The latest DCI John Blizzard mystery, the seventh in the series published by The Book Folks, can be purchased as an e-book or paperback on Amazon.

In A Flicker in the Night, a spate of murderous arson attacks evokes bitter memories for stalwart detective John Blizzard.

It was a defining moment in DCI John Blizzard’s early career when he…

I tutor quite a few writers and so often the discussions come back to dialogue. Dialogue is crucial to any novel. Good dialogue lifts a story, bad dialogue wrecks it.

Writing dialogue isn’t about replicating a real-life conversation, though. It’s about giving an impression of it. If fiction is like real life with the dull bits taken out, the same thing is true of fictional conversations. The role of the writer is to select what’s important.

There are some…

A Facebook group of which I am a member saw someone recently asking if humour is important in crime fiction? I replied saying that the answer is yes, it is, but here are my more detailed thoughts.

For a start, how do you get it right, particularly since there’s an old saying that if you are not a humorous person, don’t try to write humour?

Well, it is only part-true. It is certainly the case that a straight-laced, humourless person might well struggle to write side-splitting…

Looking forward to taking part in this event, which is part of the first Kirkcudbright Book Week

Wednesday March 4 2020

In Conversation With…. Crime Writers Jackie Baldwin and Ian Patrick. Chaired by crime writer John Dean.

7.30pm The Restaurant Selkirk Arms High Street Free event but please book in advance, details to be found at…

I am delighted to be one of the organisers of the first ever Kirkcudbright Book Week, which will run between Monday March 2 and Friday March 6, 2020, and includes World Book Day, which is aimed at younger writers and readers.

The week is designed to showcase the developing literary scene in Kirkcudbright and the wider Dumfries and Galloway area…