Today I'm delighted to welcome
M. W. CRAVEN
to share his BEST OF CRIME ...
... AUTHORS
Terry Pratchett is the author I read most often (closely followed by Michael Connelly and Carl Hiaasen). Sam Vimes, the Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (in his legendry Discworld series), is creation of pure genius and I devour over and over again any book he’s in. Funny, sarcastic, not overly bright but tenacious, he’s the perfect literary cop.
... FILMS/MOVIES
This really varies from day to day. My all time favourite film is Heat with Al Pacino, Robert De Niro and Val Kilmer, and I do enjoy a good heist film (The Town is another favourite) but I’m equally happy with a Marvel blockbuster. If I’m going to invest a couple of hours of my life, I need it to be entertaining, that’s the only caveat I have. I also have a soft spot for The Sound of Music (much to Mrs C’s amusement) but please don’t tell anyone . . .
... TV DRAMAS
Anything with strong writing and well developed characters. There are some amazing shows on at the minute and we really are spoilt for choice. My top five would be The West Wing, The Sopranos, The Wire, Breaking Bad and Northern Exposure. I’m currently watching, and loving, Watchmen.
... FICTIONAL KILLERS
The killers in Dennis Lehane’s Darkness, Take My Hand and in Michael Connelly’s The Poet are two of my all time favourite serial killers. Genuinely frightening and that’s because they were developed by two of the best authors in the world. And a bit left field, but Carcer in Terry Pratchett’s Night Watch also gave me the chills, as when he’s cornered he just grins and makes you think he’s done nothing wrong. Pure evil.
... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES
Hieronymus ‘Harry’ Bosch, Michael Connelly’s LA-based detective, is the stand-out cop of my generation. He’s absolutely relentless, has a strong sense of right and wrong and, with ‘Everybody counts or nobody counts’, he has the best motto of all time.
... MURDER WEAPONS
I do like the T-bone steak scene in Law Abiding Citizen. Thought it was extremely clever and, albeit a tad gruesome. And the Discworld’s first-ever gun (or as they spell it, ‘gonne’) that Sam Vimes had to investigate in Men At Arms was particularly funny.
... DEATH SCENES
Boromir’s death in The Lord of the Rings hit me hard, as did Ned Stark’s in Game of Thrones (the book deaths rather than their film deaths). Terry McCaleb, a criminal profiler in Michael Connelly’s books had a great death. Very sad but incredibly well done. And if you want someone investigating your murder, then who else would you want but Harry Bosch? Also, in The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (the memoir The Sound of Music was based on) there are some very sad deaths after the family escape to America.
... BLOGS/WEBSITES
I tend not to use writing sites but have The Guardian permanently open. I’ll then use a variation of the ‘So what?’ technique we used in probation management meetings when we were stress testing ideas. When a headline, a byline, or even a sentence gets my attention, I’ll ask myself, ‘What if?’. When I have an answer to that I’ll ask ‘What if?’ it again. A few ‘what ifs’ and you can go from reading about the life of a celebrity chef to a murder victim coming back to life...
... WRITING TIPS
Accepting that your first draft won't be very good is half the battle. It’s not until you start editing that the novel takes shape, finds a voice and becomes a coherent piece of fiction.
... WRITING SNACKS
Fizzy sweets. Strong enough to make me wince and suck my cheeks in. And just in case Mrs C reads this, I suppose I’d better say I eat lots fruit, nuts and pulses as well .
About MIKE CRAVEN
A brand new voice in British crime fiction, M. W. Craven was born in Carlisle but grew up in Newcastle. He joined the army at sixteen, leaving ten years later to complete a social work degree. Seventeen years after taking up a probation officer role in Cumbria, at the rank of assistant chief officer, he became a full-time author. The first in the Washington Poe series, The Puppet Show,won the 2019 CWA Gold Dagger, has sold in numerous foreign territories and has been optioned for TV by Studio Lambert. M. W. Craven has been shortlisted for the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award, an Amazon Reader Award and a Cumbria Life award. He is also the author of the Avison Fluke novels, Born in a Burial Ground (shortlisted for the CWA Debut Dagger) and Body Breaker.
Find Mike Craven on his website and on Twitter - @MWCravenUK
About BLACK SUMMER
Publisher's description
After The Puppet Show, a new storm is coming…
Jared Keaton, chef to the stars. Charming. Charismatic. Psychopath . . . He's currently serving a life sentence for the brutal murder of his daughter, Elizabeth. Her body was never found and Keaton was convicted largely on the testimony of Detective Sergeant Washington Poe.
So when a young woman staggers into a remote police station with irrefutable evidence that she is Elizabeth Keaton, Poe finds himself on the wrong end of an investigation, one that could cost him much more than his career.
Helped by the only person he trusts, the brilliant but socially awkward Tilly Bradshaw, Poe races to answer the only question that matters: how can someone be both dead and alive at the same time?
And then Elizabeth goes missing again - and all paths of investigation lead back to Poe.
Black Summer was published in paperback by Constable on 12 December 2019
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