Murder Squad

Back in the year 2000, I received a phone call one day from my friend and fellow crime writer Margaret Murphy. She was experiencing a feeling that many, many writers will identify with. She was writing good books, and earning good reviews. But she hadn't broken through. Her profile was, she felt, relatively low. And she wanted to do something about it, by teaming up with a group of fellow writers in a similar position. Was I interested? You bet I was. Margaret's a very efficient person, and she soon recruited six colleagues - the result was that we formed Murder Squad.

We started doing events together - often just two or three of us, occasionally more. We travelled around the country to promote our books and each other, and great friendships were formed. We have produced three short story anthologies and even a CD. We even featured on TV's Inside Out programme, and the producer's idea of filming me wandering around underneath Runcorn Bridge even gave me the idea for a key scene in Waterloo Sunset. It's been a lot of fun.

Seventeen years on, Murder Squad is still going strong. So it's lasted much longer than the Beatles! There have been personnel changes, but not many. Sadly, our friend Stuart Pawson died, while Chaz Brenchley and John Baker no longer write crime fiction. But we have been joined by Chris Simms and Kate Ellis. Occasionally all six of us get together - the above photo was taken at Carlisle Crime Festival last year.

Now we're having a bit of a relaunch,and as part of that, we've revamped our website. Do take a look at it, and if you don't know them already, do take a look at the excellent books written by my fellow squaddies. I suspect many of you will already know Ann Cleeves' books, but you'll also enjoy the work of Cath, Kate, Chris, and Margaret (or should I call her A.D. Garrett? Or indeed Ashley Dyer!) You'll be glad you did, just as I'm very glad that Margaret called me all those years ago. .

A High Mortality of Doves

Last night I had the pleasure of attending the launch, at Simply Books in Bramhall (a very good indie bookshop, by the way) of Kate Ellis's new book.A High Mortality of Doves is published by Piatkus, part of the Little, Brown group. My companions included fellow crime writers Margaret Murphy and Chris Simms, who are, like Kate and me, members of the Murder Squad group (see below photo). It was a convivial occasion; the photos, by the way, were taken by Kate's son Tom.

Kate is a friend of mine, and so you would expect me to be favourably disposed to her work, as I am. For a good many years, I've believed that she is a writer whose ability to develop the traditional detective mystery story in interesting ways is under-valued. Years ago, I thought the same about some of my other favourite writers - Peter Robinson, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, and Andrew Taylor .That quartet are all bestsellers now,and deservedly so. I look forward to Kate joining their ranks.

A High Mortality of Doves marks a departure for her. It's set in the aftermath of the First World War, and the backdrop is Derbyshire, a gorgeous county, home of lovely landscapes (and unlucky cricketers). I know that, in researching the book, Kate visited the military hospital exhibition at Dunham Massey, a marvellous National Trust property near Altrincham, which told the story of how wartime casualties were treated. I visited Dunham Massey too, and found the whole experience very moving.

I don't want to say too much about the plot of the book, which boasts a dramatic revelation at the end. I didn't see it coming, even though I'd anticipated one aspect of the solution. When the book has been widely read, I look forward to debating the craft involved in coming up with that particular twist. In the meantime, watch out for A High Mortality of Doves. I suspect that it will be Kate's breakthrough book.  

Margaret Murphy - Believe No One - guest blog

It's my great pleasure today to host a guest blog piece from Margaret Murphy, former CWA chair, founder of Murder Squad, top writer and all-round lovely person. She is pictured above in an American homicide department. To learn more about this and a trip via Tulsa (known to me previously solely as somewhere that Gene Pitney was only 24 hours away from...), just read on...Over to you, Margaret:

"I’ve known Martin Edwards for nearly twenty years. At first, he was the man with the astonishing knowledge of crime fiction. I imagined him living in a big old Victorian house crammed floor-to-ceiling with arcane texts, first editions and encyclopaedias – a cross between Hogwart’s library and oh, let’s say, The Bodleian. So I was delighted when this erudite fellow agreed to be one of the founding members of Murder Squad, a roving band of British crime writers. The Squad is still going strong fifteen years on, and I am now proud to number Martin among my friends. I am currently relishing his non-fiction text The Golden Age of Murder which draws on his enviable knowledge of the genre. He has revealed details of the Golden Age mystery writers’ lives which not only surprise, but which I for one would never have imagined. No wonder it’s yomping up the charts!

