Refreshing old stories
Today I have the joy of starting to write one book I first thought up ten years ago, while also looking at an edit of a book I wrote at about the same time. I have been a writer for an appalling twenty years now. It’s shocking to think of all those years having … Continue reading
Review: The Devil in the Marshalsea by Antonia Hodgson
ISBN: 9781444775433 This is a nice change for me. It feels as though I’ve become a modernist, reading this. I’ve been transported from the fourteenth to the eighteenth century. This book is the winner of the 2014 CWA Historical Dagger Award, I’m told. Tom Hawkins, the wayward son of a country curate has been living … Continue reading
Review of A LOVE LIKE BLOOD By Marcus Sedgewick
Published by Mulholland Books Paperback ISBN 9781444751925 price at £7.99 It is rare to pick up a book by an author one hasn’t read or heard of before, and to be so entirely blown away by the quality of the writing and the plot. I was sent this book in a pile of books to … Continue reading
Review of THE VANISHING WITCH By Karen Maitland
Published by Headline Review in paperback, trade paperback and hardback. Hardback ISBN: 9781472215000 I am very glad to be able to say that Karen Maitland is a good friend. Still, this is not a log-rolling exercise. I have a very simple policy when it comes to books. I do not like to give positive … Continue reading
A Winter Kill – Review
One of the really great things about travelling to the US and Canada is having the chance to discover new writers I’d never usually meet. And the last trip to Canada was one of those opportunities I couldn’t miss. Although it’s not easy to carry home roughly twenty books, I did manage it. I’ve already … Continue reading
REVIEW: SHE DEMONS by Donald Hauka, published by Dundurn Press
REVIEW: SHE DEMONS by Donald Hauka, published by Dundurn Press ISBN: 9781554887637, £6.99 While I was cavorting in crime with the Crime Writers of Canada in Toronto a couple of weeks ago, I was fortunate to be given books in my goody bag by a number of authors I’d never heard of. This is always … Continue reading
Complaints and Reviews
I’m just back from a trip to Belstone, talking on video about BELLADONNA AT BELSTONE. And while talking about BaB, I was struck by some of the things that stick in my mind. It’s not the usual old rant. There are people, generally, who love to point out errors in an author’s research, for example. … Continue reading
Krupp Can Wait
FIRE ON THE RUNWAY by Mel Bradshaw, Dundurn Toronto ISBN 978 1459703353 priced at £11.99 for paperback I was fortunate enough to be invited as the International Guest of Honour at the Bloody Words festival in Toronto this month. It was a huge honour, but more to the point, it was a great joy to … Continue reading
Review of SAVAGE MAGIC
Savage Magic A stunning evocation of a period. Madness, maleficium, murder, beautifully written with superlative skill. It’s very rare that a new style of writing comes floating over my desk. Usually nowadays I take the easy line with reviews – if I don’t like the book, I prefer not to comment on it. In the … Continue reading
Let’s Get Inky
A short while ago, the very nice people at Cult Pens suggested I’d like to have some new inks to play with. Who am I to refuse an offer like that? A year ago I started to use Cult Pens’ own Deep Dark Blue ink. This was a colour they designed to match their own logo, … Continue reading
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