BEST OF CRIME with Bevan Frank

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

BEVAN FRANK

to share his BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

There are several authors competing for my top spot but I would say it has to go to Dan Brown, who was catapulted to fame with The Da Vinci Code. All of his books are gripping and draw the reader inward. Brown’s ability to create suspense and cleverly merge the boundaries between fiction and reality is inspirational. 

... FILMS/MOVIES

Martin Scorsese’s The Departed – I am drawn to it and find myself watching it again and again. It has an excellent script and a great cast. 

... TV DRAMAS

If I look back on my early (earlier) years, Magnum P.I. with Tom Selleck was brilliant. Even today I still enjoy watching episodes again of Magnum and his friends solving crimes, so much so that I’ve always wanted to name my house ‘Robin’s Nest’ after the Hawaiian estate where Magnum lived, but my wife won’t hear of it. (As she constantly points out, my name is not Robin!)

If I am to consider ‘modern times’, then the best crime drama is a tie between The Sopranos and Money Heist (narrowly edging out Better Call Saul). They are all nothing short of brilliant, with characters and plots that linger long after I’ve switched off the remote control. 

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Keyser Söze from Christopher McQuarrie’s The Usual Suspects. It’s a well-crafted story and I love the fact that the killer could be just another regular guy in the room with us. Someone you least suspect but someone who is calling the shots, someone with a brilliant mind able to hide himself from scrutiny while terrorising all who cross his path. Keyser Sözeis the perfect villain.

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

While not a formal detective, Robert Langdon from Dan Brown’s books is a super-sleuth of note, trying to make sense of whatever is thrown his way as he gets to the bottom of deciphering clues, solving problems and saving the day.

... MURDER WEAPONS

What still stands out for me is Michael Crichton’s Prey, where the villain creates nanobots (made of nanoparticles) which evolve into clouds of autonomous intelligent swarms and become a lethal killing machine.

... DEATH SCENES

Without wanting to give anything away, a major death scene in Stieg Larsson’s The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo springs to mind. Here the person is fleeing in a car and crashes into a fuel tanker. After being stuck underneath it, the tanker then explodes. It took me by surprise!

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

I don’t have a specific website for writing or research. I do, however, recommend the book Immediate Fiction by Jerry Cleaver. It gives great tips on setting scenes, creating memorable characters and writing books generally. It also gives ways to overcome writer’s block (or ‘writer’s stuckness’ as I was once told to rather call it!) The book was an invaluable resource which helped me get to the finish line when writing my thriller.

... WRITING TIPS

Write for 10 minutes every day, even if you’re just writing rubbish! The premise is that this eventually becomes an ingrained habit. Everyone has 10 minutes in their day to follow their dreams. I used the ‘10 minutes a day’ concept to write The Mind of God. Some days if I was in the flow the 10 minutes became 20 minutes or 30 minutes etc. After one year I had a substantial nucleus on which to build. You’ll be surprised at how much you can do in these little gaps. 

... WRITING SNACKS

Before my stroke, tea. Since my stroke, coffee. And always salted caramel ice-cream and lots of chocolate. And a bottle of whiskey on stand-by!

About BEVAN FRANK

Bevan Frank has a BA degree in English and Political Studies as well as a postgraduate LLB law degree, both from the University of Cape Town. 

After qualifying as an attorney Bevan decided to follow his passion and opted down the path of writing and editing. He has worked as a business magazine editor, journalist, writer, plain language practitioner and communications consultant. His articles have been published in numerous publications locally and globally. 

Bevan lives in Hertfordshire with his wife and children. The Mind of God is his award-winning debut novel. He is currently recovering from a stroke and hopes to get going with his second thriller once he emerges from the haze. 

Find Bevan Frank on his website and on Twitter - @justcallmebevan

About THE MIND OF GOD

Publisher's description

A black box. A race against time. No turning back. When Liz Greene discovers that her father is missing, she is unwittingly drawn into a plot that could change the world forever. Before he went missing, Professor Harry Greene had been working on the black box global consciousness project. Now, Liz needs to find both her father, and his groundbreaking research before it's too late. On the same day, President of the United States Daniel Rafferty is in Cape Town to give an address at the Convention Centre. Is it a coincidence that the black box was stolen while Rafferty is in the same city, or is there an even more sinister terrorist plot at play? Follow Liz, as she and her friend, Tim Fletcher, decode one clue after another in a deadly hunt around Cape Town, all the while being pursued by an assassin and a CIA agent.

