website.

Declan Burke runs the highly regarding blog Crime Always Pays with “news, reviews and interviews about (mostly) Irish crime writing”.  His book Absolute Zero Cool won the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award at Crimefest 2012.  His latest book is The Slaughters Hound, which is a sequel to Eight Ball Boogie.

2012 Ned Kelly Awards Short list

The 2012 shortlist for the Ned Kelly Awards have been announced -

True Crime

Cold Case Files by Liz Porter (Pan Macmillan)

Call Me Cruel by Michael Duffy (Allen & Unwin)

Sins of the Father by Eamonn Duff (Allen & Unwin) 

Best First Fiction

The Courier’s New Bicycle by Kim Westwood (Harper Collins)

The Cartographer by Peter Twohig (Harper Collins)

When We Have Wings by Claire Corbett (Allen & Unwin)

Best Fiction

The Life by Malcolm Knox (Allen & Unwin)

Chelsea Mansions by Barry Maitland (Allen & Unwin)

Pig Boy by J.C. Burke (Random House)

The SD Harvey Short Story will be announced later.

A full list of the nominations can be found here.

CSI Postmouth 2012

Five internationally acclaimed best selling crime authors are booked to appear at this year's CSI Portsmouth in November as part of Portsmouth BookFest. Taking part in the third year of CSI Portsmouth are top crime authors Stephen Booth, Ann Cleeves, Roger Ellory, Matt Hilton and Pauline Rowson who will join experts from Hampshire Police and Portsmouth University to discuss crime fiction and fact in a lively panel debate at John Pounds Community Centre, Portsmouth on Saturday 3 November.

Stephen Booth is an award winning UK crime writer, the creator of DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry, who have appeared in twelve novels set in the Peak District. He has been twice winner of a Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel. The Cooper & Fry series is published all around the world, and has been translated into fifteen languages. The latest Cooper & Fry novel, Dead and Buried, was published in June 2012.

Ann Cleeves is the author of the Vera series of crime novels which have been adapted into the popular ITV series starring Brenda Blethyn and David Leon. Raven Black, the first volume of her Shetland Quartet has been adapted for radio in Germany and in the UK and an adaptation of Red Bones is currently in preparation for television. Her books have been translated into twenty languages.

RJ Ellory's fifth novel, A Quiet Belief In Angels won the Livre De Poche Award, Strand Magazine Novel 2010, Mystery Booksellers USA Award, and the Nouvel Observateur Prize. A Quiet Vendetta won the Quebec Laureat and the Villeneuve Readers' Prize. A Simple Act of Violence won the UK Crime Novel of the Year. Nominated for a further seven awards, his books have been translated into twenty-four languages.

In 2008 Matt Hilton secured a record-breaking five book deal for his Joe Hunter series. Since then he has had a five book deal in the USA, a further four book deal in the UK, as well as being translated into several languages. A high ranking Martial Artist he worked in the private security industry for eighteen years, followed by four as a police officer with Cumbria Constabulary. His latest Joe Hunter thriller, No Going Back, has just been published.

Pauline Rowson is the author of the marine mystery crime novels featuring DI Andy Horton set in the Solent area, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. Her crime novels have been highly acclaimed both in the UK and the USA and have been translated into several languages with translation rights in the DI Horton series having recently been sold to China where her novels will be published in 2012 and 2013. The latest in the DI Horton series, Death Lies Beneath, is published in July 2012.

They will join crime experts from Hampshire Constabulary including Crime Scene Manager Co-ordinator Carolyn Lovell, DC Terry Fitzjohn of Hampshire Police Arson Task Force and Andy Earl of Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services, Dr Bran Nicol of Portsmouth University, an expert on stalking, and other police and forensic experts.

There will be a chance for delegates to see how the fingerprinting bureau works and have their fingerprints taken, as well as talk to the crime authors to find out how they come up with their intricate plots and research their novels.

A mobile bookshop, provided by the Hayling Island Bookshop will be selling signed copies of the authors' books. Portsmouth BookFest is a festival of popular literature organised by The Hayling Island Bookshop and Portsmouth City Council and runs from October 22 to 3 November. Its aim is to promote reading for pleasure and enthusiasm for literature in the city of Portsmouth.

