Many Deadly Returns - the launch trip

After a very, very long wait, I've finally enjoyed an in-person book launch once again. This was a highlight of a trip to the North East last week, and involved meeting up with my colleagues in Murder Squad to celebrate the publication of our fourth anthology. Many Deadly Returns celebrates our 21st year as a writers' collective. Margaret Murphy, our founder, Ann Cleeves, Cath Staincliffe, and I have been there since the beginning. John Baker and Chaz Brenchley have retired, while Stuart Pawson sadly died, but we've been joined by Chris Simms and Kate Ellis.

Many Deadly Returns includes three stories from each of the six current members, plus one from each of the former members. I've edited the book and my three stories are: 'The Other Ones', 'Lucky Liam', and 'Bad Friday'. Of this trio, 'The Other Ones' is brand new, while 'Bad Friday' has only previously appeared in the United States. The book is published by Severn House here and in the US, and there's been a very positive early review from Kirkus, which has put us in very good heart. 

Our editor, Kate Lyall Grant from Severn House (who many moons ago published two of my Harry Devlin novels when she and I were with Hodder) was, happily, able to join us for dinner, followed by the launch, which was hosted by Forum Books in Whitley Bay. There was fizz to drink and a wonderful Murder Squad cake, all contributing to a very convivial evening in which our book flew off the shelves. How good it was to be able to take part in a live event again. Zoom is invaluable in many ways, but Zoom get-togethers, although definitely far better than nothing, are not quite the same.

I also got back into my habit of turning the visit into a sightseeing trip. Northumberland is a county I like a lot, and there are plenty of places I'd love to explore. I made a start by visiting Seaton Delaval Hall, a burnt-out husk designed on the grand scale by Vanbrugh, and with lovely grounds, and even better, taking a boat trip from Seahouses to the Farne Islands, which was really memorable: see the pictures below. Other stops included Alnwick (with its fantastic Barter Books) and Alnmouth and, on the way up to the north east, Sedbergh and Kirkby Stephen. As a  whole, the trip felt like re-entering the real world after a long, dreamy slumber.   

Murder by the Book - publication week!

It seems like only yesterday that The Crooked Shore was published. I'll be talking more about my new novel shortly, but this month, I'm in the unusual and fortunate position of having two anthologies to celebrate. Later in August, the Murder Squad collection Many Deadly Returns will be published by Seven House, and I'll be launching the book along with my Murder Squad colleagues at Forum Books in Ann Cleeves' home town of Whitley Bay. 

But this week sees the appearance of another British Library Crime Classics anthology. Murder by the Book is sub-titled 'Mysteries for Bibliophiles' and I gather that advance sales have been extremely good (which is always nice to hear). So much so that there is already a possibility that I might be putting together a second book on a related theme, though nothing is yet settled. 

Again, I'm scheduled to do a bookshop event - this time at Toppings in Ely, later in the month. So if you're in that area, do check out the Toppings website for details. It's so good to be getting back into bookshops - I've missed them very much during the lockdowns. And I'm enjoying the chance to get around the country as well, which is genuine compensation for those cancelled overseas trips (for instance, I decided some time ago, with great regret, not to travel to New Orleans for Bouchercon, and now sadly the whole live event has been cancelled). 

As you can gather from this spate of publications, I have at least been able to keep busy with writing projects during the past eighteen months and in many ways the time has flown by. During that time I've also signed a contract to write two more Rachel Savernake books. One of them, Blackstone Fell, is already written. And before long it will be time to start on the fourth in the series. Meanwhile, there is a further project that has kept me occupied, and that will be announced shortly...

South Shields, Cockermouth, and Wigan

After I received the CWA Dagger in the Library a few months back, I resolved to redouble my efforts to support libraries, many of which are hard-pressed financially, yet all of which make an invaluable contribution to the communities of which they form part. I've recently been involved in a couple of very enjoyable library events, with several more forthcoming.

The Murder Squad's crime weekend at the Word in South Shields had been in the works for quite a while. Part of the Write Festival, it was masterminded by Ann Cleeves and librarian Pauline Martin. I've met Pauline a couple of times before, on past visits to South Shields library, but I was bowled over by the Word. It's a fabulous venue on the waterfront, light, airy and comfortable. A dream of a library, and there is plenty more on offer there too. Definitely worth a visit.