The Mind of God is available to buy from Amazon here.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.

BEST OF CRIME with Jonathan Pinnock

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

JONATHAN PINNOCK

to share his BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

I’m very much looking forward to whatever Gillian Flynn comes up with next, because Gone Girl was such a wild, mad ride. But in the meantime – and this might be cheating slightly, because they’re strictly speaking spy stories, but then again I don’t have a lot of time for genre boundaries – I’m currently working my way through Mick Herron’s Slough House series, and they are an absolutely marvel. Imagine looking at Le Carré and thinking “Nah, way too upbeat.”

If I can be ever so slightly pretentious for a moment, I’d also like to chuck in a third preference vote for Jorge Luis Borges, if only for Death and the Compass, which is possibly the single greatest crime short story ever written. As I’m sure everyone knows, the central conceit was borrowed by Umberto Eco for The Name of the Rose, which is why one of the key characters is called Jorge de Burgos. As slightly fewer people know, I also nicked it for The Truth About Archie and Pye, which is why one of my characters has the name George Burgess.

OK, OK, I’ll try and keep the answers shorter from now on.

... FILMS/MOVIES

I’m a massive fan of Raymond Chandler, so it’s got to be The Big Sleep – nothing comes close. But for God’s sake, make sure it’s the original 1946 Howard Hawks version with Bogart and Bacall at the top of their game, not the execrable 1978 Michael Winner remake. I actually paid real money to see this in the cinema when it came out and I’m still angry, over forty years later.

... TV DRAMAS

Ooh, this is tricky. Giri/Haji and the first series of Killing Eve are strong contenders, but in the end, it’s got to be The Bridge, or Bron | Broen, as we call it in our household, where we now speak fluent Scandinavian. The first two seasons in particular are wonderful, mainly because of the weird chemistry between Saga Norén and Martin Rohde. Oh, and that theme tune by Choir of Young Believers is just perfect.

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Well, I guess Hannibal Lecter is a bit of an obvious choice, so let’s go with Gerry and Sylvia Anderson’s Mysterons, mainly because they were so endearingly useless. At the start of every single episode, they would announce that they were going to kill someone or cause some kind of disaster, and every single time they were thwarted by bloody Captain Scarlet. Hopeless.

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

I think it would have to be Louie Knight, from Malcolm Pryce’s Aberystwyth Noir series. On the face of it, he’s a pastiche of Philip Marlowe, but there’s so much more going on there. Pryce’s Aberystwyth is a masterpiece of world-building.

... MURDER WEAPONS

I’m guessing that someone must have mentioned it before in this series, because it’s just so neat, but there’s Roald Dahl’s frozen leg of lamb that a woman uses to bludgeon her husband before serving it to the investigating detective. I also quite like the serial killer in one of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher books, The Visitor, who goes around drowning their victims in their own bathtubs in camouflage paint. Not only is it downright weird, but it’s also preposterously inefficient.

... DEATH SCENES

Might need to put a mild spoiler alert on this – and possibly a Lionel Shriver alert too – but the conclusion of We Need to Talk About Kevin shocked me much more than I was expecting it to.

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

I’m afraid that I’m not a particularly faithful web surfer, and if I’m about to do any research I tend to just start with Google and see where it leads me. My search history can make for interesting reading in itself.

... WRITING TIPS

Most of all, I’d recommend that you avoid taking advice from strangers on the internet. But if you insist, read widely and outside your genre, make sure all your characters have agency and for God’s sake, listen to how people talk.

... WRITING SNACKS

I share my life with someone who, if given a two-finger Kit-Kat, will break it in two, eat one finger and carefully re-wrap the remaining one to keep for some future occasion. Maybe next week, or some time the other side of Christmas. I, on the other hand, see a packet of chocolate digestives as an atomic entity, intended to be eaten all in one go if I think I can get away with it. So what I’m basically saying is that I don’t do snacks while writing. They’re far too dangerous.