CSI Portsmouth 2012 is being held on Saturday 3 November at John Pounds Community Centre. Tickets go on sale on 24 September from the Box Office at 023 9268 8037 and cost £10 for the day with £3.00 redeemable against the purchase of a book bought at the event, and £1.00 discount for Portsmouth City Library members.

More details and a programme can be found here and here. 

You can also Follow CSI Portsmouth on Twitter and on Facebook.

For further information or to arrange author interviews please contact arogers@rowmark.co.uk

Books to Look Forward to From Transworld Publishers

Convicted of a series of horrific crimes against young women in the up-market California town of Santa Barbara, wealthy playboy Charlie Mendez has fled across the US border into Mexico.  As one bounty hunter after another meets a grisly end at the hands of the murderous drug cartel his family have hired to keep him safe, it seems that Mendez is one fugitive destined to remain beyond the reach of the law.  Or at least that's how it looks until one determined victim persuades high-end security specialist Ryan Lock and his partner, retired Marine Ty Johnson, to take on the case.  Plunged into a nightmare world where no one can be trusted, least of all the authorities, the two men discover a city more deadly than any war zone.  Worse still, when an attractive young American tourist is snatched from the streets, it appears that Mendez has returned to his old ways.  But in order to stop him before he claims another victim, will Lock and Ty have to pay the Devil's Bounty?  The Devil’s Bounty is by Sean Black and is due to be published in August 2012.

Fatal Frost is by James Henry and was published in May 2012.  May 1982.  Britain celebrates the sinking of the Belgrano, Jimmy Saville has the run of the airwaves and Denton Police Division welcomes its first black policeman, DS Waters - recently relocated from East London.  While the force is busy dealing with a spate of local burglaries, the body of fifteen-year-old Samantha Ellis is discovered in woodland next to the nearby railway track.  Then a fifteen-year-old boy is found dead on Denton's golf course, his organs removed.  Detective Sergeant Jack Frost is sent to investigate - a welcome distraction from troubles at home.  When the murdered boy's sister goes missing, Frost and Waters must work together to find her ...before it's too late.

The Labyrinth of Osiris is by the late Paul Sussman and is due to be published in July 2012.  Since they last met, life has moved on for Yusuf Khalifa of the Luxor Police and Jerusalem detective Arieh Ben-Roe.  About to become a father for the first time, Ben-Roi finds himself investigating a gruesome murder in Jerusalem's Armenian Cathedral.  The victim, a journalist named Rivka Kleinberg, had been researching an article into the Israeli sex-trafficking industry.  When a link emerges between Kleinberg and an English engineer who disappeared from Luxor in 1931, Ben-Roi turns for help to his old friend and sparring partner Khalifa.  Khalifa's life too has changed, although in his case not for the better.  Preoccupied with personal tragedy and immersed in an investigation of his own - a series of mysterious well-poisonings in Egypt's Eastern desert - he agrees for old time's sake to do some digging for his Israeli colleague.  In the process, Ben-Roi might just be giving Khalifa his lust for life back.  Inexorably the two investigations entwine, drawing Ben-Roi and Khalifa into a sinister web of violence, abuse, corporate malpractice and anti-capitalist terrorism.  And at the heart of the web, lies the Labyrinth - a three-thousand year-old ancient Egyptian mystery that has already taken Rivka Kleinberg's life - and hers will not be the last...

  

Last To Die is by Tess Gerritsen and is due to be published in August 2012.  Three children, strangers to each other, are brought together by seemingly motiveless and extreme acts of violence.  Orphaned and alone, they are taken in as students at Evensong, a boarding school for emotionally traumatized children in the remote Maine wilderness.  A Place of Safety?  Forensic pathologist Maura Isles already has a connection with the school - Julian 'Rat' Perkins, the 16-year-old boy she met during a previous case, is now living there.  However, she suspects that the Evensong founders may be using the school for their own agenda.  Moreover, her concerns grow when Detective Jane Rizzoli is asked to investigate yet another attempt on the life of one of the orphans at the school...Or A Place of Danger?  What both Jane and Maura soon discover is that even a school protected by locked gates and acres of forest cannot shut out a gathering threat.  When three blood-spattered twig dolls are found hanging from a tree, they wonder if the threat comes from outside the school ...or from within.

