Last week saw a couple of library appearences at Fareham and Waterloovile. Huge thanks to Lian Sills and the staffs at both libraries for the sell-out audiences. The phrase "Audience Evaluation" strikes fear into the heart of any speaker but here's a selection Lian just sent me. Happy Days.....‘A big thank you to Graham Hurley, both for the books and the interesting talk’‘A very fluent speaker’‘A great evening with a charming man’‘What an interesting evening! Graham spoke with such passion. Lovely evening’‘...
Scribe Outings
Monday, November 16, 2015 - 15:26
Here's three of upcoming dates when yours truly will be spreading the word. Tuesday 24th November at Hythe library. That's in Waterside, west of Southampton. 7.30pm start - and I'll be talking about - guess what? - adventures in crime fiction. Discounted books on sale afterwards. Will sign anything, including live flesh... Friday 4th December, at the Naval Maritime Club in Portsmouth's Queen Street. It's a lunch for the Pompey Pensioners Association, dear to my heart, organised by an old mate, Alan Burnett. 12.30pm will get you...
Launch Date for "The Order of Things"
Friday, November 6, 2015 - 15:56
The latest novel in the D/S Jimmy Suttle series, "The Order of Things", is scheduled for publication in hardback on Thursday 19th November. Already, to my delight, Orion have ordered a second impression.As usual, in the the tradition of great send-offs, we shall be launching "The Order of Things" at Exmouth's leading book shop - the aptly named Best Books. Owner Wendy Pilling, to whom I owe a huge debt of gratitude, will be our host for the evening. The event kicks off at 6.00pm and everyone is welcome....so do join us for drinks, home-made cakes, and...
Unthinkable
Monday, November 2, 2015 - 14:43
Crime writers deal in dead bodies. It comes with the territory. In the course of conceiving sixteen crime novels I’ve had to imagine men, women and children shot, strangled, run over, asphyxiated, poisoned, disembowled, beheaded, tied to a railway line and cut in two, and burned to death. But – outside a post-mortem – I’ve never seen a dead body in situ. Until last month. An overcast day, the wind from the north, cold. My son and I were setting off in pursuit of mackerel and sea bass from the dock here in Exmouth. As we slipped...
Sins of the Father Close to Blast Off
Thursday, November 6, 2014 - 13:57
"Sins of the Father", Book Three in the D/S Jimmy Suttle series, publishes on Thursday 20th November. Here are some dates for your diaries.... Thursday 20th November: official launch party. "The Book Rest", 18 The Parade, Exmouth. Everyone welcome. Monday 24th November: book signing at Waterstones, Roman Gate, Exeter. 2.00 pm. Wednesday 26th November: event and signing at Lymington Library, North Close, Lymington, Hants. 7.30 pm Thursday 27th November: signing at Waterstones, Commercial...
Devon launch for the new Jimmy Suttle
Sunday, October 12, 2014 - 15:30
After last year's smash party for "Touching Distance", Wendy Pilling, Exmouth's redoubtable bookseller, is once again hosting the launch of the third book in the series, "Sins of the Father". Family, friends, neighbours, and anyone who wants to find out who murdered Rupert Moncrieff, are more than welcome to come along to Best Books, 18 The Parade, Exmouth on the evening of Thursday 20th November, between 18.00 and 20.00. Cakes, nibbles, wine and beer. Plus much laughter.
Sins of the Father
Tuesday, September 16, 2014 - 08:34
The third book in the D/S Jimmy Suttle series publishes in November. Here's what happens... A rich elderly man, Rupert Moncrieff, is beaten to death in the silence of his West Country waterside mansion, his head hooded and his throat cut. His extended family are still living beneath his roof, each with their own room, their own story, their own ghosts, and their own motives for murder. And in this world of darkness and dysfunction are the artefacts and memories of atrocities in colonial Kenya that are returning to haunt them all.At the heart of the murder investigation is...
La Vie Francaise
Friday, August 8, 2014 - 17:15
Most writers I know – English or otherwise – respond to changes of location (in plainer English we call this “travel”). We also, as a tribe, enjoy the chance to meet fellow writers, compare notes, and maybe even bump into one or two folk who have dared to scale our modest fictional alps and have survived to make it back to base camp (we call these “readers”). Roll all these delights into a single weekend and – voila! – you may be lucky enough to find yourself invited to a festival de polars. My first experience of this full...
The Past is a Moving Target
Friday, June 20, 2014 - 12:50
Just returned from Israel and the West Bank. Extraordinary trip. The last time I went was 48 years ago but even at 19 I was older than the fledgling Israeli state. It was the end of my first year at Cambridge and the long summer vacation yawned ahead. I was as skint as every other student I knew but I badly wanted to put serious distance between myself and the UK and spotted an appeal for fruit pickers on an Israeli kibbutz. In return for a couple of months in the orchards, they gave you a return flight, a bed, free food, and pocket money of (as I recall) a quid...
Remembrance
Monday, April 7, 2014 - 17:24
Just back from a research trip to Northern Germany. The book is called Finisterre. In essence it’s an off-piste excursion into the world of a U-boat Kapitan called Stefan Portish, and a renegade FBI agent – Hector Gomez. Portisch and Gomez do their fictional business on separate sides of the Atlantic during the closing months of the Second World War, each tugging at separate ends of what turns out to be the same plot-line. The idea came to me when Lin and I were wandering around Northern Spain in our camper. One sunny afternoon in an...