About JONATHAN PINNOCK

Jonathan Pinnock first came to notoriety as the author of Mrs Darcy Versus the Aliens, of which he should probably be more ashamed than he actually is. He is also the author of two collections of short stories, a slim volume of poetry and an uncategorisable (and – frankly – largely unsaleable) musical memoir. More recently, he is the author of Farrago Books’ Mathematical Mystery series, the third of which, The Riddle of the Fractal Monks, was published on 16 April 2020.

Find Jonathan Pinnock on Twitter - @jonpinnock

About THE RIDDLE OF THE FRACTAL MONKS

Publisher's description

A mystery lands – literally – at Tom Winscombe’s feet, and another riotous mathematical adventure begins…

Tom Winscombe and Dorothy Chan haven’t managed to go on a date for some time, so it’s a shame that their outing to a Promenade Concert is cut short when a mysterious cowled figure plummets from the gallery to the floor of the arena close to where they are standing. But when they find out who he was, all thoughts of romance fly out of the window.

Just who are the Fractal Monks, and what does Isaac, last of the Vavasors and custodian of the papers of famed dead mathematical geniuses Archie and Pye, want with them? How will other figures from the past also demand a slice of the action? And what other mysteries are there lurking at the bottom of the sea and at the top of mountains? The answers lie in The Riddle of Fractal Monks.

The Riddle of the Fractal Monks is published by Farrago Books.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.

BEST OF CRIME with Amy McLellan

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

AMY McLELLAN

to share her BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

My all-time favourite is Graham Greene, master of noir, shabby spies, tortured souls and ruthless criminals. 

... FILMS/MOVIES

A Few Good Men. First date with my husband, fellow author Adam Hamdy. We loved a good conspiracy thriller even back then. No, you can’t handle the truth.

... TV DRAMAS

Bosch on Amazon Prime, starring Titus Welliver.  Gripping story-telling that gets better and better with every season.

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Ian Fleming’s Dr No. Such a sinister character with his secret island and his fascination with pain. And the scene with the spiders…let’s not go there… 

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

So many greats to pick from but I’d like to share the love for Elliot Rook QC, a criminal barrister with a secret past. He’s the wonderfully drawn main character in Gary Bell’s debut Beyond Reasonable Doubt, which feels so authentic you wonder to what degree Mr Rook is actually auto-biographical …

... MURDER WEAPONS

Mouldy peanuts, as used in Graham Greene’s The Human Factor. Apparently the mould kills liver cells, useful for spies trying to dispose of people without any public fuss.

... DEATH SCENES

There’s a scene in Alison Belsham’s dark and gripping The Tattoo Thief which stayed with me. The clue is in the title…

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

Mumsnet. All of human life is on there. Utterly addicted

... WRITING TIPS

Sit down every morning, stare at empty screen, fill it one word at a time. And repeat. Seriously, just keep going. 

... WRITING SNACKS

Coffee. Lots of coffee. And gum, to stop me eating ALL the chocolate. 

About AMY McLELLAN

Amy McLellan is a freelance journalist and copywriter. She lives in Shropshire with her husband and three children. Remember Me is her debut novel.  

Find Amy McLellan on Twitter - @AmyMcLellan2

About REMEMBER ME

Publisher's description

Sarah witnesses her sister’s murder but she can’t identify the perpetrator because she has prosopagnosia - she can't recognise faces. The police think she did it and if she doesn't find the man who did it, she’s going to be found guilty of murder…but who do you trust when people may not be who they say they are?

Remember Me is published by Orion.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.

BEST OF CRIME with Emily Koch

Welcome to my latest BEST OF CRIME feature, looking at crime writers' top picks, from their favourite author and fictional detective to their best writing tip. 

Today I'm delighted to welcome 

EMILY KOCH

to share her BEST OF CRIME ...

... AUTHORS

I don’t often read lots of books by the same author, I have to admit – so it’s difficult to pick a favourite. But when I read the literary thriller Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng I immediately went and bought her debut, Everything I Never Told You. I love both, and have re-read them since. They are such fantastic character studies, such subtle mysteries, and such brilliant explorations of family life.

... FILMS/MOVIES

I watched Thelma and Louise for the first time the other week and I loved it so much. What a fantastic pair! I loved the way this story develops, and how it’s not your usual crime story – the way you are following the criminals rather than the detectives and see them before their crime, too. And the ending. Oh my God, that ending! I thought it was perfect.

