I am delighted that two of my crime fiction works are this morning in the top 100 Organised Crime Kindle charts on Amazon.

The DCI John Blizzard box set containing the first seven novels in the series, (The Book Folks) for just 99p - now if that is not an outstanding offer, I do not know what is -  is at number 43 (it is already topping…

Organisers of the fourth annual Kirkcudbright Book Week have been awarded a £1,750 grant from the Robin Rigg Community Fund to help them develop the crime fiction component of the festival.

Kirkcudbright Book Week is designed to celebrate the growing literary scene in and around the South West Scotland town and crime fiction has proved to be a…

Fancy taking a Spring getaway amid the stunning scenery of South West Scotland and combining it with a chance to hear from best-selling crime writers including Chris Brookmyre and Dr Marisa Haetzman, who write together as Ambrose Parry, Aline Templeton, pictured here, Sara Sheridan, and myself, plus the opportunity to find out more about emerging…

The latest in the DCI John Blizzard series of crime novels by John Dean has been published.

The Meek Shall Inherit (published by The Book Folks) is the author’s 25th crime novel to be published and is available in ebook format with paperback and hardback to follow shortly, from Amazon.

In the novel, when an elderly couple walk into…

A few years ago, I ran a creative writing course and, at the beginning of one of the sessions, I asked my fifteen students how they worked.

The result was fifteen different answers –one author wrote everything by hand then typed it onto their computer, another wrote it all in note form then linked the notes together, one did not edit anything…

Writing is an art form which combines two skills which appear, at first glance, to have nothing on common – unrestrained creativity and well-controlled discipline.

However, good writing is not possible without either of them. To explain, as I write the latest DCI Jack Harris crime novel, I am being disciplined and following the synopsis that I…

I am part of the team that organises an annual short story competition for young writers in Dumfries and Galloway, as part of the run-up to Kirkcudbright book week 2025 in March. The competition is run by the event organisers Kirkcudbright Book Week Society and Kirkcudbright Library. Myself and Lesley Garbutt from the Library are the judges and this…

One of the strongest features of Kirkcudbright Book Week right from its early days has been the popularity of crime fiction - and the 2025 event is set to continue the tradition.

The programme to run in the South West Scotland town between March 3-9 includes appearances by several best-selling crime fiction authors as well as those starting…

Writing a long-running series of novels, as can so often be the case for crime fiction authors, brings its own set of challenges, not least how do you keep the writing fresh for reader and writer alike?

As I start the latest DCI  Jack Harris novel for my publisher The Book Folks, the twelfth in the series where the action is divided between…

Having just completed my latest DCI Blizzard crime novel for my publisher The Book Folks, this is both a nervous time and an exciting time. Nervous because, however experienced you are (and this is Book 25), it’s always a tense time as you wait for feedback from your publisher. You are never too old to learn!

Exciting because your thoughts…

I am currently 43,000 words into my latest DCI Blizzard crime novel for The Book Folks and key to getting the process right is to ensure that the story continually benefits from injections of energy to maintain its momentum - and increase it, where necessary.

But how do you do that? It’s not as simple as the old crime writers adage that if you…

Crime writer Ian Robinson has a new novel out, marking the return of renegade police officer Sam Batford in his latest undercover assignment for the Metropolitan Police.

In Lines Crossed (The Book Folks), an armed gang is robbing cash vans in North London, and Detective Sergeant Batford’s bosses want his help catching them. That’s not all that…

As I have said in past blogs, the wise author listens when the story speaks to them and if that means changing the original plan then so be it.

But how far should the author be prepared to change the story that they originally decided to write? I mean, it was the author’s idea long before those pesky character stuck their oar in, wasn’t it?…

Each year, Raworths Harrogate Literature Festival in North Yorkshire welcomes a stellar line-up of bestselling authors and celebrated speakers to the Harrogate stage and this year these include Theresa May, Victoria Hislop, Ros Atkins, Peter Reid, Monty Panesar, Alison Weir, William Hanson and many more.

In association with Yorkshire Life…

Writing has the capacity to continually surprise the author who is doing it, and that can often take them somewhere unexpected.

Sometimes that means a nod to the past, which is why I have found myself using an Agatha Christie technique without setting out to do so.

What was planned for my latest DCI John Blizzard novel was a series of…

The other day, I was surfing the web seeking inspiration for my latest blog when I came across a number of articles on the vexed subject of profanity in fiction.

I, like most authors who use swear words in their writing, receive the occasional review from readers for whom profanity is an issue. For some of them, it is reason enough not to buy…

The idea of ‘the tears of a clown’ is an intriguing theme for an author and one which Kay Wilson exploits commendably in her new novel The Stand-up Mam.

The central…

As an author, I have always been the most interested by the technical side of the craft of writing rather than the creative element of the process; it may sound odd, but I love editing more than I do creating.

However, the older I become, I have found myself more and more interested in the creative process and particularly in examining the way…

My publisher The Book Folks will be running special promotions on some of my books featuring DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris on Kindle format over the next  few weeks, meaning that they will be on sale for 99p in the UK and 99c in the US on the following dates (available on Amazon):

A Flicker in the Night 16-23 July 

Dead Hill 20-27…

Authors are being asked to help celebrate the 200^th anniversary of the world’s first passenger railway by entering a rail-themed writing competition.

The…