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A Book of Scars by William Shaw

You have to feel sorry for Detective Sergeant Cathal Breen, the battered, bruised and emotionally confused cop in William Shaw’s series set in the late 60s. In A Book of Scars, he’s recovering from a bullet wound to the shoulder following the events of the…
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Features

A classic revisited: Call for the Dead

For 53 years, David Cornwell has been publishing under his pseudonym John le Carré. He originally adopted the name because he was writing about fictional spies while toiling in his day job for the British Intelligence Service. Such literary excursions probably wouldn’t be allowed today….
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Features

CIS: An introduction to Michael Innes

He’s one of the longest-serving literary detectives, but do lovers of classic crime still read the extravagant, erudite novels featuring Inspector John Appleby? Have crime readers even heard of Michael Innes, the pen name adopted by Scottish academic and author John Innes Mackintosh Stewart (1906-1994)…
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Features

Happy Birthday, Colin Dexter

Once in a generation comes a writer whose words translate into film and television so successfully that the books and the novels become indivisible. Those of us who read Colin Dexter’s Morse novels from the beginning, in 1975,  may have had our own imaginings of…
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Features

Interview: Alison Bruce

Before stunning us with her DC Gary Goodhew series of crime fiction novels, Alison Bruce used to write history books such as Cambridgeshire Murders and Billington: Victorian Executioner. A touch macabre perhaps, but also a perfect source of inspiration for her later creations. Her most…
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News

Denise Mina wins at Harrogate

The Scottish author Denise Mina has clinched one of the top accolades in UK crime fiction by winning the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award at the Harrogate Festival late last week. Her book, The End of the Wasp Season, sees DS…
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Features

Our five favourite crime fiction locations

In the world of crime fiction, location is everything. From the seedy underbelly of the city to the unpredictable countryside, our favourite crime writers create places of intrigue and suspense, where danger lurks around every corner. Here we select our favourite five crime fiction locations….
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