About /Contact John Dean

At the end of this page you will find out how to contact John and links to a number of interviews and profiles

John Dean is a crime novelist living in South West Scotland who has had twenty six novels published by The Book Folks, a Joffe Books company. He is the creator of the DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris series of novels and two featuring DCI Danny Radford, writing as John Stanley, totalling 26 in all.

He is one of three national Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Libraries Champions. John, who lives in Dumfries and Galloway, is the Champion in Scotland. Priscilla Masters is the Champion in England and GB Williams is based in Wales.The Library Champions provide a conduit for the concerns of libraries to the Board of the CWA and also help libraries promote themselves through enabling CWA members to participate in their events. This is often through providing names of local author members on the CWA’s members database to libraries seeking to book authors for events, including talks.

The CWA, which does not take a political stance, is nevertheless concerned about the impact of continued cuts to library services throughout the United Kingdom and is fully supportive of the ongoing efforts of the Society of Authors to draw attention to the issue.

The Champions are also involved in promoting the CWA’s annual Dagger in the Library award, which is based on nominations from library staff, volunteers and readers. It is one of the most prestigious crime writing awards in the UK and previous winners include Belinda Bauer, Stuart MacBride, Alexander McCall Smith, Peter Robinson, Lindsey Davis, Martin Edwards, Chris Brookmyre and most recently, in n 2024, Anthony Horowitz.

You can find out more about CWA support for libraries at Libraries – The Crime Writers’ Association

John gives talks on crime writing to organisations ranging from reading groups and writing groups to men’s forums and libraries (he does not charge a fee for library events). He also delivers creative writing workshops at venues including arts centres and libraries.

He was an award-winning journalist for forty years, including working as a crime reporter, before retiring to concentrate on his crime writing. He was Chair of County Durham arts organisation Darlington for Culture for five years and the Founder of Kirkcudbright Book Week in Dumfries and Galloway.

Media

John has been interviewed and profiled a number of times over the years, including:

Author John Dean has given an interview in which he talks about some of the challenges involved in writing the DCI Jack Harris series of crime novels, particularly the recent bestseller Murder in the Pennines. You can read it in the Blog section at

https://joffebooks.com/

Book reviewer Lars Walker, of Brandywine Books.has has been working his way through the some of the DCI Jack Harris crime novels written by John Dean and published by The Book Folks, a Joffe Books company. Down to earth, perceptive and honest (he does not like everything the books do and does not mind saying so, but is largely complimentary), the reviews build into an in-depth examination of John’s work. You can find the reviews by Lars, himself an author, at the excellent website https://brandywinebooks.net/ and typing John Dean into the Search box.

Profile by former publisher Erik Empson

A portrait of popular crime fiction writer John Dean at his home

The Dorset Book Detective

John Dean Interview: “As a writer, I am usually inspired by a sense of place” – The Dorset Book Detective

The Paula Williams website

Where does crime writer John Dean get his ideas from? – PAULA WILLIAMS

Kirkcudbright Book Week podcast interview

Download – Talking about Book Week 2023 with John Dean, Gerry Hassan and Chris Walker | Podbean

Profile in bookseriesinorder website

John Dean – Book Series In Order

Q and A to promote 274 Miles anthology published by Tantallon Tir

Discover the Best Scottish Crime Writers and Novels