In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Elly Griffiths

 Name:- Elly Griffiths

Job:- Author

Website:- https://ellygriffiths.co.uk

Facebook:- EllyGriffithsAuthor

X:- @ellygriffiths

Instagram:- @ellygriffiths17

Introduction:-

Elly Griffiths is the Edgar Award winning author of the Dr Ruth Galloway mysteries, The Brighton Mysteries, the Harbinder Kaur series and the Justice series as well as a number of standalone novels. She was awarded the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2016. In 2020 she won an Edgar Award for Best Novel for The Strangers Diaries. In 2021 The Postscript Murders was shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. Her most recent book is The Man In Black and Other Stories.

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

Currently reading: The Examiner by Janice Hallett. It’s the story of a murder told through the emails and coursework of six students on a multimedia MA. The reader is the examiner and, such is the author’s brilliance, I have no idea what’s going on!

Currently writing: The Frozen People, the first book in what I hope will be a series about a time-travelling detective.

Favourite song: 

Thunder Road by Bruce Springsteen

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Bruce Springsteen and Giuseppe Verdi. I’m half Italian (as is Bruce!) and I’d love to talk to Verdi about his role in the Risorgimento, the unification of Italy. We could end by singing Va Pensiero with Bruce on the harmonica. 

How do you relax?

I swim every day and, however knotty the plot problem, I usually find that I’ve solved it after a few lengths. Otherwise I like to read, do crosswords and listen to podcasts. 

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins. For me, it’s the perfect novel: thrilling, moving and endlessly inventive. It also has the best heroine, Marian Halcombe, and the best villain, Count Fosco. 

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

 Keep going! I wrote my first novel at 11 so had many rejections before I was finally published at 40.

How would you describe your latest published book?

The Last Word is the story of an ill-matched group of private detectives investigating the death of a writer. The trail leads them to a sinister writers’ retreat and an even more sinister book group…

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen

The Kick Inside by Kate Bush 

Neapolitan Songs by Giuseppe Di Stefano

If you were given the ability to join a band which, would it be and why? 

Well, it has to be the E-Street Band. I could take over the position currently held by Patti, Bruce’s wife, shaking the tambourine and looking soulful (OK, she sings quite well too).

If you were to re-attend a concert which, would it be and why

Bruce Springsteen, Wembley 1985. It was the first time that I saw Bruce in concert. I’ve seen him on every subsequent visit to the UK but I’d like to relive that first time. 

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Everything: the talks, the discussions, the chance to overact in the murder mystery play…but mostly just meeting old friends and making new ones in a beautiful, inspiring setting. 

The Man in Black and Other Stories by Elly Griffiths (Quercus Publishing) Out Now

This collection of tales by the No 1 bestselling author features all her best-loved characters: Dr Ruth Galloway, Harry Nelson, Max Mephisto, Detective Harbinder Kaur and more. It features several stories never published before, including a brand new Ruth and Nelson story. A must for all her fans. Have you been wondering what happened to your favourite characters Ruth Galloway and Harry Nelson? Dive into this fabulous collection of stories and find out. Here are stories to suit all tastes. There are ghost stories and mini cosy mysteries; tales of psychological suspense and poignant vignettes of love and loss. There's a creepy horror story to make you shiver and a tale narrated by Flint, Ruth Galloway's cat, to make you smile.

Information about 2024 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book online tickets can be found here. 

SMFS Official Announcement: 2023 Derringer Award Finalists

 

Since 1998, the Short Mystery Fiction Society has awarded the annual Derringers—after the popular pocket pistol—to outstanding published stories. The awards recognize outstanding stories published during 2022. Results of membership voting are scheduled to be posted on May 1, 2023.

The full listing of the nominees and the markets that published the finalist stories has been compiled and supplied by Assistant Derringer Coordinator Joseph S. Walker. 

Flash

“Catch and Release” by April Kelly (Mystery Magazine, May 2022)

“Acknowledgments” by Karen Harrington (Guilty Crime Story Magazine online flash fiction, April 2022)

“Easter Spam” by John Weagly (Shotgun Honey online flash fiction)

“The Final Chapter” by James Blakey (Yellow Mama, October 2022)

“Where Palms Sway and the Surf Pounds” by Curtis Ippolito (Shotgun Honey online flash fiction)

Short

“Double Trouble” by M.E. Proctor (Bristol Noir online, March 2022)

“Hiding Out in Cedar Key” by Sharon Marchisello (White Cat Publications online, April 2022)

“The Shape of Australia” by Christine Poulson (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, July/August 2022)

“My Two-Legs” by Melissa Yi  (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, September/October 2022)

“Digging In” by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Black Cat Weekly #40)

Long

“The Vigil” by Toni Goodyear (Carolina Crimes: Rock, Roll and Ruinanthology)

“Tethered” by Marcelle Dubé (Crime Wave: Women of a Certain Ageanthology)