Here’s a modest revelation of my own: I am both Margaret Murphy and A.D. Garrett (cue gasps of surprise), and I’m here today to talk about the A.D. Garrett forensic thrillers. BELIEVE NO ONE, which has just been released in the USA, is the second in the series, and it brings the cop/forensic duo of Fennimore and Simms stateside in the hunt for a serial killer.

The story opens with an Oklahoma farmer dragging a cottonwood tree (and a body – obv) out of one of his ponds. Now, what Oklahomans call a ‘pond’, we Brits would call a sizeable lake, and this theme of familiarity and difference – two nations divided by a common language – sets the scene for the rest of the novel.

I travelled to America’s Midwest to research the novel with my husband (Murf), and forensic advisor (Dave Barclay) in 2012. Nothing brings home the vastness of the American landscape like being on the road, and we visited Homicide Detectives, CSIs, District Attorneys, judges, State Bureau agents and Medical Examiners from Tulsa, Oklahoma, clear to St Louis and the Missouri-Illinois state line, clocking up well over 1,000 miles. The fictional killer in BELIEVE NO ONE trawls Interstate-44 for victims, and it was a shock to discover that Oklahoma has its own real-life interstate killer. The I-40 killer committed a dozen murders before he was finally caught in 2009, and many other predators stalk the interstate highways. Truckers are top of the list of suspects: it’s hard to trace a killer who can abduct a victim in one state, murder her in the next, and dump her body in a third. One detective said, ‘I’d put every one of them on CODIS, I had my way.’ Of course, that went into the novel.

Fans of the genre know that a murder mystery should never be just about the murder. It has to be about people: the victims; those they leave behind – and those who seek justice for them. And again and again, it was the people we met in law enforcement who shaped the novel. In BELIEVE NO ONE, mothers and children are abducted, and the children remain missing. So it was a priority to meet consultants from ‘Team Adam’, a non-profit organisation dedicated to finding missing children. The two consultants we met were proud that Team Adam had reunited every child separated from their families by Hurricane Katrina, but one added sadly that some of those children clung to their foster parents and did not want to go home. That story haunted me, and is reflected in the questionable decision a deputy sheriff makes about a child’s future as the novel draws to a close.

I blogged the entire research trip, day-by-day on the A.D. Garrett website – a good place to start would be here – after which you can follow the links forward in time. I would love to welcome you – please do feel free to ask questions or leave comments!

You can buy BELIEVE NO ONE on AmazonUK in all formats, and on AmazonUS in hardback, with Kindle edition to follow soon!"

Murder Squad at Southport

It was great fun to go back to Southport at the week-end for a Murder Squad event at Waterstones. Since the six members of the Squad are based in different parts of the North, it isn't often that we are all in the same place at the same time, and on this occasion Chris Simms couldn't make it, but it was good to see Margaret Murphy, Ann Cleeves, Kate Ellis and Cath Staincliffe again.

The Squad has been doing well. Ann has not one but two TV series on the screens, with Shetland now expected to air in January. And the fact that Margaret and Cath shared the CWA Short Story Dagger for their contributions to Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories, the second and more recent of our two anthologies meant that the book sold especially well on Saturday.

Southport, for readers of this blog who are unfamiliar with it, is a very attractive seaside resort, but unlike so many other seaside resorts it does not have a faded and melancholic air in winter, as it is very good shopping centre. Waterstones was certainly busy in the run-up to Christmas, and we were grateful to Sharon, for organising the event, and to Sharon's son Harry Ovenden for his excellent work as event photographer - he gets the credit for the picture that accompanies this post.

Southport is where I first enjoyed literary success, when a short story I'd written won the annual writers' competition. That story, "Are You Sitting Comfortably?" later appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, and a few weeks later I heard that my first novel, All the Lonely People, had been accepted for publication. A happy time. And we had another enjoyable afternoon in Waterstones on Saturday before repairing - needless to say - to a local bar to catch up on everyone's news.

Short Stories and the CWA Dagger

I wasn’t able to attend the CWA Dagger Awards last Thursday, for pleasant reasons I’ll describe in my next post. I was, however, thrilled to learn that the CWA Short Story Dagger was shared between Cath Staincliffe and Margaret Murphy for their stories from our Murder Squad anthology, Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories, published by The Mystery Press.