... TV DRAMAS

Breaking Bad spin-off Better Call Saul on Netflix is a firm favourite in our house. The only thing that could knock it off the top of our list would be a series about another character, the delightfully paradoxical softie hitman Mike. Come on, Netflix! More Mike Ehrmantraut!

... FICTIONAL KILLERS

Tom Ripley. I only read The Talented Mr Ripley by Patricia Highsmith recently but boy, what a novel. What an amazing, amoral, anti-hero. How the hell does she make you like a murderer? I love books that make me think like this – as a writer I love to try and solve the puzzle of exactly how another author has achieved something bold like this. It shouldn’t work, but it does.

... FICTIONAL DETECTIVES 

I love Captain Sam Wyndham in Abir Mukherjee’s crime series. He’s an ex-Scotland Yard detective and veteran of the First World War who has been scarred by his experiences and finds himself in Calcutta looking for a fresh start. He and his quick-witted Indian Sergeant, Surrender-not Banerjee, make a great team and I love the historical (1920s) setting of this series.

... MURDER WEAPONS

A compass point through the jugular and a set square through the heart are two of the murder weapons in Jonathan Pinnock’s very entertaining mathematical mystery The Truth about Archie and Pye. It’s a crime novel that will make you laugh out loud – which is refreshing in this genre! There are two more in the series (the third, The Riddle of the Fractal Monks, comes out in April).

... DEATH SCENES

There’s a heart-in-the-mouth, devastating scene in Jane Shemilt’s latest offering, Little Friends, where a lifeless child is discovered. I have a child of a similar age so it really got to me. She builds up to this scene so expertly. It’s a fantastic novel with a great premise – while the adults are misbehaving, what are the children getting up to?

  

... BLOGS/WEBSITES

I love using 16personalities.com to put my characters through rigorous personality tests and understand more about them beyond what I already know. The helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com blog (and podcast) is really helpful when I’m starting to write a book, I find it reading a few posts there helps get my brain into the right gear. And… Facebook! For research, I often ask friends for contacts or advice on there.

... WRITING TIPS

You know the phrase: dance like nobody’s watching? Well, I think sometimes it’s worth writing like nobody is reading. What I mean by that is it sometimes helps to just write for yourself. What book do youwant to write? What fun things would you do with your writing if you weren’t worried about how it would be received or judged? Give yourself the freedom to experiment and see what happens – you can always rein yourself in later, but maybe you’ll come up with a brilliant idea when you’re playing around! And while you’re at it, write a few pages every now and then longhand with a colourful felt tip pen. It makes the whole task feel less serious, I find, and less like it matters. You need to feel that sometimes, as a writer – it’s liberating.

... WRITING SNACKS

A fresh-out-of-the-oven cinnamon bun when I’m working at my local café. Oh yes.

About EMILY KOCH

Emily Koch is an award-winning journalist and writer living in Bristol with her family. Her second novel Keep Him Close came out in March 2020. Her debut, If I Die Before I Wake, was shortlisted for the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award, longlisted for Authors' Club Best First Novel Award, and selected as a Waterstones Thriller of the Month.

Find Emily Koch on Twitter - @EmilyKoch

About KEEP HIM CLOSE

Publisher's description

Her head was bowed, and the hands braced on the chair arms were not like hands at all, but the dry dark claws of a bird ... The MacNamara sisters hadn’t been seen for months before anyone noticed. It was Father Timoney who finally broke down the door, who saw what had become of them. Berenice was sitting in her armchair, surrounded by religious tracts. Rosaleen had crawled under her own bed, her face frozen in terror. Both had starved themselves to death. Francesca MacNamara returns to Dublin after decades in the US, to find her family in ruins. Meanwhile, Detectives Vincent Swan and Gina Considine are convinced that there is more to the deaths than suicide. Because what little evidence there is, shows that someone was watching the sisters die ...

Keep Him Close was published by Harvill Secker on 19 March 2020.

FRIDAY NIGHT BOOK PARTY WITH EMILY KOCH

Friday Night Book Party with Emily Koch – starts on 27th March. 

Every Friday evening while we are all social distancing, Emily will be hosting a fun evening of book chat, games, giveaways, guest authors and even a book disco. 

Visit facebook.com/emilykochwriter for more details.

Look out for more BEST OF CRIME features coming soon.

Click here to read more BEST OF CRIME features.