Blog posts
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I am fortunate in that my books attract mostly good reviews on the likes of Amazon and Goodreads, and every so often a phrase will stand out. The latest example was from ‘Bootsy’, on Amazon in the United States (I have a growing number of readers in America and very welcome they are, too), who…
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Writing is often about real-time reminders of some of the most basic of truths about the craft we know and love. One of those truths is that characters provide the heartbeat of stories and sometimes the best thing is to give them their head and see where they take you. I mention this because I…
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The book review site Goodreads has announced its most popular books of 2025, based on vote from its members. Among the winners in the seventeenth annual Goodreads Choice awards are Holly Jackson, with Not Quite Dead Yet, which won the Mystery and Thriller category, and Rebecca Yarros with Onyx Storm, topping the Romantasy section. More…
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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…
John Dean - Crime Writer 