Stepping Out

We’ve all got a steady one, the one we come back to time and again. But there is a huge benefit to stepping out with a new one every now and then.

No, I’m not talking people and infidelity, I’m talking genres.

Reading is one of the most flexible forms of entertainment available. And that is what I’m advocating. Get flexible with it. I’m not a huge fan of Mark Twain, but the guy did say some useful things, here’s one of his quotes:

“Travel is fatal to prejudice, bigotry, and narrow-mindedness, and many of our people need it sorely on these accounts. Broad, wholesome, charitable views of men and things cannot be acquired by vegetating in one little corner of the earth all one’s lifetime.”

Okay, so he was talking about travel, and I don’t know your situation, but global travel is rather beyond my reach, but that’s the beauty of reading, I can go anywhere in the pages of a book and it’ll cost anything from nothing to £25. Whether a physical book, an ebook, or audio book, and owned book or a borrowed one (libraries are fantastic places), books can transport you to anywhere, anytime, with anyone. The important thing is to get out of a rut, not to burn yourself out, and to take a break from your norm.

We’re all here because we like crime fiction, and within that there is a wide range of sub genres. You might like a police procedural, or a spy thriller, or an international thriller, or a cosy mystery or an amateur sleuth. You might want contemporary or historical or even futuristic. You might like local, national, international, global or even universal. You might even like a series or prefer standalones. They are all out there and many more.

Whatever your preferred type of crime, why not try something else as well? When it comes to crime fiction, I tend to enjoy contemporary, UK based, thrillers, usually written by white authors.

So, for the last couple of years, I’ve been trying to mix it up and try different types of stories that are still crime but not necessarily all the above stated criteria. I’ve loved many of new stories that this has shown me, it offers ways of seeing the world that I hadn’t glimpsed before. Without the determination to try something different, I would never have read Khurrum Rahman’s East of Hounslow or Luke Arnolds Last Smile in Sunder City. I have said that I can’t stand things like Agatha Christie, and I can’t, but I know this because I’ve read her work. She’s actually one of the reasons I don’t read historical crime, but determined to step out of my comfort zone, I have now read more historical crime fiction and loved it. I still prefer UK based crime fiction, but I’ve also enjoyed reading Philip Gwynne Jones’ Venetian series.

So, if like me, you’d like to try something new that’s still crime – or at least crime adjacent – below are some options you might like to consider. Where possible I’ve given links to reviews so you can have a look at my thoughts on these books – other opinions are available.

Of course, this list can’t be exhaustive, there are so many books out there. The point is, of course, that by stepping out of your crime comfort zone you might learn something new, or enjoy something different, and to quote Mark Twain again:

“I have found out there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.”

So go out and travel the pages with a few new writers/characters/situations and find out what else you might like.

Classics of Crime (Contemporary when written)

Desmond Bagley – High Citadel
Raymond Chandler – the Philip Marlowe series (the only one I’ve read The Long Good-Bye)
Agatha Christie – The only one I’ve bothered to review was The Mysterious Affair at Styles

Historical Fiction

Chris Lloyd – The Eddie Giral series (starting with The Unwanted Dead)
Alis Hawkins – The Oxford Mysteries (starting with A Bitter Remedy)
Howard of Warwick – The Chronicles of Brother Hermitage (starting with The Heretics of De’Ath), this is also historical and comedic.
Other authors you might want to look at are Mark Ellis, Paula Harmon, Vaseem Khan.

Comedy or Lighter crime

Anything Janet Evanovich, I’m particularly enjoying the Fox and O’Hare series.
Antti Tuomainen – The Rabbit Factor
Jasper Fforde – The Thursday Next series, The Nursery Crimes series, or any of them.
You can also look for anything by M C Beaton, Christopher Brookmyre (the earlier the better)

Scotland Based

Caro Ramsey – latest series is DCI Christine Caplan, and The Devil Stone
James Oswald – The Tony McLean series (starting with Natural Causes)
Others I can heartily recommend are Jackie Baldwin, Denzil Meyrick, Ann Cleeves, Alex Grey, Stuart MacBride, Val Penny and Douglas Skelton.

Ireland Based

Anything from Bateman (tends towards the comic), the works of Sam Blake or Gwyneth Steddy.

Wales Based

Myfanwy Alexander – DCI Daf Dafis (Myfanwy’s books are mostly available in Welsh and English languages)
Alis Hawkins – The Teifi Valley Coroner series (also Historical)
Works of people like: Cathy Ace, Rosie Claverton, Graham Miller, John Nicholl, Gwen Parrot, Sarah Ward and Nigel Williams, and many more, just see Crime Cymru’s membership.