We had a Readers' Day on the Saturday, with panels of various descriptions as well as single-author sessions. It was also great to catch up with my friends in the Squad again - Ann, Margaret Murphy, Cath Staincliffe, Kate Ellis, and Chris Simms. We had a couple of dinners together as a group, which were very convivial (and I was in very good heart on the Saturday evening, after Manchester City won a historic treble of trophies in English football!) On the Sunday, we had a Writers' Day; I conducted a couple of sessions on the subject of "Plotting", a subject always close to my heart. After the weekend, there was time for some sightseeing in the area - St Mary's Island and Lighthouse (of course I simply had to climb to the top...), Seaton Sluice and Tynemouth - making the most of the sun.

A few days ago, I made a much shorter journey up the motorway to Wigan Library. It's ten years since I was last there, and again I was impressed by the improved facilities which now exist. This was just a solo event, as I did the latest version of a talk I've given over many years - "My Life of Crime".

In between the library events, I had the pleasure of travelling up to the lovely town of Cockermouth, to take part in an event at the Kirkgate Centre, chaired by Ruth Sutton. My fellow panellists were Paula Daly and Mike Craven, both of whom have forthcoming TV series set in the Lakes, and Lake District crime was our theme. Again, I was lucky with the weather and got the chance to tour Wordsworth's birthplace in the town, as well as to do some research in the Lakes, around Whitehaven and Bardsea, for my next Lake District Mystery - yes, there will be one!

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. .

Cold Earth by Ann Cleeves

A couple of weeks ago, I spent an enjoyable evening at the British Library. Mark Lawson was interviewing Ann Cleeves and me on the topic of "the return of the Golden Age of crime fiction". Ann is a contemporary writer working in the vein of the traditional mystery, and very successfully too. She talked about her take on Golden Age writers - though she's not such a fan of Agatha Christie as I am, for instance - and about how, on occasion, there are GA elements in her work. An example is The Glass Room, a very good book featuring Vera Stanhope.

The event came, for her, at the end of a hectic tour promoting her new book, part of the Jimmy Perez series this time, Cold Earth, which is published by Pan Macmillan. This is her 30th novel, and Maura, her publicist, arranged as a surprise a video with contributions from a wide range of writers, including Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and her colleagues in Murder Squad, congratulating her on the milestone. A nice touch. When recording my snippet, I took the opportunity to take a look again at her very first novel, which was certainly in the GA tradition, and it was pleasant to reflect on the progress she's made since those early days.

In Cold Earth, excellent thematic use is made both at the start and the end of the story of earth as a powerful elemental force. The book opens vividly with a landslide on Shetland which coincides with the funeral of a character encountered previously in the series, and which causes considerable havoc. When rescue operations get under way, a body is discovered. But, surprise, surprise, the deceased did not die of natural causes. The corpse belongs to a woman, and there is some mystery about her true identity.

A key feature of the book is the development of the relationship between Perez and his boss Willow Reeve. In this story, we get a fuller picture than before of Willow s personality, and it is an appealing one. There is some debate - especially among people who like Golden Age fiction - about whether modern writers spend too much time on exploring the personal lives of our detectives. Some people prefer us simply to get on with the story.

I agree that one can over-do the tormented personal lives of one's detectives, but, like Ann, I find that the development of the detectives' lives is an integral part of a crime series. There is no reason in principle why this should prevent us from getting on with the story. Admittedly Poirot and Miss Marple never changed during their long careers, but look at the emphasis Dorothy L. Sayers laid on the evolving relationship between Harriet Vane and Lord Peter: she set the pattern that we follow today, I reckon. The key to success is to balance character, plot, and setting. This is easier said than done, but in Cold Earth, Ann does just that with her customary skill.;

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!"

Carlisle Crime Writing Festival

I've returned from attending the inaugural Carlisle Crime Writing Festival - a thoroughly enjoyable week-end, for all sorts of reasons. The Festival was the brainchild of Martin Daley, an author of historical crime fiction, and the Festival had the backing of Carlisle Borough Council. Now, local authorities come in for their fair share of criticism, but the first thing to say is that I believe this was a very well-organised and successful venture, the first step, perhaps, on the journey of putting Carlisle on the crime fiction map.

I do hope the festival becomes a fixture in the calendar, because the city is a terrific destination, the gateway to Scotland if one is heading north, and to the Lake District if heading south. One of the spin-off benefits of a successful festival is that local businesses benefit, and among those that certainly deserve to benefit is the local bookshop, Bookends (which also has a branch in Keswick.) In addition, the owners run a second hand bookshop, Bookcase, which has extensive and impressive stock and  is also well worth a visit.

