Tag Archives: Thrillers

The world’s greatest thriller writer, Deon Meyer, talks about South Africa, series detectives and ‘7 Days’

Posted on 09/09/2012 by

South African thriller writer Deon Meyer on storytelling, credibility and how crime fiction relates to society I mostly follow the dictum “conflict is the mother of suspense”, so I’ll be looking at as many sources of conflict for the protagonists … Continue reading →

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Book Review: ‘Comeback: A Parker Novel’ by Richard Stark (pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake)

Posted on 06/09/2012 by

‘Comeback: A Parker Novel’ by Richard Stark (pseudonym of Donald E. Westlake), Mysterious Press, 1997 This was my first foray into the acclaimed heist novels of Richard Stark (Donald E. Westlake) and his series character ‘Parker’. Comeback is a classic … Continue reading →

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Book Recommendation: If you like ‘Rogue Male’ you should also read ‘Watcher in the Shadows’

Posted on 10/08/2012 by

If you’ve read and enjoyed this book: You should seek out and read this one: Geoffrey Household was a very variable writer but, in my opinion, Watcher in the Shadows is every bit as good as, or perhaps even better … Continue reading →

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Book Review: ‘Man on a Short Leash’ by Oliver Jacks

Posted on 29/05/2012 by

‘Man on a Short Leash’ by Oliver Jacks, Hodder And Stoughton, 1974 ‘Oliver Jacks’ was a pseudonym used for several novels by British thriller writer Kenneth Royce, who has sadly fallen into near obscurity.  Going by the quality of this … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Reginald Hill on research

Posted on 04/05/2012 by

‘Johnson says wisely that just as important as knowledge of a subject is knowing where to find out about it.  I own many reference tomes, I make jottings in notebooks, and I tear articles out of journals, but on the … Continue reading →

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American mystery writer Mildred Davis: A bibliography

Posted on 28/04/2012 by

A uselful annotated bibliography of Mildred Davis’ mystery output can be found here.

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If you like well-written, intelligent and suspenseful thrillers, read Deon Meyer’s ‘Blood Safari’

Posted on 03/03/2012 by

If you like reading thrillers, and are looking for a well-written one that won’t insult your intelligence, that isn’t padded out to five hundred or six hundred pages (as many are), and that will give you interesting insights into a … Continue reading →

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Thriller writer Tom Cain (pseudonym of Fleet Street journalist David Thomas) on researching a novel

Posted on 27/12/2011 by

‘I do a ton of research, a lot of it online, a lot through books and traditional media, and quite a bit of it face-to-face with experts in various fields.  This was one area where years of reporting really helped: … Continue reading →

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Crime fiction connoisseur Mike Ripley calls for ‘eagle-eyed editors’ to spot the next Q. R. Markham

Posted on 01/12/2011 by

Mike Ripley writes: ‘I feel genuinely sorry for the fledgling (at least over here) imprint Mulholland Books and that talented young British spy-fiction writer Jeremy Duns, for both have suffered in the furore which has surrounded the withdrawal – before publication – of … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Stephen Leather on getting a literary agent

Posted on 03/10/2011 by

‘The problem now is that it is very, very difficult to get an agent.  That’s partly because once the publishers stopped accepting unsolicited submissions, they started to pour into the agencies, and the agencies have even fewer staff than publishers.  … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: Steve Mosby on persevering with your first draft when writing a novel

Posted on 16/09/2011 by

‘The main advice for all writers – aspiring or established – is to sit down and write.  A book takes such a long time to create, and it’s too easy to get bogged down in the early stages, re-writing beginning sections rather … Continue reading →

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Writers’ quote of the day: author Will Lavender on genre fiction, thriller novels and growing up as a writer

Posted on 04/08/2011 by

‘Thrillers, like all genre fiction, remain for the most part “beneath.”  There is a feeling in literature, more than any other art form, that books meant to simply entertain must be flawed.  There is an entire cache of what critics … Continue reading →

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Book Review: ‘The Smog’ by John Creasey, Award Books / Tandem Books, 1979

Posted on 23/07/2011 by

‘The Smog’ by John Creasey, Award Books / Tandem Books, 1979 First published in 1970, this edition is a very cheaply produced American paperback reprint.  As a physical object the book doesn’t have much going for it — the jacket … Continue reading →

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Book Review: ‘Black Camelot’ by Duncan Kyle

Posted on 16/07/2011 by

‘Black Camelot’ by Duncan Kyle, Collins, 1978 This is generally praised as one of British thriller-writer Duncan Kyle’s best books but, I must admit, I found it disappointing.  It begins very brightly but before long the main protagonist, a German officer … Continue reading →

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Book Review: ‘Green River High’ by Duncan Kyle, Collins, 1979

Posted on 06/07/2011 by

‘Green River High’ by Duncan Kyle, Collins, 1979 This ‘treasure quest’ adventure is similar in theme to Desmond Bagley’s Flyaway (published by Collins a year earlier), but takes place in Borneo rather than the Sahara.  An unwilling hero, his unlikely female companion, and a … Continue reading →

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Book Review: ‘Flyaway’ by Desmond Bagley, a Saharan thriller from Britain’s Golden Age

Posted on 04/07/2011 by

Book Review: ‘Flyaway’ by Desmond Bagley Desmond Bagley was one of Britain’s top thriller writers during the latter part of that country’s ‘Golden Age’ of thriller writing, roughly the late Fifties to about the middle Eighties.  ‘Flyaway’ was published by … Continue reading →

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