Our story
Crime Fiction Lover was set up by two journalists who love reading crime stories – everything from atmospheric noir to thriller mysteries and police procedurals. The rise of Kindle, eBooks and iBooks interests us a great deal. We hope to discover and share some of the best reads on these new formats, but by no means will we overlook traditional print. There’s nothing like the feel and smell of a freshly printed book.
Our aim is to bring you helpful and concise articles, covering as much of the genre as we can. From Scandinavian crime fiction through to hardboiled detectives, and from cutting edge contemporary right back to the Golden Age, wherever there’s a mystery novel, we’re interested. We can’t cover every new release, but we do our best, and try to provide fellow fans of the genre with the best impartial buying advice on the internet.
Since setting up, we’ve been joined by a team of like-minded experts in the genre, who are making fantastic contributions to the website.
Meet the team
crimefictionlover – Co-founder of the site Garrick Webster enjoys the work of James Ellroy, Nordic crime writers, and almost any other good noir-ish mysteries. By day he is a copywriter, editor and journalist. His website is here.
RoughJustice – Mike Parker loves crime fiction, and particularly books with pulp and noir leanings. Based in Derbyshire, his favourite writers are Ross Macdonald, Peter Temple and Joe Lansdale.
DeathBecomesHer – An experienced journalist and former Press Association reporter, Sandra Mangan loves reading works by Ian Rankin, Elizabeth George, Val McDermid, Jeffrey Deaver and Lee Child.
Vicki Weisfeld – Procedurals, thrillers, you name it, Vicki likes crime fiction that draws her in and holds her attention. Some of her top authors at the moment include Michael Connelly, George Pelecanos and Adrian McKinty. She is based in Princeton, New Jersey, and has a wonderful literary website here.
Sonja van der Westhuizen – Based in Stellenbosch, South Africa Sonja works in media and communication by day to subsidise her addiction to books and caffeine. She has a penchant for Japanese crime fiction, Nordic noir and South African crime fiction.
Erin Britton – Erin has a particular fondness for the golden age of murder. The former editor of NB Magazine, her reviews and articles have also appeared in Prairie Schooner, San Francisco Book Review, Split Lip and The Coil, among others. She is a freelance editor and proofreader.
Paul Burke – Paul writes about fiction and non-fiction for Crime Fiction Lover, NB Magazine, the European Literature Network and Crime Time and is the editor, co-host of the Crime Time FM podcast and, when things permit is a regular crime festival participant/visitor.
Sharon Richardson – Based in Alberta, Sharon is not just our correspondent for Canadian crime fiction, she loves any good mystery, particularly those that bring forward contemporary issues and question the norms and mistakes of today’s society. You may know her as Canada Hardcover on Twitter.
Dave Bradley – With 25 years of experience, Dave Bradley is a seasoned writer on entertainment topics. He was the editor-in-chief of sci-fi mag SFX and the publisher of Crime Scene magazine. His favourite crime film is LA Confidential, and he admires authors such as John le Carré, Jonathan Kellerman, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, and Kathy Reichs.
Jeremy – Jeremy Megraw works in the New York Public Library and contributes to their very fine blog. He’s a fan of Scandinavian crime fiction, American noir, and also Colin Cotterill and Ian Pears.
We thank our past contributors who’ve included nagaisayonara, Catherine Turnbull, Marina Sofia, Kate Vane, Mal McEwan, Spriteby, Zac Colbert, Eva Dolan, Luca Veste, Lucy Conlon, R Thomas Brown, Raven, MyBookishWays, Micah Mintz, T-Dot, Nicolette Hamilton, Keith Nixon, Andre Paine, Andrew Nette, Philip Rafferty, Jacques Filippi, Rafe McGregor and David Prestidge.
Join us!
To get in touch with us please use the Contact page here. We’d love to hear your comments and suggestions. You can also join us on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, where we share book photos daily as ‘crifilover’.
Reviews Policy
We love reviewing great crime books, so publishers, publicists and authors are welcome to submit material for consideration. The best thing to do is send a press release in the first instance. We can’t guarantee that we’ll review your book if you send it to us, but we’ll do our best. If you don’t have our details, please use the contact page here. Please do not use Twitter or Facebook to lobby us for a review.
Advertising
Our website has a growing audience of crime fiction lovers, and we welcome advertising enquiries. For more information on our traffic and rates please email info <at> crimefictionlover.com.
Our editorial and advertising policies are entirely separate. Material sent in by advertisers will be considered for the site purely on its merits by our contributors. This policy is in place for the sake of our own integrity as well as yours. Crime Fiction Lover is not a site where you can buy a review, however we do carry sponsored content. If that’s something you’re interested in, contact us via the email address stated above.
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Cool site! Ive now got a few new books to read thanks!
thank you, glad you like it
A great site which I only discovered a month or so ago, yet has given me some great books to enjoy. Thanks for your reviews and recommendations.
Thanks Lynchie. We’re so glad you like our site.
Can I pose a question? True crime stories use real perps in real crimes. Many are bestsellers. If I use a real perp in a fictional story can this get me in trouble? I’ve done it once with a prominent pedophile and so far so good. I plan on using another who is on a Wanted List.
Sorry, I don’t think we can give you advice on this matter.
You can make a fiction version of the same situation. If you want to write a non-fiction piece you have to use only references that are public knowledge or make a note that you are giving your own opinion not based on fact. I wrote a fiction version of an unsolved crime. I knew what happened and the supposition of why. As a fiction, I could say what I wanted, and used other names, not the real ones. Those who were close to the situation will know the truth, but by speaking they acknowledge the crime.
That’s right, even the situation being similar can conjure the memories of the referenced ‘perp’.
I would suggest referencing an artificial character to a real ‘perp’ so that the reader would be aware of the type and severity of criminal he or she is. The problems with these is that it’s a grisly situation by any means and my true suggestion would be to write something else. I’m a write and I personally don’t want to read about a child being abducted or sexually assaulted. A more clever way to put that notion across without crossing the line is to have the ‘perp’ give an inappropriate look or touch (above the waist) to give the notion and leave it at that. You can make implementations which are just as affective but again, I personally wouldn’t want to read any of it. There’s so much time spent writing and I don’t want it to be wrapped up in that world, but that’s just me.
Can’t find the subscribe field to enter my email. Can you add me to the newsletter please?
Hi Pamela – you need to go to the Subscribe section: https://staging.crimefictionlover.co.uk/subscribe/
What a fabulous site. I’m a huge fan of crime fiction. I especially like those in a series with same characters turning up.
Sorry, but I strongly dislike your re-design. The moving banner is highly irritating. I loved the previous design where I could instantly see updates and easily migrate to the parts I wanted to read and easily move on from the ones of less interest.
The old adage of, “if it’s not broke, don’t fix it” fits pretty well….