A word, too, for the Crown and Mitre Hotel, where we stayed and were well looked after. On Thursday evening I had a chance to catch up over dinner with Rebecca Tope, with whom I shared a platform on Friday morning, along with a newish author, Graham Smith. The connecting theme was that we all write books set in the local area, although we have contrasting approaches to writing and our books are quite different. Martin Daley hosted this session, and did so very professionally.

In the afternoon, as well as looking around the city, and the cathedral, and visiting Bookcase, I enjoyed a panel featuring the Scottish trio Lin Anderson, Alex Gray, and Alanna Knight. Then it was time for the evening event - a rare outing together for all six members of Murder Squad. This was a fun session, ably organised by Cath Staincliffe, and it's fascinating to think that the Squad has been together, with only limited changes of personnel, for close on sixteen years. And we are all still speaking to each other...in fact there was much convivial conversation over dinner afterwards.

All in all, a great event, and special thanks go to Martin and his team for all their hard work. Getting a festival like this off the ground is far from easy, but they did  great job. As for me, I had a fantastic trip, with excursions to other parts of Cumbria before and after the festival. And I even met a real life King. More about this shortly!  .

Flash Fiction and Crimefest

Sarah Hilary has asked me to mention on this blog a venture connected with this year's Crimefest, to be held in Bristol at the end of May. As regular readers will know, I'm a big fan of Crimefest and have attended each year since its inception. The panels are good, but in many ways the greatest strength of this very friendly event is the social side. There's a great deal of mingling between authors and fans, and speaking as an author who is also a fan, I find that very enjoyable indeed.

The Flashbang competition, is open to people who are not established writers (pity, I've recently developed a taste for writing flash fiction myself!). The aim is to write a story in 150 words or less,and Sarah tells me that this year the judge will be that splendid crime writer Zoe Sharp. Zoe, incidentally, is one of the most knowledgeable people I know on the subject of e-publishing, and has entered that area with her customary zest and effectiveness. She's also, among other things, a highly talented photographer and I well remember a cold day in Ilkley when Murder Squad did  a photo shoot with her. I'm sure she'll be a very fair judge.

Flash fiction has gained in popularity due to the internet, I think. A short-short story is ideally suited to online publication, and there are some very good examples around. I haven't actually seen a conventional print anthology of flash crime fiction, but there may well be some around that I haven't caught up with.

Writing a very short story, say of less than 1000 words, might seem easy, but brevity demands concentration, and I'm not sure writing a really good flash fiction story is much easier than writing a good short poem. One short-short that I did have published conventionally a few years ago, as Sarah reminded me, was a story called InDex, which gave me a lot of pleasure. I hope lots of people will give the competition a go..

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.

Chris Simms - guest blog

I first met Chris Simms at an author event in Stockport, organised by the late lamented Borders bookstore, a few years back.Another local writer, Kate Ellis, was also with us, but as the event was - shall we say? - modestly attended, we soon repaired to a nearby pub to drown our sorrows and have a chat. Most enjoyable it was, too.

At that time, Chris had only published one book, but I felt from that first encounter that his zest and drive were such that he was someone who would make rapid progress in the crime fiction world, and so it proved. I'm really glad that recently both he and Kate have joined Murder Squad, the group of Northern crime writers formed by Margaret Murphy back in 2000. The Squad's very first event, by the way, was also hosted by Borders UK, and drew a good crowd; I'm afraid, though, that by the time of the Stockport event, the writing was on the wall for the chain - a shame, especially for their enthusiastic staff.

Chris' latest novel, Scratch Deeper, came out yesterday. It is published by Severn House.(whose list now includes a good many stellar names) and to celebrate I invited him to contribute a guest post to this blog. Here it is:

"The other day I found myself thinking; they’re at it again, those crafty little fellows in the Foreign Office. Up to the same old tricks they’ve used so many times before.

You may also have spotted the news story of how the High Court has given leave for three members of the Mau Mau to sue the British government for torturing them back in the 1950s. The Foreign Office immediately announced its intention to appeal on the grounds that it can’t be held accountable for crimes committed by a government from half a century ago.

