As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases. Hi Reader, Guilty pleasures. Most of us have them, and when it comes to books, some of us just won’t admit to them. Maybe you always fold the cover back on the book so that nobody else can see it. Or you never mention a particular author when someone asks for recommendations. Maybe there’s a whole series you’d never mention to anyone. Ever. But you’ve got it loaded in the cart at Amazon the minute a new title is released....
15 days ago • 4 min read
As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases. Hi Reader, The first thing you do when you get to a crash scene is look around. Well, maybe it’s the second thing, after talking to other cops that were first on scene. But the idea is that you take it all in. You look around and try to see what’s there. You pay attention. There’s obviously the wreckage. Twisted metal and glass strewn across the bitumen. Sometimes the injured are gone. Sometimes they’re not. Sometimes...
28 days ago • 5 min read
As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases. Hi Reader, Most people would expect that two witnesses seeing the same thing happen in front of them would describe it in the same way. That would be nice, but, well, generally that’s not what happens. I can remember standing on Springbank Road in the south of Adelaide one day, talking to a couple of people who had both witnessed the same car speeding along the road just before it was involved in a crash. They both described...
about 1 month ago • 6 min read
As an Amazon Associate, I earn commission from qualifying purchases. Hi Reader, I like to read a lot of different books. Mostly crime fiction. Sometimes it’s hard and gritty ‘fast and furious’, and sometimes it moves along at a slower pace. The slower stories tend to be more psychological than action packed, but they still keep me reading and turning pages. And, as someone who’s writing their first novel, it makes me wonder why. What makes each tick? For me, I think the slow burn...
about 2 months ago • 5 min read
Hi Reader, I’ve read or listened to every one of Deon Meyer’s Benny Griesel (affiliate link) novels. They were first recommended to me by Tony Park because, like his books, they’re based in Africa and he thought I would enjoy them. He was right. Benny Griesel is a detective, but above all else, he is a human being with flaws. He is far from perfect, yet he is the perfect cop. He’s good at what he does, and he and his police partner Vaughn Cupido always solve their cases. But they both have...
2 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, I read John Sandford's first Lucas Davenport novel, Rules of Prey, a long time ago. It still comes back to me, even now. I certainly don't remember all the fine details, but I do remember the feeling of the story. I remember the discomfort that didn't sit well when I finally closed the book’s covers. I think that’s the test of a good book. It's not about whether you enjoyed it at the time, which I certainly did with Rules of Prey, but, I think, it's about whether the story keeps...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Hi Reader, The house goes quiet around the same time most nights. The day's done and the only sound is the dog snoring on her chair, paws twitching at whatever dogs chase in their sleep. That's when I most like to reach for whatever crime novel I’m reading at the time. Sometimes I'm in my own comfy chair in the lounge room. Sometimes I’m propped up in bed. The where isn’t so important, what matters is the quiet. I don't think it's an accident that this is when the crime-fiction genre works...
3 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, When you start writing, you start studying. I’ve found myself paying a lot more attention to the opening lines of my favourite authors lately. I’ve started noticing the mechanics and thinking about why an opening makes me sit up and take notice. What it is that pushes me to keep reading that story. So, here's a question. What is a first line, or two, actually supposed to do? The obvious answer is that it should draw you in. But the best openers do something more than that. They...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hi Reader, I spent thirty years watching real criminals. In interview rooms, in courtrooms, in the back of police vehicles. I saw people who'd done terrible things as they sat across from me and tried to explain themselves. They always tried to justify their actions. Sometimes there was remorse. Sometimes there wasn't. What I did see though, always, was an internal logic as they told their story and tried to make everything add up, to guide me to the logical outcome of whatever circumstance...
4 months ago • 4 min read