Over the years, I’ve had the great fortune to edit books in which a good many stories have appeared which went on to be shortlisted, and quite often to win, awards both here and overseas. This year was, though, the first time that four stories appearing in books I’d edited had featured on the same shortlist. Very nice to get a bit of vicarious glory, and even nicer to have a hand in bringing some fine stories to the attention of readers.

It isn’t easy to persuade publishers to take short stories or anthologies. They do not often sell well. I’m not really sure why. It has never been easy – it’s not just a new phenomenon. And at least the internet is making some short stories more accessible than ever before.

A final word about Murder Squad. The group came into being back in 2000, and despite a few personnel changes, remains highly cohesive. I’m glad to be associated with writers of distinction who also happen to be, without exception, delightful people.

Best Eaten Cold

I’m delighted to announce that the History Press will be publishing the second Murder Squad anthology of short stories which I have edited in the summer – probably around August. The collection takes its title, Best Eaten Cold, from a story by Stuart Pawson, and many of the stories have some form of revenge or payback at their heart. They also, by and large, have settings in the North of England.

The well-known critic Barry Forshaw has been kind enough to contribute a foreword, and apart from myself and Stuart, there are stories from three of the other five original members of Murder Squad. I'm particularly glad to say that one of the stories written by Ann Cleeves features DI Vera Stanhope, fresh from her recent television series.

Here is a list of the stories (not in the order in which they will appear in the book) - as always, it's been great fun to work on an anthology project with a group of friends of long-standing who also happen to be terrific writers.

Ann Cleeves The Habit of Silence
Ann Cleeves Basic Skills
Ann Cleeves Mud
Martin Edwards The People Outside
Martin Edwards InDex
Martin Edwards The Case of the Musical Butler
Margaret Murphy The Message
Margaret Murphy Act of Contrition
Stuart Pawson Sprouts
Stuart Pawson Best Eaten Cold
Cath Staincliffe Boom
Cath Staincliffe Laptop
Cath Staincliffe Riviera

Forensic evidence, then and now

The highlight of the past week was definitely on Thursday evening, when I took part in Wirral Libraries' Bookfest, sharing a platform at Bebington Library with Margaret Murphy. Our theme was forensic evidence, past and present. Margaret gave a talk about modern forensic techniques, illustrated with lots of graphics. Eternally low-tech, I chatted about the Crippen case, and focused on the role played by Bernard Spilsbury’s evidence in securing the conviction of the little doctor. Amongst its many fascinations, the Crippen story was a landmark in the developing importance of forensic science, and the persuasive nature of Spilsbury's testimony was critical in leading the jury to convict, so that Crippen was sent to the gallows.

Yet that evidence, viewed from the present day perspective, seems pretty controversial. I’ve mentioned before that the barrister Andrew Rose has written a very good book about Spilsbury, highlighting the flaws in his work. But whatever his faults, Spilsbury was undoubtedly a fascinating character, an expert who held juries in the palm of his hand. But you wouldn’t get away with a similar approach these days.

I was especially glad to be involved with the Bookfest for two reasons. First, I used to visit Bebington Library regularly in the 80s, when I was a member of Wirral Writers, who are still going strong in the same location. Second, there has recently been a shocking threat to close almost half the libraries in Wirral. Happily, that threat now seems to have been lifted, but I have the utmost sympathy for the staff, for whom it must have been a very unsettling time. They are a great bunch of people, with whom I’ve worked several times over the years, and they deserve support. I find it hard to believe that Wirral Council could not find better ways to make savings elsewhere.

Finally, I must say how much I enjoyed working with Margaret. She is the Chair of the CWA and has a great deal on her plate, but she always gives the impression of being completely unflappable, even when her Powerpoint presentation temporarily refuses to behave. After the event, Margaret and her husband Murf invited me to their home for a meal, and as always I found their company delightful.

An evening with Murder Squad

I’ve mentioned Murder Squad several times in this blog. It’s a group of seven Northern crime writers, founded by Margaret Murphy, and last Thursday evening, six of us (Chaz Brenchley, who is unwell, was the absentee) met up at the house of Cath Stainclife in Manchester.

It’s not easy for seven people who live in various different parts of the north to get together in the same place at the same time. In fact, the last time we were all together was three years ago, when another crime writer, Zoe Sharp, took the above photograph – at an Ilkley hotel, where a CWA lunch was taking place.

