Guilty Parties

I'm pleased to announce the publication this month by Severn House of the latest anthology of the Crime Writers' Association, Guilty Parties. I've been editing the CWA anthology since the mid-Nineties, and it's always a joy to receive so many original stories. The only downside is that not all of the stories I enjoy can be included, for reasons of space, and that was especially the case this year, when I was flooded with submissions that were very varied and entertaining.

The book contains an intro from me, a short foreword by Alison Joseph, chair of the CWA, and author bios, but the meat, of course, is in the stories themselves. Because several entries were very short, I did manage to find space for more stories than usual - 24 in all. And they are all brand new. My own entry, "A Glimpse of Hell", was inspired by the wonderful time I had last year on the small island of Grand Cayman in the Caribbean. Definitely one of the bonuses from my travels in recent years.

There are some very distinguished names on the contributor list. They include Peter Lovesey, doyen of classic detection, and also his son Phil, who is himself a splendid writer and past winner of the CWA Short Story Dagger. Laura Wilson, Aline Templeton and N.J. Cooper are there, and so too John Harvey -  creator of Charlie Resnick- Christopher Fowler, and Paul Johnston. There are also writers from overseas, including Ragnar Jonasson.

Among the other contributors are Chrissie Poulson (whose thoughtful blog is always worth reading), Frances Brody, Kate Rhodes and Chris Simms. Different readers will have different preferences among the stories, and regular readers of CWA anthologies will note that a number of the contributors, including some relative newcomers to the genre, have never before featured in the anthology. In choosing stories, my criteria include variety, which I do think is an important aspect of a book like this. As far as I'm concerned, it's both a pleasure and a privilege to have had the chance to put Guilty Parties together.

Paul Johnston

I first came across Paul Johnston back in the 1990s, on a memorable evening at the Law Society Hall in Chancery Lane, when at the CWA Dagger Awards dinner, he won the award for the best first crime novel of the year. In those days, Paul and I were both published by Hodder, and our paths continued to cross as the years passed.

After earning a great deal of critical acclaim for his first series, set in an Edinburgh of the future, Paul developed a second series set in Greece – where he has lived for a number of years. Like most crime writers, he experienced a few ups and downs, most particularly including a serious illness. But I was delighted when a few years ago he bounced back very impressively with a highly readable revenge thriller, The Death List, featuring a new protagonist (a writer!) and published by a mass-market publisher who seemed to achieve great success in selling their books in vast quantities.

I had the chance to talk with Paul at Bristol recently and learned that not only does he have a new book, Maps of Hell, coming out imminently, but also that some of his early titles are to be republished by Severn House. This is good news, especially since one of the depressing features of modern publishing is the way in which enjoyable books published not too long ago disappear from sight because there are so soon out of print.

It was also good to see Paul triumph in the Mastermind contest, despite strong performances from Lauren Henderson and John Curran. Paul's special subject was Sherlock Holmes, and his wide knowledge of the genre past and present was a reminder that even a very modern writer can be enthusiastic about the work of predecessors from previous generations.

More on Crimefest

I'm working away from home for a couple of days, so just a few more brief thoughts on Crimefest for the time being.

I enjoyed moderating two panels, the first being Forgotten Authors, with some great panellists - Adrian Magson, Peter Guttridge, Caroline Todd and Sarah Rayne. There was so much to say about our chosen authors of the past - the only problem was that we could have talked for hours! I've been asked by the organisers to moderate the same panel again next year.

I also moderated an interesting panel which featured the very witty Caro Ramsay, along with M.R. Hall, Yrsa Sigursdottir and John Lawton. A varied group and a discussion which I felt was full of thought-provoking contributions. I was glad to meet John and Yrsa for the first time.

Two of the people I enjoyed chatting with at different times during the weekend deserve particular congratulations. Len Tyler won the Last Laugh award, and Paul Johnston, despite much modest self deprecation, won Mastermind in the face of formidable competition. Both Len and Paul have new books out shortly and I look forward to reading both of them. A word of appreciation too for Maxim Jakubowski, an extremely able quizmaster and question setter.

