Blog posts
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Another reminder of one of my older crime novels that you may have forgotten. Strange Little Girl She is the one who DCI John Blizzard remembers with a stab of guilt. Still missing after a murderous attack on her family, she was an awkward child, difficult to know, difficult to like, everyone said, the one…
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The team behind the 2026 Kirkcudbright Book Festival has been announced and the seven-strong committee, led by chair Naomi Johnson, pictured here, brings an impressive range of skills and experience to the task. Supporting them is a team of experienced and enthusiastic volunteers, who will play a key role in delivering the work that needs…
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Preparations are well under way for the beginning of the National Year of Reading 2026, which aims to tackle the steep decline in reading for enjoyment among readers of all ages. The campaign is being run by the National Literacy Trust and the Department for Education under the rallying call Go All In, which was…
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I have always been a huge fan of libraries – my father was a chief librarian, my first summer job was in my local library and many years later, as a volunteer, I played a role in the successful campaign to save that library, and one other in the same town, which had been under…
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This is another of my posts reminding visitors to my website about one of my older crime novels that they may have forgotten, on this occasion Death List. (The Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint) one of the DCI John Blizzard series – and it comes with an example of the many elements that go…
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The debut novel by crime writer May Rinaldi, from South West Scotland, has been published – and it’s already an award-winner. Liar Thief, which won the Black Spring Press Crime Novel 2024, is a psychological thriller with a protagonist, whose voice buries itself into your subconscious and refuses to leave. An emotional, darkly propulsive plot,…
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It should be Detective Chief Inspector John Blizzard’s big day – the relaunch of an old railway station as part of efforts by the heritage group of which he is a member to restore a steam railway to the northern city of Hafton. Instead, he finds himself investigating the death of a notorious ex-boxer, whose…
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It was a tragedy that shocked people in the North Pennines, a passenger aircraft that tried to cross the uplands but was flying far too low due due a technical fault, aviation investigators later concluded. The plane clipped one of the summits and ploughed into a hillside, killing all aboard.Despite an intensive search of the…
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One of the most prestigious awards in crime writing has a new sponsor. Run by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), the annual Diamond Dagger Award was introduced in 1986 and recognises a lifetime’s achievement. Part of the CWA’s annual Daggers, which having first been staged in 1965, are the genre’s oldest awards, the Diamond Dagger’s…
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Authors in the early stages of their careers are being offered the chance to bid for four £5,000 bursaries to further develop their work. The Charlotte Aitken Trust has awarded New Writing North £30,000 to support the development of four published writers living in the North of England. Known as the Charlotte Aitken Trust Awards,…
