I have just read Ian Patrick’s debut crime novel Rubicon (Fahrenheit Press) and was blown away by it. It is a terrific read and I can heartily recommend it.…

It is well worth checking out the latest news and views from the world of crime fiction by becoming part of the excellent …

As a writer, one of my guiding lights is ‘why?’ Why do people behave the way they do, why do they risk imprisonment by breaking the law, why did they let events unfold the way they do?…

The brilliant best-selling crime writer Peter James recently tweeted: “I always plan the beginning, end and the first 20% of a book in detail – but after that I like events to happen spontaneously, and for the story to take on a life of its own. That way, events, and how the characters react to them, feel authentic.”…

Nice to have some good reviews for the DCI Blizzard crime novel Death List - they are much appreciated!  You can read them at …

I am editing the first draft of a new Jack Harris novel at the moment and my big preoccupation is pace.

Learning how to write a narrative with the right pace is one of the most crucial writing skills. Get it wrong and you are jeopardising your chances of success. Get…

Following the news that we are running an online crime fiction course, I thought it would be useful to look at how to create a murderer!

The key to good crime writing is to create strong characters - do not stray into cliché, make your characters come over as real.So, that means you must make the villain real and not some clichéd figure from the movies.

The best thing is for them to have appeared earlier in the story so the reader knows them, becomes engaged with their life, starts…

I am  d…

Getting to know your characters before you begin to write your story is critical. If you don’t know much about them at the outset, you’ll struggle to bring them to life on the printed page.

So here’s a…

Writers spend a lot of time thinking about the technical aspect of their work  - does the plot hold together, is the pace right, is there too much description, an over-use of back story, poor grammar, literals etc…

Best-selling crime novelist and creative writing tutor John Dean has started to run an online Crime Fiction Course.

John, author of 17 novels and currently published by London-based The Book Folks, and the creator of DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris, also runs Inscribe Media Ltd, through which the course will be administered.

The…

You can check out the excellent Nicholas Camm reading the audio version of the DCI Blizzard mystery Strange Little Girl at…

What turns a story from good to very good? For me, it is that extra something.

Whether it be the description of a place that makes you shiver because you feel the chill air coming off the hills, or a portrayal of a character so real they could easily walk in through the door and…

I have just finished the first draft of a new Jack Harris novel. As always, I’ll let it rest for a week or two then come back to start the edit with fresh eyes.

For me, that is a crucial part of the writing process and the test for me is that, if I enjoy the novel and forgot I wrote it, I must be doing something right!

The read-through is also crucial to search for problems with flow, plotlines, poor grammar, literals etc. I want the team at The Book Folks to have a manuscript…

Writers! Fancy writing in a house on a hill? Looking to learn more about how writers draw inspiration from their surroundings? Like to find a peaceful corner of a garden to write? And all with…

So how do you solve a crime when your main information is coming from someone with dementia - how do you know you are being told the truth?

Check out how DCI John Blizzard fares at…

As part of…