book-review

  • “Have you been shooting people in our new kitchen again?’

    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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  • Author wins top prize

    Author wins top prize

    Publisher Joffe Books has announced the winner of the Joffe Books Prize 2025, which has gone to T.L. Haseeb, for The Portrait Maker, the first in a new police procedural series featuring Amber Kash, a seasoned British Asian Detective Inspector in her forties. The author receives a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000

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  • Challenging authors and readers alike

    The latest book in the DCI Jack Harris series of crime fiction novels (published by the Book Folks, a Joffe Books imprint) continues to attract encouraging reviews, which is gratifying. More gratifying than usual, actually, because I deliberately set out to do things differently in Murder on the Pennines, including giving the main character’s back

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  • Resolving the standalone/series quandary

    Best-selling crime writer John Dean has posted his latest blog, which is aimed both at helping emerging writers learning their craft and giving readers an insight into the way an author balances writing for fans of a series with the needs of new readers. You can read the article here and it is also on

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  • Why attention to detail matters

    John Dean talks about the challenges presented by his new novel My latest crime novel has just been published and I don’t think that I have looked forward to the appearance in print of one of my titles with such anticipation for a long time. The reason is that Murder in the Pennines (published by

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  • Crime writers honoured at festival

    Hunted by Abir Mukherjee has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2025, which was presented by Harrogate International Festivals on the opening night of the recent Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. Hunted is a thriller set in London and the US in the final week of a toxic presidential campaign,

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  • New look for No Age to Die

    No Age to Die’s Kindle version has been given a new cover as part of the relaunch of John Dean’s popular DCI Blizzard series of crime novels by Joffe Books after it recently took over the publisher The Book Folks. In the novel, number nine in the series, a dangerous felon is released from prison

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  • Will the real Jack Harris please step forward?

    The origins of fictional characters has always fascinated me, particularly the extent to which many creators draw on real people as a starting point. I talk to a lot of authors and many of them freely admit that some of their major characters are partly taken from real life. I have no problem with that

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  • New look for The Secrets Man

    The Secrets Man has become the fourth in the DCI John Blizzard crime novel series written by John Dean to be given the Joffe Books relaunch treatment complete with striking new cover for the ebook. The relaunches follow Joffe Books’ acquiring of the publisher The Book Folks and the novels can be purchased in various

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  • Reviewer likes Harris novels

    Book reviewer Lars Walker, of Brandywine Books, has been steadily working his way through my DCI Jack Harris novels, published by The Book Folks, for which I thank him. He’s an honest reviewer who says what he likes and what he does not like and I am pleased to report that so far the verdict

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