The Invention of Murder With its subtitle – ‘How the Victorians Revelled in Death and Detection and Created Modern Crime’, this book traces the British public’s interest in murder as a sort of national entertainment. Though the book’s title clearly suggests we’re talking about the Victorian period (1837-1901), Ms Flanders begins her romp through the…
Category: Crime
‘The Moving Target’ by Ross MacDonald
The Moving Target When millionaire Ralph Sampson goes missing, PI Lew Archer is called in to hunt him down before something really bad happens. The trail leads Archer all over Southern California, from sun-bleached canyons and sea-side beach houses to dodgy bars and even dodgier women. But is this case about money, sex or just…
Killer Pottery
Without the benefits of 20th-century technology, the faces of Victorian villains couldn’t be plastered all over the media, so how were their images and stories relayed to the general public? These days when a murder is discovered, the news hits the media in text, photos and on film, not to mention Facebook and Twitter. However,…
‘Reaction of the Tiger’ by Lex Lander
Reaction of the Tiger Assassin André Warner is faced with a new challenge when the Syndicate order him to take out a female villain. Caught between his own moral code and his employer’s threats, Warner must work out the best way forward. But when his lover Maura leaves him until he gives up his murderous…
Robert Crouch – Author Interview
Former Environmental Health Officer Robert Crouch turned his experience to good use when he created his hero, Kent Fisher… Your hero, Kent Fisher, is obviously inspired by your time working as an environmental health officer, but what prompted you to start writing the series in the first place? I’ve always loved crime, especially Inspector Morse,…
‘Zodiac’ by Robert Graysmith
Zodiac 1968 – a hooded mass murderer terrifies the city of San Francisco and the Bay Area with a series of apparently random and vicious killings. From his first teenage victims, shot dead in a lover’s lane, he goes on to kill at least six people, though the real figure could be as high as…
Paul Heatley – Author Interview
North-east author Paul Heatley is most at home writing fiction that’s dark, bleak and a bit scary. So where did his love of crime stories come from? Your books have a strong undercurrent of violence and gangster-type activities. Did you start out to write crime thrillers, or did it happen by accident? By accident. When…
‘Blacklands’ by Belinda Bauer
Blacklands Twelve-year-old Steven spends all his free time digging holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Having disappeared at the age of eleven, the boy’s Uncle Billy is assumed to be yet another victim of serial killer Arnold Avery – but without a body, Steven’s nan refuses to believe her son is dead, and…
‘No More Lies’ by Robert Crouch
No More Lies Environmental health officer Kent Fisher faces a double dilemma when Detective Inspector Ashley Goodman ropes him in to help with an unsolved murder. Discovering the DI has Kent’s own father in her sights as the killer, the amateur sleuth must work out who’s telling the truth. But with a possible new romance…
‘Gone Tomorrow’ by Lee Child
Gone Tomorrow On a New York City subway, Jack Reacher ticks off a mental list. Of the five other passengers on the train, one of them isn’t what she seems. Suicide bombers are easy to spot and this one fits the bill to a tee, but she doesn’t react the way Reacher expects, and that’s…
Colin Garrow 