Paul Johnston and Maps of Hell

I first came across Paul Johnston on a memorable evening at the Law Society in Chancery Lane – was it as long ago as 1997? - on the occasion of the CWA Awards Dinner. I was there, among other reasons, because I’d edited an anthology which yielded a couple of candidates for the short story Dagger. That evening, one of those writers, Reg Hill, won the Dagger for his brilliant story ‘On the Psychiatrist’s Couch’, while Paul won the John Creasey Memorial Dagger for his first crime novel, The Body Politic.

In those days, Paul was published by Hodder, a company to whom I’d just moved, when they acquired The Devil in Disguise as the first instalment of a two-book deal. Our paths crossed a few times after that, and I remember a very agreeable Hodder authors’ dinner in Manchester which we both attended, during a Dead on Deansgate conference.

Paul’s early books featured Quintilian Dalrymple, and later he wrote about a half-Greek character, Alex Mavros. But he, like me and a number of others, parted company with Hodder, and he had to cope with serious illness – he’s come through two unconnected bouts of cancer in the past five years. Fortunately, he came back triumphantly with an interesting newish publisher, Mira, who specialise in mass market thrillers. He now divides his time between Athens and the UK and I bump into him occasionally at conventions.

His latest book, Maps of Hell, is the third mystery starring Matt Wells, who first appeared in a dynamic thriller called The Death List, which was all about payback, in more ways than one. It is published by Mira on 6 August, and it will be worth watching out for, because Paul Johnston is a writer of genuine quality.

Conventions - for and against

Various bloggers have been reflecting on the pros and cons of crime conventions in the wake of Crimefest, and this debate mirrors many of the conversations that go on in the book rooms and bars wherever conventions are held. Two of the main reservations from the perspective of writers and readers are these. For authors, arguably, conventions sell very few books for the panellists attending (other than the star names.) For readers, once you have heard a writer a couple of times, and attended a panel of theirs on a certain topic (‘the importance of setting’ is an example), future panels on such themes can turn out to be samey.

There is truth in both these points, but there are also strong reasons why I really enjoy conventions, long after my first visit to the 1990 Bouchercon in London (when I wasn’t even a published writer.) As a mid-list novelist, attending a convention may not work out on a strict cost-benefit analysis, but I think there are hidden benefits in terms of profile-building – all the more important at a time when market conditions are so dire. From a fan’s point of view – and I’m still very much a fan, as I hope this blog illustrates – there is much fun to be had from attending panels, even on familiar topics. Though I think it makes sense to be selective. Back in 1990, I attended every panel I could. Now, short as a convention is, I tend to take breaks. This does mean I miss some treats – for instance, at Crimefest 2009, I made a mistake by missing the translators’ panel, which everyone seemed to like. However, I did enjoy, among others, the Hakan Nesser interview, and the panel chaired by Maxim featuring the likes of Paul Johnston (a terrific writer, who deserves to be better known) and the witty Declan Burke.

I’ve mentioned before the pleasure of meeting old friends, and of getting to know others for the first time. In the breaks I take, very often away from the melee of the convention hotel, I enjoy having the chance to get to know one or two people better. For instance, from last year’s Crimefest, I recall a thoroughly agreeable lunch with Natasha Cooper. This year, I had a long chat with Chris Ewan, a fellow lawyer and highly promising author, and also got together with Russell James, who wasn’t involved in the convention, but lives close to Bristol and had travelled in for the day. Russell is an interesting writer, whose fiction is very dark, and who has recently diversified into non-fiction with much success – Great British Fictional Detectives is his latest title, and it’s packed with tons of information. I’ve known Russell for years, but we’ve never talked at such length before, and I found him fascinating and informative on the life of a full-time writer after years as a self-employed business consultant.

So are conventions worth it? In my experience, the answer is an unequivocal yes. I’ve never been to one, either here or in the US, that that didn’t teach me a good deal and wasn’t great fun.