“The White Calf and the Wind” by Mike Adamson (Black Cat Mystery Magazine #11)

“The Donovan Gang” by John M. Floyd (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2022)

“Negative Tilt” by Bobby Mathews (Rock and a Hard Place issue 7)

“Something Blue” by G.M. Malliet (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, November/December 2022)

Novelette

“The Wraith of Bunker Hill” by Paul D. Marks (Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2022)

“Two Shrimp Tacos and a .22 Ruger” by Adam Meyer (Guns & Tacos, Down & Out Books)

“Dead Men Tell No Tales” by Liz Filleul (The People’s Friend Special, issue 225)

“The Refusal Camp” by James Benn (Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Sept/Oct 2022)

“Ripen” by Ashley-Ruth M. Bernier (Black Cat Weekly #48)

....don't have nightmares by Matt Wesolowski

The day my parents acquired colour television, an awkward, plastic cube that squatted balefully in the corner of the living room; my 12-year-old self had the honour of lugging the almost obsolete back and white portable upstairs to balance on top of my chest of drawers. It took a while to bend the aerial just so and soon I was adept at the minute circumvolutions of the tuning wheel that would raise 4 channels from a sea of static.

Books abandoned for this novelty of bedroom television, I would watch Soldier-Soldier, starring a youthful Robson Green and Jerome Flynn, Bottom, (Rik Mayall entrenching himself as one of my all-time idols) or else playing Target Renegade on my Sinclair Spectrum. Sometimes I padded downstairs to watch Cracker with my mum, in colour (she did and still does have a thing for Robbie Coltrane). What captivated me the most, however, in those days of analogue decadence was the British institution Crimewatch UK, presented then by Nick Ross and Sue Cook.

Although Cracker was clever, magnificently written, casted and acted, it paled in comparison with these terrible things that really went on, on the streets of the UK. This was visceral, this was real and may have been the beginning, the embryonic fascination that has now blossomed within me for true crime.

 Murders, rape, kidnapping, assault, robbery; simple, brutal acts. Appeals for witnesses, phone lines scrolling across the bottom of the television screen. I was enthralled. I longed to have seen something, to be able to call in and give a sighting, a crucial piece of evidence. Alas, that opportunity never came, but by the end, when it was time to go to sleep, I was always disappointed, utterly consumed by some errant piquancy the show wove into my brain.

'Don't have nightmares.' Was the tagline at the end but I always had to turn off before then, otherwise I would lie awake all night, utterly consumed with fear. Thanks Nick, I never thought about having nightmares until you said it!  Maybe it was this programme that helped inspire my consummation of all things true and crime? I came very late to the crime fiction genre in my reading habits, horror tending to always take preference. What I loved though was a mystery, especially an unsolved one, The Mary Celeste, the Bermuda Triangle, King Tut's Curse. Crimewatch UK provided a mystery on one of those nights that has never left me and continues to be a source of inspiration to this day.

Unfortunately the grey static of time has clouded my memories of the finer details of this case; whether it was ever solved is a mystery to me to this day. I think what enraptured me at the time was that this particular crime wasn't like any of the others. It also frightened me and gouged out a sympathy for those involved that any drama series, even ones written by Jimmy McGovern, could not touch for those affected.

From what I remember about the case, an old couple had vanished from their home, somewhere in the countryside and there were signs that an intruder else had entered the property. There was no sign of a break-in, implying that the couple had known their visitor.

What got me back then and still does is the final clue. The couple's best china tea set had been set out on the table. Nick Ross and Sue Cook, talking to the family, live in the Crimewatch studio established that this china was reserved for special occasions or esteemed guests.

That was it, a brutal, sad story that made me think of my own grandparents, the nick-nacks they kept in a glass case, the brass Viking ship on their mantelpiece, the air of safety that they purveyed. It made me scared for them, drove a bolt of cold-hearted reality into my life that I hadn't appreciated before. It never left.

Too young at the time, for my attention span to follow this story up, I never found out what, if anything, came next. To this day though, the story fills me with a profound sadness and vexation. I worry that no one ever found out what happened here, that this vanished couple stayed vanished and their families never got closure.

That terrible feeling stayed with me and plays a huge part in my writing, not the case itself but this visceral horror of terrible things, real events. With everything writing-related that I do, I try and capture the essence of this terror.

The thing is with crime is that the reality of it is not like a story, there is usually not a clever twist, a reveal, a resolution. Maybe that's what makes crime fiction so appealing, that it provides closure to a world that so often is bereft of it.

More information about the author can be found on his blog.  You can also follow him on Twitter @ConcreteKraken and on Facebook.

Murder at the Chronicle

There’s an early Christmas present this year for crime fans who like to read cozy mysteries on their Kindle.

Murder at the Chronicle - with five Crampton of the Chronicle short stories - is free to download from 11 to 15 December.