Non-UK based

Anything Philip Gwynne Jones (Italy), Janet Evanovich (USA), Yrsa Sigrdardottier (Iceland), Antti Tuomainen (Finland), Helen Fitzgerald (Australia).

Cosy Crime

T E Kinsey – The Lady Hardcastle Series (also historical – 1910s) (starts with A Quiet Life in the Country)
Also look at Cathy Ace, MC Beaton, and many more.

Romantic Thrillers

I don’t actually read many of these, but I recently read Summer in San Remo by Evonne Wareham which I enjoyed. I’ve also recently read Raven by Scarlett Finn which is definitely for adults only.

Supernatural Links

Ben Aaronovich – The Rivers of London Series (starting with Rivers of London)
Harry Bingham – The Fiona Griffith series (starting with Talking to the Dead)
James Oswald – The Tony McLean series (starting with Natural Causes) or the Constance Fairchild series
Phil Rickman – the Merrily Watkins series (starting with The Wine of Angels)

Location Thrillers

Well, I have to mention Louise Mumford here, because this term was coined for her. She’s three stand alones out so far, Sleepless, The Safe House, and The Hotel, which has only just been released and is next on my to read list.

Steampunk/Fantasy/Sci Fi Crime

Luke Arnold – Last Smile in Sunder City
Pip Ballantine and Tee Morris – The Ministry of Peculiar Occurrences
Genevieve Cogman – The Invisible Library series
Harry Harrison – The Stainless Steel Rat
Jodi Taylor – The Time Police series (starting with Doing Time)

On My Shelves – The Wrong Sort To Die By Paula Harmon

A quick review of a book, and characters, I kind of fell in love with.

Blurb

June 1910.

Fighting her corner in a man’s world, Dr Margaret Demeray works as a pathologist in a London hospital for the poor. Suppressing her worry that she’s breaching confidentiality, Margaret gives a stranger called Fox information about a dead down-and-out, in the hope he’ll use it to raise awareness of bad working conditions. But when a second man appears to die the same way, Margaret starts to wonder why the enigmatic Fox keeps turning up to ask ever more complex questions. She decides to work alone, uncertain of his motives and wary of her attraction to him. Once she starts investigating however, her home is burgled, she’s attacked in broad daylight and a close friend becomes distant. Fox offers the chance to forge an alliance, saying he knows why the men have died but needs her to find out what is killing them and who is behind it. Yet how come the closer she gets to him the more danger she faces? And how can a memory she’d buried possibly be linked to the deaths? Margaret must discover the truth before someone – known or unknown – silences her for good.

My Review

I was fortunate enough to be offered an ARC of “The Wrong Sort To Die”, and I’m glad I read it.

The book revolves around Dr Margaret Demeray, Pathologist at St Julia’s in London, and her adventures after investigating a death that can’t quite be written off as tuberculosis. The mysterious Fox, and her undeniable attraction to the man she knows so little off, certainly adds a piquancy to the events. It also raises the question, can he save her despite her best efforts and in the presumption he can save himself.

Set in 1910, the book explores the chasm between the rich and poor of London, the attitudes of worth prevalent at the time and the inevitable sexism. The lead characters exemplify the refrained gentility of the era even in their acceptance of the things that are never quite said.

The author has done a wonderful job of making all the characters rounded enough to be believable. I was in love with Fox by the second time he appeared on the page. I felt Margaret’s anger at being treated like a second-class citizen just because she was female.

The main plot kept me intrigued and reading, even offering a twist at the end that I wasn’t quite expecting. There is one subplot that was obvious to me from the first flagging of it, and though it is eluded to several times, the reveal in the last couple of chapters simply brings a smile the face.
I was so involved with these characters I read the whole book in 3 working days, and I’ve not been that caught up in a book for a very long time.

Given the time setting, I half expected something cosy, but it’s too real to fit well into that category for me. Though the narrative is genteel, it doesn’t shy away from the reality of what a pathologist would have to do. It’s not full-on gory either, not gritty, don’t worry, but it doesn’t shy away from the medical, as a pathologist wouldn’t. For me, this story had just the right punch to be thoroughly enjoyed.

I loved this book from start to finish, and would highly recommend it. I hope to read more of Margaret and Fox in the future.

If you’d like to know a little more about Paula, you can see my interview with her from 2021, here.

Featured Authors

This blog is a thank you to all the lovely authors who had something to say and share through February, I really enjoyed what people had to say, and I hope as readers, you did too. I learned a lot and now have a much longer to be read list.   If you missed any, below are the links to each one individually, they are worth a bit of an explore, who knows, you might just met your new favourite author.

