Twilight In The Garden of Good And Evil? Is there any franchise as harshly and consistently maligned as Twilight? Fifteen years on from the first book, protagonist Bella is still lambasted as ‘lame’ and a ‘poor role model‘, whereas the Cullens are ‘stupid sparkly vampires’. In addition, various other interpretations insist Twilight is an advertisement for the Mormon…
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All About Theme I’m delighted to announce my debut crime novel, The Other Twin, has been selected as one of 9 Harrowing Thrillers with a Twist Of Family Drama by Wiki Ezvid, the world’s first video Wiki! It’s a real honour to appear in this round-up, since ‘harrowing family drama’ is EXACTLY the theme I…
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The Book You Were Never Really Here is a novella by Jonathan Ames. It was originally approximately fifty pages, though it was extended to about 100 when the movie adaptation came out. I read the new version for the purposes of this comparison. Here’s the short synopsis of the book from Amazon: Joe has witnessed things…
Continue ReadingSo, it’s fair to say Netflix’s Bird Box set Twitter tweeting and Facebook and instagram into meltdown! Immediately everyone started sharing opinions and Bird Box-inspired memes, plus Netflix took the step of sharing that over 45 million accounts watched the movie in its first week. Given how closely Netflix guards its viewership figures to its chest, this…
Continue ReadingAll About Cover Art Have you ever decided to read a book simply because you liked the artwork on the cover? There’s a reason why! Cover art designers work tirelessly to create an attention-grabbing, marketable look that draws a reader to it. It may even be created BEFORE the book has been written. That’s how…
Continue Reading1) So, who are you and what have you written? I’m Maxim Jakubowski. I was a book worm from an early age and owe my writing career to a teacher in his Paris school who, when I was 13, encouraged me to write stories rather than dry compositions and the bug has never left me…
Continue Reading1) So, who are you & what have you written? Hi there, I’m Peter Beck, the author of DAMNATION, an international, high-octane thriller. Mark Gimenez (author of The Colour of Law) says DAMNATION is ‘A terrific thriller! Smart and savvy.’ It’s published by PointBlank, an imprint of Oneworld, twice winner of the Man Booker Prize. You can…
Continue ReadingSomething a little different today … Here’s an interview I did with the awesomely prolific Rachel Amphlett, author of the Kay Hunter Series (amongst others!). Make sure you check her books out. Over to you, Rachel! 1) Like me, you’re a huge fan of thrillers. What attracted you to writing in the crime/thriller genre? Was…
Continue ReadingExcerpt – ‘Death Row’ When they arrived at Turville, there were many cars in the lot. You might have thought you were attending a concert. There was no landscaping, nothing to soften the bricks of this death house which had been painted grey some time ago and had begun to flake. The Harfield logo hung…
Continue Reading1) The Polish Officer by Alan Furst Alan Furst is a criminally underrated writer. His books are mainly set in and around the second World War, and he writes about the compromised, overlapping worlds of espionage, resistance fighters, collaborators, diplomats, and spies. To my mind he’s as easily as good as Graham Greene or Le…
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