The stories include a seasonal special - The Mystery of the Phantom Santa - with a real Yuletide feel-good ending. Colin Crampton discovers more than he bargained for when he investigates a small boy’s claim to have seen Father Christmas from his bedroom window.

One of the series’ most popular characters, Colin’s girlfriend Shirley Goldsmith, makes an appearance in The Mystery of the Two Suitcases. Colin interrupts a romantic Valentine’s date with Shirley to unravel a puzzle with a surprising twist.

In The Mystery of the Precious Princess, Colin finds that it’s not only a dog’s life for the canines up at Hove Greyhound Racing stadium.

The Mystery of the Single Red Sock, takes Colin on a hunt for one of the most dangerous crooks he’s ever confronted.

And in The Mystery of the Clothes on the Beach, a local fisherman helps Colin land a surprising catch.

Murder at the Chronicle also contains two bonus chapters from Headline Murder, the first full-length Crampton of the Chronicle novel, also available as an e-book. Headline Murder is on special offer for Kindle readers - just 99p, saving £4 on the normal price - during December.

More information about the Colin Crampton series can be found on http://www.colincrampton.com/

The New Cambridge Mysteries

Now published by Ostara’s Cambridge Crime imprint: The New Cambridge Mysteries by the award-winning Barbara Cleverly

From the CWA Historical Dagger winning author Barbara Cleverly, a collection of short stories of criminal activity in and around Cambridge in three distinct time frames representing Cambridge past, present and future.

Featuring World War I veteran turned policeman Detective Inspector Redfyre in 1922, the feisty and very contemporary Detective Constable Stella Kenton and, in a dystopian Cambridge future, Tom – a 65- year-old veteran of the Iraq war who has his own way of dealing with law and order in the year 2022.

Six Cambridge mysteries from Barbra Cleverly, the award-winning author of The Damascened Blade.

Barbara Cleverly was born in the north of England and graduated from the University of Durham but has spent most of her working life in Suffolk and Cambridge. Her first novel, The Last Kashmiri, was commissioned after submitting an outline in a competition for new writers organised by the Crime Writers’ Association and published to great acclaim in 2001, introducing her detective hero Joe Sandilands. Her third Sandilands novel, The Damascened Blade won the Ellis Peters ‘Historical Dagger’ award in 2004.

The New Cambridge Mysteries is published by Ostara Publishing under their Cambridge Crime imprint and is available as a trade paperback and eBook.

For all Ostara titles, see: www.ostarapublishing.co.uk .

The Beat Goes On with John Rebus

For immediate release

Orion to release the complete Rebus short stories

The Orion Publishing Group has announced it is to publish the complete collection of Rebus short stories by bestselling novelist Ian Rankin. It will be published in one volume entitled THE BEAT GOES ON, and released 9 October 2014.

Jon Wood, Fiction Publishing Director, Orion Publishing Group has bought the UK, Commonwealth and European rights from Peter Robinson of Rogers, Coleridge & White literary agency.

Over the years, Ian Rankin has amassed an incredible portfolio of short stories featuring his curmudgeonly hero John Rebus. Published in crime magazines, composed for events, broadcast on radio, they all share the best qualities of his phenomenally popular novels. These stories are brought together for the first time in THE BEAT GOES ON which also contains two brand new stories The Passenger and A Three-Pint Problem, plus an essay by Rankin on his creation. The 29 stories unfold chronologically; we follow a younger, energetic Rebus as he grows into the more world-weary, cynical character of the latest novels.

Jon Wood, Fiction Publishing Director, Orion Publishing Group says:

“Collected together fully for the very first time, these stories show that Rankin is as much a master of the short form as he is of the novel. They also vividly chart the development of his beloved Rebus across the two and a half decades of his existence. They are a must for any fan.”

JOHN REBUS has featured in nineteen novels and become one of crime fiction’s most beloved and iconic characters: “a remarkably lived-in and mesmerising figurehead of the genre” (INDEPENDENT); “as sharp, petty, curmudgeonly and likeable as ever”(IRISH SUNDAY INDEPENDENT); “one of the most beguiling characters in the history of crime fiction”(TIMES). Rebus was adapted for television, played by John Hannah and later by Ken Stott, and was the subject of five radio adaptations on BBC Radio 4.  The character has also appeared in a series of book sculptures and is inspiration for a popular walking tour of Edinburgh.

IAN RANKIN is the internationally bestselling author of the Inspector Rebus and Detective Malcolm Fox novels, as well as a string of standalone thrillers. His books have been translated into 36 languages and are bestsellers on several continents. Ian is the recipient of four CWA DAGGER AWARDS and in 2004, won America's celebrated EDGAR AWARD. He is also the recipient of honorary degrees from the universities of Abertay, St Andrews, Hull and Edinburgh and received the OBE for services to literature. He was recently voted Scotland’s Favourite Writer of All Time.

THE BEAT GOES ON is published by Orion on 9 October 2014