Sam Blake
Helena Dixon
Trish Finnegan
Jenny O’Brien
Paul Waters
Philippa East
Louise Mumford
Thorne Moore
Jessica Jarlvi
Judith Barrow
Robert Scragg
Ann Coates
Paula Harmon
Alis Hawkins
Jackie Baldwin
Stephen Edgar
Caroline England
Fiona Leitch
Graham Smith
Chris Lloyd
Cathy Ace
Evonne Wareham
Victoria Dowd
Chris Curran
Tina Baker
Mark Hill
Alison Layland
Charlotte Barnes

Again, thank you all you lovely wonderful authors for taking time out to take part, I really appreciate your taking part.

Paula Harmon

I am delighted to have Paula Harmon on my blog today. I have to admit to kinda falling in love with the wrong sort.

When did you start writing, and why?

I can clearly remember being about three years old, lying in bed listening to the wind and rain against the windows and making up a story in my head. It made me feel safe and cosy and took me to another world. I never looked back. My father was a massive bibliophile. He’d prefer to buy books than anything practical and read aloud whenever he could, regardless of whether the story was too complex for a child. So I was surrounded with books and stories and poetry from very early and caught up in the atmosphere of good literature even when I didn’t understand the plot. The first story I can recall writing down was about the Clangers. By this time, I was making up stories up for my little sister at bedtime as we shared a room and when she’d fallen asleep, I’d tell myself another instalment in the latest adventure (heavily based on things like ‘The Secret Garden’ or ‘The Owl Service’) in which a more interesting version of me figured as main character. I did this for years and even wrote some of them down. In fact, to be honest, I still do it now while working out where a plot is going although they no longer include me!

Which do you like to write, series or standalones?  If you write both, what do you find the difference?

At the moment my novels are in series, but I have two standalones waiting to be finished and others waiting to be written. Writing in series wasn’t entirely what I set out to do, but when I published my first full-length book, people asked what was going to happen to Lucretia next, so I decided to give it a go and ended up with three books set around the same egotistical matriarch. Around the same time, I started a six-book series co-written with another author. I felt that one of the characters I’d created for that – Margaret Demeray – had more to tell and she now features in a spin-off series starting with ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ which I’m writing alone and which is a little darker in tone than the other books I’ve written. With the planned standalones, I read one of them through recently with a view to more edits and started to wonder – could there be a sequel? So who knows.

Is there anything you wouldn’t write about?

The key things would be describing any graphic violence – particularly child abuse or rape. I don’t mind referring to them if they’re relevant to the plot, but I’m not comfortable describing them in any way which someone might find salacious rather than horrifying.

Who is your favourite of your characters, why and in which books do they appear?

My favourite is Margaret Demeray from ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ set in 1910. She first appears as a frivolous teenager in the Caster and Fleet series (which starts with ‘The Case of the Black Tulips’). Her older sister’s courage to buck the female trend inspires Margaret to think that there might be more to life than finding a rich husband, so she decides to train as a doctor at a time when this was highly unusual for women. To some extent, Margaret is a kind of homage to some of my older aunts (born between 1890 and 1908), who never felt in any way inferior or subordinate to men, even though quite possibly they’d been taught to think they should. Some of them had careers and travelled the world alone and I wish I’d asked them more questions about their lives when they were alive. I like Margaret’s feistiness but also her vulnerability. She’s often conflicted – she wants to be independent and respected in a man’s world, yet she also wants to be in love, cherished and share her life with someone. She wants the vote for women and working-class men, but at the same time, she’s not sure how far she’d go as a suffragette – would she set fire to something? Hurt anyone? Risk imprisonment? She has a big heart, however, often comes across as impatient and cross because she’s afraid to let her guard down. She’s practical and scientific but at the same time loves pretty fashionable clothes and dancing. She wants justice for ordinary people, but how much of her life will she have to risk to get it?

Who is your least favourite of your characters, why and in which books do they appear?

Mr Baines, who also appears in ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’ is on the hospital board where Margaret works. He thoroughly disapproves of women like Margaret working in in the professions. Any hint of what he perceives to be immoral – even perhaps if it’s fake – will be enough to have Margaret fired, and since she’s now heavily involved with a man called Fox who’s investigating the death of a pauper, Margaret is under almost unbearable scrutiny. It’s depressing to think that 111 years after this book was set, discrimination is still a major issue in the workplace.

Tell us more about your books:

Margaret Demeray Series – set in the run-up to the First World War
Book One: ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’
June 1910.
Fighting her corner in a man’s world, Dr Margaret Demeray works as a pathologist in a London hospital for the poor. Suppressing her worry that she’s breaching confidentiality, Margaret gives a stranger called Fox information about a dead down-and-out, in the hope he’ll use it to raise awareness of bad working conditions. But when a second man appears to die the same way, Margaret starts to wonder why the enigmatic Fox keeps turning up to ask ever more complex questions. She decides to work alone, uncertain of his motives and wary of her attraction to him. Once she starts investigating however, her home is burgled, she’s attacked in broad daylight and a close friend becomes distant. Fox offers the chance to forge an alliance, saying he knows why the men have died but needs her to find out what is killing them and who is behind it. Yet how come the closer she gets to him the more danger she faces? And how can a memory she’d buried possibly be linked to the deaths? Margaret must discover the truth before someone – known or unknown – silences her for good.