They are known as the Legion of the Damned ...Throughout the Roman Army, the Twelfth Legion is notorious for its ill fortune.  It faces the harshest of postings, the toughest of campaigns, and the most vicious of opponents.  For one young man, Demalion of Macedon, joining it will be a baptism of fire.  Yet, amid all of the violence and savagery of his life as a legionary, he realizes he has discovered a vocation - as a soldier and a leader of men.  He has come to love the Twelfth and all the bloody - minded, dark - hearted soldiers he calls his brothers.  However, just when he has found a place in the world, all that he cares about is ripped from him.  During the brutal Judean campaign, the Hebrew army inflict defeat upon the legion - not only decimating their ranks, but also taking away their soul, the eagle.  There is one final chance to save the legion's honour - to steal back the eagle.  To do that, Demalion and his legionaries must go undercover into Jerusalem, into the very heart of their enemy - where discovery will mean the worst of deaths - if they are to recover their pride.  Moreover, that, in itself, is a task worthy only of heroes.  The Eagle of the Twelfth is by MC Scott and was published in May 2012.

 The King’s Spy is the debut novel by Andrew Swanston and is due to be published in August 2012.  Summer, 1643 England is at war with itself.  King Charles I has fled London, his negotiations with Parliament in tatters.  The country is consumed by bloodshed.  For Thomas Hill, a man of letters quietly running a bookshop in the rural town of Romsey, knowledge of the war is limited to the rumours that reach the local inn.  When a stranger knocks on his door one night and informs him that the king's cryptographer has died, everything changes.  Aware of Thomas's background as a mathematician and his expertise incodes and ciphers, the king has summoned him to his court in Oxford.  On arrival, Thomas soon discovers that nothing at court is straightforward.  There is evidence of a traitor in their midst.  Brutal murder follows brutal murder.  And when a vital message encrypted with a notoriously unbreakable code is intercepted, he must decipher it to reveal the king's betrayer and prevent the violent death that failure will surely bring.

  
The Summer of Dead Toys is a skilfully plotted story of misdeeds and murder in Barcelona high society: When the death of a vulnerable young witness in a case of human trafficking and voodoo causes the normally calm Inspector Salgado to beat someone up, he is moved off the project and sent instead to investigate a teenager's fall to his death in one of Barcelona's uptown areas.  As Salgado begins to uncover the inconvenient truths behind the city's most powerful families, two seemingly unsolvable cases are set to implode under the hot Barcelona sun.  The Summer of Dead Toys was published in May 2012 and is by Antonio Hill.

A frosty December night in Stockholm.  Inside the City Hall, over a thousand guests attend the prestigious Nobel Prize-winner’s dinner.  With a lavish meal laid on to the backdrop of a full orchestra, this is one of the city's most glamorous events of the year.  However, things are different tonight.  Two shots are fired on the dance floor.  Crime reporter Annika Bengtzon is there, covering the event for the Evening Post.  As the police realize she caught a glimpse of the suspect, she is far more interested in getting back to the newsroom.  However, as murders that are more brutal follow, Annika finds herself in the middle of something far larger than she had anticipated.  No longer just a reporter but also a vulnerable key witness, she begins to close up the gaps linking these crimes, just as the suspect starts closing the net on Annika herself...  Last Will is by Liza Marklund and is due to be published in September 2012.

"The Vanishing Triangle": A woman's body is found in Ireland's most notorious body dump zone, an area in the Dublin mountains where a number of women disappeared in the past.  "Nun's Cross": The victim is from an exclusive gated development in the suburbs - where the prime suspect in the vanishing triangle cases, Derek Carpenter, now lives.  It looks like the past is coming back to haunt the present.  However, DI Jo Birmingham doesn't believe the case is open and shut.  Her husband Dan was part of the original investigation team; is she trying to protect her own fragile domestic peace?  The one person who could help her crack the case, Derek's wife Liz, is so desperate to protect her family that she is going out of her way to thwart all efforts to establish the truth.  Can both women emerge unscathed?  Too Close for Comfort is by Niamh O’Connor and is due to be published in June 2012.

