Detective fiction . Films . Game of Chance . Historical Fiction . Line of Sight . Novels
Dial ‘M’ for Murder – the telephone in twentieth century fiction
On 12 May 2014 by AdminHaving just published a novel – Line of Sight (Arbuthnot Books, 2014) – in which the telephone plays a key role, I’ve been thinking about the significance of this particular piece of technology, invented (or at least patented) in 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell, but only in common domestic use for around a hundred years.
Detective fiction . Line of Sight . Writing
Writing a different book every time – why I can’t seem to stick with a ‘brand’….
On 30 April 2014 by Admin‘All your books are different,’ said a friend who’d just read the latest one. He meant it as a compliment, but I’m afraid that – given the way that the book world is these days – it’s a serious disadvantage. A cursory glance at the ‘three for two’ tables in any bookshop, or at the
Detective fiction . First World War . Line of Sight
The Discreet Charm of Murder – why the ‘country house’ whodunnit retains its power to enthrall…
On 15 April 2014 by AdminIn his review (Guardian 12.04.14) of a 1946 novel by Gladys Mitchell (Here Comes a Chopper, published by Vintage’s new crime fiction imprint), Nicholas Lezard considers the enduring – and, to some readers, baffling – appeal of the English country house murder mystery. Alluding to Chandler’s celebrated distinction, in The Simple Art of Murder,
Detective fiction . eBooks . First World War . Line of Sight . War
Getting the past in your sights – why I’ve turned to detective fiction
On 11 December 2013 by AdminIt’s nine months since I wrote this blog – a long enough period of gestation for any work of fiction… which indeed it has proved to be. After a year in which I moved to a different city, and started a new job, I finished my novel, Line of Sight, and delivered it to its
Detective fiction . Kindle . Line of Sight . Literature . Novels
The irresistible charm of the English murder
On 20 December 2011 by Admin‘Extraordinary how potent cheap music is,’ says Amanda in Private Lives. The same might be said of fiction – at least of a certain sort of ‘cheap’ fiction, variously known as the thriller, the murder mystery, the detective story, and the whodunit. To this genre – or rather to a particular sub-genre, disparagingly referred to