Murder Britannica Series – light-hearted murder-mysteries featuring a wealthy family of Britons set in late second century Roman Britain.
Book One: Murder Britannica is set in a fictional town in what’s now south-east Wales. All 50-something Lucretia wants to do is get richer. Finding a ‘sacred’ spring on her land and turning it into a bath complex seems the perfect plan. Too bad people keep dropping dead and local wise-woman and childhood adversary Tryssa starts asking awkward questions.
Book Two: Murder Durnovaria in set in Roman Dorchester. When Lucretia hears that an aunt has left her an inheritance, she hot foots it to the town which she’d last seen as a teenager rejecting an arranged marriage to her cousin. Everything seems straightforward until an old ring sold by two grave-robbers in the forum makes Amicus the magistrate start an investigation. Who might kill rather than let old secrets be revealed?
Book Three: Murder Saturnalia is set in a fictional town not far from Durnovaria.
When Fabio’s aunt Lucretia flexes her match-making muscles, he seeks escape from a marriage to shy, bored Adriane. Luckily, his friend Petros needs help investigating a possible rebellion in Vademlutra. Certain there’s nothing to investigate, Fabio settles down for a week in the tavern until a lost young woman in the woods captivates him. Where is she from and why is she so keen to die? Unaware of Fabio’s whereabouts, Lucretia has her own reasons for being in Vademlutra, but she’s about to meet her match and must scheme more than ever if she has any chance of keeping what’s rightfully hers. As the town is cut off by snow, Dun the erstwhile grave-robber becomes convinced that diversifying was a bad idea. But it takes an unexpected death to make Adriane find enough courage to take action. As Roman Saturnalia passes and the darker traditions of winter solstice approach, Fabio, Petros, Adriane and Dun must put aside their differences and work together to save not only another life but the whole town from Roman retribution.

‘The Case of the Black Tulips’ is the first in the six book Caster & Fleet series written with Liz Hedgecock. The series starts in 1890. When frustrated typist Katherine Demeray opens an anonymous letter addressed to her missing father, while sharing a table with bored socialite Connie Swift, the last thing either of them expect is to form a partnership to find the writer before time runs out.

What’s coming next…

I’m working on the sequel to ‘The Wrong Sort to Die’. It’s set in March 1911, two months after a bloody siege between police and anarchists in Stanley Street, London. Fresh from the first International Women’s Day in Switzerland, and with Fox abroad on a mission following reports of military espionage, a major decision means Margaret considers taking up a partnership with another female doctor in a small but busy cul-de-sac called Glassmakers Lane. When Fox returns, having abandoned his mission as a wild-goose chase, he and Margaret track down the person behind the false reports and find there’s more to the situation than first met the eye. As they dig deeper, it becomes apparent that there’s a link between the reports, Glassmakers Lane and an anarchist plot. But someone wants their investigation to cease and when a young woman close to Fox and Margaret is murdered, Margaret senses that she and Fox may have ceased to be hunters and might have somehow become the prey. With themselves and Margaret’s father under threat, how can they avert a repeat of the bloody events in Stanley Street? And have they missed something crucial and are heading down a blind alley without realising it?

Anything else you want to share?

I set my first novel in a fictional town north of modern Cardiff because it’s dedicated to my Welsh mother-in-law. When I wrote the sequels, I set them in Dorset because it’s where I live and I thought it would be easier to do talks and so on – then Covid-19 struck! In the absence of being able to do it in person, a friend video’d Q&A for me instead. It was a very strange experience, but you can view it here if you want to know about me and my writing process.

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Paula Harmon was born in North London to parents of English, Scottish and Irish descent. Perhaps feeling the need to add a Welsh connection, her father relocated the family every two years from country town to country town moving slowly westwards until they settled in South Wales when Paula was eight. She later graduated from Chichester University before making her home in Gloucestershire and then Dorset where she has lived since 2005.
She is a civil servant, married with two adult children. Paula has several writing projects underway and wonders where the housework fairies are, because the house is a mess and she can’t think why.

https://paulaharmon.com
https://www.facebook.com/pg/paulaharmonwrites
https://twitter.com/Paula_S_Harmon
viewauthor.at/PHAuthorpage
https://www.goodreads.com/paula_harmon

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Thank you Paula, I can’t wait to hear more from Margaret and Fox!

Tomorrow we’ll be hearing from Alis Hawkins