John Dean – Crime Writer

There is one thing that gives the writer in me more pleasure than anything else, and I suspect it is the same for many more authors, and that is when a reviewer refers to your fictional characters as if they are real.

That happened recently when an Amazon reviewer of The Girl in the Meadow (a DCI Jack Harris book, The Book Folks, a Joffe Books company) said that Harris should sort out his troubled relationship and Matty Gallagher should resolve his issues when working in an area he does not like.

It does happen from to time and it’s a compliment to the author, of which I have had more examples over the years. For example, a student in one of my creative writing classes picked me up because DCI John Blizzard was being unfair to one of his team. She was very disappointed in me but such comments warm the author’s heart.

Oh, and in case you were wondering – the reviewer whose comments gave me the idea for this post gave the book five stars. Thanks, Kenneth!