Since Murder Squad was founded, many good things have happened to its members. For instance, Cath has turned Blue Murder into a successful tv series, and Ann Cleeves has won the CWA Gold Dagger. Margaret is now the CWA chair, and I won the CWA Short Story Dagger last year. Together with Chaz, Stuart Pawson and John Baker, we’ve produced brochures, newsletters, performance events, a website, a CD, and an anthology of short stories.

But times remain tough in publishing, and Murder Squad is still a great support network for all of us. We discussed plans for the future – including ideas to celebrate our tenth anniversary next year. More information in due course.

Margaret Murphy

Immediately before our prison visit and reception, which I described yesterday, Margaret Murphy was voted in by the members of the Crime Writers’ Association as the CWA chair for the next twelve months. Margaret and her husband Murf weren’t able to attend the whole conference, because of other commitments, but it was great to catch up with them at Lincoln Castle.

The CWA couldn’t have made a better choice than Margaret. She is a very good writer, and (unlike many writers, including me) she is conspicuously, and consistently, efficient. I’ve known her for around 15 years – we first met through the CWA’s northern chapter meetings – and, helped by the fact that her home in Heswall is not too far away from my patch, I’ve had the good fortune to spend a lot of time with her in the intervening years. For a long time, Murf, Margaret and I regularly attended dinners together organised by another crime writing mate, Jim Parkinson, and these were always very enjoyable occasions.

Margaret founded Murder Squad, a ‘virtual collective’ of Northern crime writers, back in 2000, and she invited me to join, along with Ann Cleeves, Cath Staincliffe, John Baker, Chaz Brenchley and Stuart Pawson. The Squad experience has been great for all of us, and we’re meeting up again shortly, after too long a gap. Without Margaret, it would never have existed.

In these difficult economic times, an organisation like the CWA, as well as its members, is bound to come under financial pressure. But I’m sure Margaret will take it in the right direction. I only hope it doesn’t get in the way of the production of more of those splendid novels of hers.

Murder Squad Tour Continued

Last night the Murder Squad visited Lingham’s bookshop in Heswall, Wirral. This is Margaret Murphy’s home patch and Cath Staincliffe and I joined her. Lingham’s – like Pritchard’s in Formby, which we visit tonight – is one of the best independent booksellers in the North West. It’s well documented that times are hard for bookshops – as they are for most retail outlets in the age of heavily discounted online selling. But both shops focus on personal service and quality and, in their distinctive ways, prove that a well-run, customer-friendly business can thrive even in tricky market conditions.

What we lack in North West England is a bookshop specialising in crime fiction. I’m always impressed by the specialist shops that seem to thrive in the US – although they too, I guess, have to come up with plenty of fresh thinking to cope with the threat of the internet.

Back in February, I appeared at the legendary Poisoned Pen Bookstore in Scottsdale, Arizona. Poisoned Pen Press are my US publishers and seeing the famous shop for the first time was a memorable experience. Made all the more so by my appearance at the store with the Stetson-wearing Sandi Ault and accompanying wolf (yes!) on my first night in town. Heswall was less dramatic. But fun all the same.

Murder Squad Tour

I’m a member of a group of seven Northern crime writers known as Murder Squad. Margaret Murphy founded the Squad back in 2000 and we’ve been together ever since. It’s a gang of friends and a marvellous support group. We’ve done countless events together, produced a book of short stories and a CD, and even appeared together in a television programme.

This week some of us are doing a short tour around the North West. This suits me, since it doesn’t mean I have take holidays from the day job – I can join up with the others for events in the evening. Last night’s gig was at Holywell Library in North Wales, with Cath Staincliffe.

Cath is best known as the creator of the Blue Murder tv series, but her latest book Missing features her first series detective, Manchester private eye Sal Kilkenny. Do check it out if you like p.i. stories with a strong social/contemporary feel.

It’s hard to believe that nearly a year has passed since Cath and I last did an event together. That time we combined talks and readings with a meal at a restaurant in Derby. Holywell was a more conventional event, but fun all the same.

I know it’s a sweeping generalisation, but people who work in libraries tend to be among the nicest you could wish to meet. The Holywell staff had attracted a good turn-out of readers and their hospitality was all the more welcome after a long day in the office. Excellent escapism.