Funny that,: seeing as the only reason it has taken this long is because the Foreign Office (backed by successive administrations from the 1950s onward) have delayed, stalled and thwarted the Kenyans’ fight for justice anyway they could. (Including the wholesale destruction of colonial records supporting the Kenyans’ claims of torture being used on an industrial scale – including castration and savage beatings.)

But this is an author blog, so why am I banging on about it? Only because I touched on the Mau Mau issue in a previous novel called Savage Moon. That, however, isn’t the reason for writing this blog.

I wanted to point out something relating to the here and now. You see, our government – Labour, Tory or Coalition – continues to try and project power in foreign places in the hope of influencing how that country’s resources are exploited. (The fertile Kenyan highlands provided cheap food to post-war Britain.) Numerous human rights abuses are committed round the world as a result. So I wonder, in another fifty years’ time, will the Foreign Office be responding to claims by Iraqis or Libyans that it can’t be held accountable for crimes committed by a government from half a century ago?

I suspect they will. After all, it’s a trick they’ve used so many times before."

 

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.

Short Stories

I'm delighted to say that my story 'Clutter' has been chosen to appear in Best British Mysteries, edited by Maxim Jakubowski, and in the US, in The Best Crime and Mystery Stories 2010, edited by Martin H. Greenberg and Ed Gorman.

Meanwhile, Murder Squad's second anthology is due out shortly and I've just received my author copies - and very good the book looks too, in my admittedly biased opinion.

I'm setting out below the official press release. Review copies can be obtained from Ross Britton at rbritton@thehistorypress.co.uk or alternatively on Tel: 01453 732505. I do think that The History Press have done a great job with this book, and I'm hoping that readers will agree.

Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories
A Murder Squad Anthology

Edited by Martin Edwards
To be published 3rd October 2011, £6.99 Paperback Original, 978-0-7524-6300-1
Also available in Ebook

A collection of murderous tales from the countries
premier crime fiction writers

Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories showcases a group of highly regarded, award winning crime writers who all share a special passion for crime, which is reflected in this superb new volume. Funny and sad, atmospheric and dark, ingenious and frightening, each of the thirteen stories in this collection will keep you guessing to the very end. From the creepy undertones of Riviera to the mystery of The Habit of Silence, this Murder Squad anthology has something for crime fiction lovers everywhere.

• Foreword by Barry Forshaw, editor of Crime Time magazine.
• Includes previously unpublished material written especially for this anthology.
• Murder Squad was the first ‘virtual collective’ of British crime writers.
• Includes award winning authors, such as Ann Cleeves, creator of the ITV drama series Vera starring Brenda Blethyn.

MURDER SQUAD are a group of leading crime fiction writers comprising Stuart Pawson, Martin Edwards, Margaret Murphy, Chaz Brenchley, Cath Staincliffe and Ann Cleeves. Murder Squad was set up in 2000 by Margaret Murphy, and since then Ann has won the CWA Gold Dagger, Martin has won the CWA Short Story Dagger, and Ann and Cath have had their books successfully adapted for television. All of them have been published internationally and between them they have published over 80 novels, and over 70 short stories. Martin has edited 20 crime anthologies.

Visit http://bit.ly/rcp39T for a free online sampler of ‘Best Eaten Cold’; including a piece by Martin Edwards on his writing experiences, and 2 extracts from the 13 stories.

Cath Stainclife - Guest Blog

My Murder Squad mate Cath Staincliffe is the hugely successful creator of the TV series 'Blue Murder', as well as a varied and accomplished novelist. I'm delighted she has found time to contribute a guest post about her latest book.

'Back when I first started writing novels I only had a few hours a week to write and that became sacrosanct – I ignored anything else clamouring for attention (chores, I mean – the kids were safely off at playgroup and school) and knuckled down. I knew it was the only way I’d get anything finished. The limit on time meant it took me something like eighteen months to write a book and that novel was the sole focus of my writing time.

Years on and now working full-time writing television scripts and radio drama as well as novels and short stories, I find myself jumping between projects like a grasshopper. I still get things finished but I’ve had to develop the ability to switch from one story, one set of characters, one form to another, on a regular basis. Though I only ever have one novel on the go; I don’t think I’d be able to do that hopping about between books but it’s easier moving from a book to a radio play or a television treatment and back. Writing two novels at the same time would cause my brain to melt, I think – like reading two books at once, something I can’t countenance.

At present I’m delivering a novel each year and that leads to some overlap of tasks: so for example I’m now busy promoting my latest publication WITNESS while I’m simultaneously re-reading and copy-editing SPLIT SECOND which will come out next year and also discussing new ideas for the book for 2013 with my agent and publisher.