Red Notice is by Andy McNab and is due to be published in October 2012.  Deep beneath the English Channel, a small army of vicious terrorists has seized control of the Eurostar to Paris, taken 400 hostages at gunpoint - and declared war on a government that has more than its own fair share of secrets to keep.  One man stands   in their way.  An off-duty SAS soldier is hiding somewhere inside the train.  Alone and injured, he is the only chance the passengers and crew have of getting out alive.  Meet Andy McNab's explosive new creation, Sergeant Tom Buckingham, as he unleashes a whirlwind of intrigue and retribution in his attempt to stop the terrorists and save everyone on board - including Delphine, the beautiful woman he loves.  Hurtling us at breakneck speed between the Regiment's crack assault teams, Whitehall's corridors of power and the heart of the Eurotunnel action.  RED NOTICE: You have been warned.

  

Two small children are playing a game called 'Witch-Hunter'.  They place a curse on a young woman taking lunch in a church courtyard and wait for her to die.  An hour later, the woman is indeed found dead inside St Bride's Church - a building that no one else has entered.  Unfortunately, Bryant & May are refused the case.  Instead, there are hired by their greatest enemy to find out why his wife has suddenly started behaving strangely.  She's become an embarrassment to him at government dinners, and he is convinced that someone is trying to drive her insane.  She has even taken to covering the mirrors in her apartment, and believes herself to be the victim of witchcraft.  Then a society photographer is stabbed to death in a nearby park and suddenly a link emerges between the two cases.  And so begins an investigation that will test the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit to their limits, setting Arthur Bryant off on a trail that leads to Bedlam and Bletchley Park, and into the world of madness, codes and the secret of London's strangest relic.  As the members of the Peculiar Crimes Unit dig behind the city's facades to expose a world of private clubs, hidden passages and covert loyalties, they realise that the case might not just end in disaster - it might also get everyone killed.  Bryant & May and the Invisible Code is by Christopher Fowler and is due to be published in August 2012.

AD 68.  The tyrant emperor Nero has no son and no heir.  Suddenly there's the very real possibility that Rome might become a republic once more.  However, the ambitions of a few are about to bring corruption, chaos and untold bloodshed to the many.  Among them is a hero of the campaign against Boudicca, Aulus Caecina Severus.  Caught up in a conspiracy to overthrow Caesar's dynasty, he commits treason, raises a rebellion, faces torture and intrigue - all supposedly for the good of Rome.  The boundary between the good of Rome and self-preservation is far from clear, and keeping to the dangerous path he's chosen requires all Severus' skills as a cunning soldier and increasingly deft politician.  And so Severus looks back on the dark and dangerous time history knows as the Year of the Four Emperors, and the part he played - for good or ill - in plunging the mighty Roman empire into anarchy and civil war...  The Last Caesar is the debut novel by Henry Venmore-Rowland and is due to be published in June 2012.

Rome, summer 66AD and Nero's agents mercilessly hunt down the last survivors of the Piso Conspiracy.  Yet, despite purging this viper's nest with fire and iron, the increasingly unstable young Emperor feels his grip on power weakening.  In Judaea, rebels have bested his army and taken an eagle, in Germania, the Rhenus legions agitate for better conditions.  In Hispana, his governor plots.  But the most dangerous threat is in the east where Rome's greatest general, Gnaeus Domitius Corbulo, presides over an Empire within an Empire.  Is Corbulo preparing to march against Rome and take the purple?  Gaius Valerius Verrens, Hero of Rome, is ordered to Antioch with the power of life and death over the soldier he worships.  There he finds every man's hand against him and Corbulo's eyes not on Rome, but on a new threat from the Parthian King of Kings, Vologases.  Outnumbered, Corbulo marches with Valerius at his side into the barren wastes beyond the Tigris, to meet Vologases in a mighty confrontation that will decide the future of the Empire.  In Avenger of Rome, Valerius will face his greatest enemy and his greatest challenge, but neither will be what he believes.  Avenger of Rome is by Douglas Jackson and is due to be published in August 2012.

