If you prefer, you can skip the story and go straight down to the link for the free book. Otherwise… In 1984 I travelled to Finland and took the train to Leningrad, as St Petersburg was then known. I was alone, with a backpack and not much money. I’d been living by writing for four…

Well, I gave Red Widow a try… despite a cool title and Radha Mitchell and production values to die for, I couldn’t swallow it. It’s like Miss America married into Gogol Bordello and they all set up shop in Marin Country as drug-dealing Beverly Hillbillies. Then there’s a gang war and Mrs America starts packing…

See this? You wouldn’t get away with it today, would you? And yet, be honest… there’s something about that ‘sixties adventure-fantasy Dolce Vita that calls to us still. So what, if none of us actually looked or lived like that, or knew anyone who did? So what, if those who attempted to live the life…

It’s Lucy Hay’s fault. She asked for some twitter-length quotes for her forthcoming Writing and Selling Thriller Screenplays book so I went through my folder of old interview responses – because yes, I hoard such thoughts like unspent pennies – and picked out anything that might fit the bill. And now I’m left with this…

As if you needed reminding… In the years following the Great War, a skeptical conjuror and a spiritualist medium merge their interests to tour the regional lecture halls of the United Kingdom. This eBook novella is a free download, offered to coincide with US paperback publication of The Bedlam Detective. After the promotional period you’ll…

First House of Cards, then Arrested Development… with Netflix now making its own shows for direct download sale, a complete season at a time, I’ve been reminded of a thought that I had back in 2009. I said at the time that I had mixed feelings about the jail terms and fines passed by the…

“We look into a world that is not our own, distanced by time, to find a timeless drama of fear and conflict. The historical panorama fascinates but it’s the crime, the crime that drives the tale.”  From my piece on the use of historical settings in crime novels and thrillers, written for The Weekly Lizard.…

Very sad to hear of the death of Anne Jordan. We corresponded over one of my early F&SF stories and met in person at one of the big Brighton SF conventions, where she executed one of the neatest party-crashing moves I’ve ever seen to get both of us into an editor’s suite – the editor…

In the years following the Great War, a skeptical conjuror and a spiritualist medium merge their interests to tour the regional lecture halls of the United Kingdom. This eBook novella is a free download, offered to coincide with US paperback publication of The Bedlam Detective. Set in the aftermath of the Great War, it follows…

Spoilers here if you haven’t seen the episodes yet, but below are links to some of the material that provided inspiration, background detail or information for last week’s story. A producer who should have known better once accused me of ‘letting the tail wag the dog’ in my insistence on the importance of research. Story research…