Alongside that I’ve been proof-reading my contributions to BEST EATEN COLD (ed. Martin Edwards) a Murder Squad anthology, developing and pitching new television drama ideas, writing the script for a radio play in Danny Brocklehurst’s STONE series, drawing up an entry for a scriptwriting competition and researching ideas for LEGACY, my own radio drama series. I like the variety. But it’s interesting talking to other writers who much prefer to concentrate on one medium and would hate the mix I have. Novelists who say they couldn’t cope with the collaborative nature of working in television or radio, with everybody chipping in and shaping the script and changing it beyond all recognition or scriptwriters who imagine the life of a novelist to be unremitting loneliness and isolation, with no-one to bounce ideas off and the tedium of working on one book for years on end. I think I’m lucky to have the best of both worlds. Though now and again there will be a lull after deadlines have been met when I have a few weeks to concentrate solely on one piece of work – and that does feel like a luxury. So maybe a bit of me hankers after the old days when it was one thing at a time – but it’s just a bit. Honest.'

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

Cath Staincliffe and The Kindest Thing

Cath Staincliffe has been a friend of mine since she joined the Northern Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association, not long after her first Sal Kilkenny novel, published by a small Mancunian press, achieved a great deal of acclaim. Later, when our mutual friend Margaret Murphy formed Murder Squad, she invited Cath and I to join, along with Ann Cleeves, Chaz Brenchley, John Baker and Stuart Pawson. That was ten years ago, and Murder Squad is still going strong.

In the intervening years, Cath has enjoyed a great deal of success. She is best known for Blue Murder, starring Caroline Quentin. This began life as a novel for which she could not find a publisher. But she sold the concept to television, and it was quickly turned into a highly successful cop show that ran for several series.

In the meantime, she continued to write Sal Kilkenny novels, as well as turning out several Blue Murder books, and a stand-alone book called Trio. We’ve done a good many events together over the years and they are always god fun. It was great to catch up with her at Crimefest and, along with Ann, we had a meal together before joining up with the rest of The Monkey Coalition for the pub quiz.

Now, she has signed up with a new publisher to bring out her latest novel, The Kindest Thing. I’ve just received a copy and I’m looking forward to it very much. And Cath will be contributing a guest blog here in July around the time of publication of the paperback edition.

Borders

Borders UK has gone into administration, and I’m sorry to hear it. We need all the bookshops we can get, and I have a soft spot for several of the Borders stores – and not just because they have often stocked my titles in gratifying quantities (surely, though, that can’t be why the business has run into trouble?)

The very first Murder Squad event, way back in 2000, was held at a Borders store in Ellesmere Port. I remember it very fondly – in the nine years our collective of Northern crime writers has been going, the seven founder members haven’t all appeared together that many times. But it was a good evening, and not long after, we all appeared at the Borders store in John Baker’s York.

Here’s a confession, though. Not every Borders event I’ve attended has been quite so successful. I recall one event with Kate Ellis and Chris Simms – two first-rate writers – where the turn-out was thin (and if you discounted those who were friends of Kate’s, it was very, very thin!). But even then, we had a good time, not least in the pub afterwards. It was my first meeting with Chris, and I’ve been pleased to see his career take off in a big way since. He’s currently working on an interesting short story project with which I am likely to become involved – more news about this at a future date.

I can only hope that the business can be salvaged, and that those large and appealing stores don’t disappear altogether. Of course, like many writers, I have an especially soft spot for smaller independent bookshops. But there are some marvellous people working for the chains, and it would be really sad if many jobs were lost as a result of Borders’ inability to withstand the pressures of the modern book-selling market.

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.

Flambard News

My Murder Squad colleague John Baker wrote a number of warmly reviewed crime novels in the 90s, but in recent years he has become well-known as a leading blogger. I'm glad to say, though, that he's returned to novel-writing, and his new book, Winged with Death, is due to be published in March. More about this in due course.

John's book is published by Flambard Press, as is my latest, Dancing for the Hangman. Flambard have an interesting and eclectic list; they publish poetry, but also, on occasion, such prominent names in the crime fiction world as Val McDermid and H.R.F. Keating, and they are great to work with. I'm glad to say, too, that they have just let me know that Dancing for the Hangman is going into a reprint. Good news, which I find rather encouraging.

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.