‘The society to which we belong seems to be dying or is already dead. I don't mean to sound dramatic, but clearly the dark side is rising. Things could not have been more odd and frightening in the Middle Ages.
After completing eight books (in a series that was initially supposed to be a trilogy), Eoin Colfer thought he was finished with Artemis Fowl, his devilishly naughty anti-hero, when his last adventure released in 2012. Not quite. Read more
If you spend much time on the internet, you may have heard that mystery novelist and former prosecutor Linda Fairstein was officially canceled earlier this year, when Ava DuVernay's miniseries When They See Us exposed her role in the railroading of the Central Park Five. Read more
It turns out we're a nation hooked on crime and thrillers, with over a third of Brits reading these genres regularly. Mystery and drama follow in third and fourth position, with 34.9% and 32.9% of the population selecting these as their favoured genres. Read more
About 10 years ago, as the anxiety and hype around digital publishing began to build, I had a lot of conversations about the future. Publishers looked up from the constant churn of new books and projects to examine the far horizon. Big, existential questions were raised and, at least in part, addressed. Read more
The audio technology company Voxnest owns the podcasting platform Spreaker. The Italy-based StreetLib is a digital book distributor. Last week, they teamed up for a symbiotic relationship that will let StreetLib's book publishers create podcasts and Spreaker's podcasters create and distribute digital books or audiobooks. Read more
There was a spat the other week about a children's book, Equal to Everything: Judge Brenda and the Supreme Court, which is about an encounter between a little girl called Ama and the nation's pin-up, Brenda Hale. The book's author is the Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch. It's written in vague rhyming couplets with the worst illustrations I've ever seen in a book for children.
Les Cowan, author of the David Hidalgo crime thriller series, considers the importance of setting
Are you a country girl or a city boy? Would a week in Las Vegas be a dream or a nightmare? What about a holiday in the Highlands? Is the city exciting and full of possibilities or a world of dangers just waiting to pounce? As in life, so in art - place is important. Read more
Asked to explain "Why the novel matters", my first question is: "Well, does it?" As soon as I typed that sentence, I then thought that the second logical question would probably have to be "Has it?" But, after typing that, I opened my browser and went to look at the news because I was a little concerned that tanks might be rolling down the Mall in order to disperse pro-democracy protesters. Read more
This year marks the 50th Anniversary of Bouchercon, North America's premiere mystery convention, an event that brings together authors, publishers, and readers alike to celebrate the wide world of crime literature. Read more
'Writing is hard for every last one of us... Coal mining is harder. Do you think miners stand around all day talking about how hard it is to mine for coal? They do not. They simply dig.'