A Letter from Lee Child..."Like any reader, I love old favourites ...but I love new voices too, and I especially love it when a new voice starts to become an old favourite.  It doesn't happen often, but right now, it's happening with Marcus Sakey.  He's got it all.  he writes like a dream, he creates characters exactly like people you know, he scares you, and above all keeps you turning the pages.  But most of all he does the 'what if' thing better than anyone in the business.  'What if' questions power a lot of plots, but Sakey is special.  He doesn't just check a box or construct a neat twist for the sake of it.  Reading him between the lines, I guarantee he lives this stuff ...he thinks it through and sweats it out, probably for weeks at a time.  I can see him, looking around at all the things he loves, looking at his house, turning and looking at his wife, asking himself, 'What if?  What if I had to put all this at risk?  Would I?  Could I?  How would it feel?  What would be the effect on me?’  It's that kind of depth, intelligence, passion, and emotion that sets Sakey apart.  These are not just clever plots.  These are real people with night sweats and wide eyes and everything to lose.  The "Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes" takes 'what if' in a new direction and to new heights.  Every writer muses, 'What if the reader isn't sure whether the husband killed his wife, or not?’  That's a basic whodunit.  But Sakey asks, 'What if the husband isn't sure whether he killed his wife, or not?’  That's a terrific premise, and it boosts an already-terrific thriller plot into the stratosphere.  The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes is by Marcus Sakey and is due to be published in July 2012.

AD 64 Roman Centurion Marcus Domitus leads an expedition to find the mythical treasure hidden deep inside Queen Dido’s temple.  AD 1945 In the confusion and burning Berlin, two high powered Nazis disappear, and so does a precious object.  Art recovery specialist Jamie Saintclair receives a call from a Boston detective, asking for his help to investigate a brutal murder.  He believes that Saintclair might hold the key to solving the crime through his detailed knowledge of specialist Nazi units.  But as they delve deeper into the sinister world of the occult, they uncover a dark secret that men must have lusted over for more than two millennia.  Long ago, in the ancient temple of Isis, something was stolen, and the repercussions have resonated through the centuries.  Saintclair must discover the truth before the curse claims more victims, and finally catches up with him.  The Isis Covenant is by James Douglas and is due to be published in August 2012.

A Wanted Man is by Lee Child and is due to be published in September 2012.  When you're as big and rough as Jack Reacher - and you have a badly-set, freshly-busted nose, patched with silver duct tape - it isn't easy to hitch a ride. But Reacher has some unfinished business in Virginia, so he doesn't quit. And at last, he's picked up by three strangers - two men and a woman. But within minutes it becomes clear they're all lying about everything - and then they run into a police roadblock on the highway. There has been an incident, and the cops are looking for the bad guys...Will they get through because the three are innocent? Or because the three are now four? Is Reacher just a decoy?

He Who Kills The Dragon is the second instalment of Leif G W Persson's trilogy of police procedurals featuring the "small, fat and primitive" Evert Backstrom, the grand master's most appallingly repulsive (and funniest) character is finally given his fifteen minutes of fame by way of his patented combination of laziness, luck, and an unbelievable sense of timing.  A seemingly ordinary murder puzzles Backstrom, who is struggling with strict orders from his doctor to lead a healthier life.  His gut feeling proves him right: within days, his team has another murder linked to the first on their hands, and reports of alleged ties to a Securicor heist gone out of control, killing two.  The nation needs a hero, and the newly appointed head of the Vasterort police force Anna Holt needs somebody to kill the dragon for her.  Who better to heed to the task than Evert Backstrom: self-sufficient, ostentatious, devoid of moral, Hawaii shirt-clad, and, latterly, armed?  He Who Kills The Dragon is due to be published in October 2012.