‘In At The Death’ by Judith Cutler

Published by Severn House,
7 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-4483-1347-1(HB)

Harriet and Matthew Rowsley are the housekeeper and land agent for the Thorncroft Estate in Shropshire, but their roles are far wider reaching and complex than other housekeepers and agents. The owner of the estate, Lord Croft, is unable to undertake any of the traditional roles expected of a man of his birth and wealth because a dissolute youth has led to him contracting syphilis, which has severely damaged him physically and has caused him to become insane. He now resides in a wing of Thorncroft House which is known as the Family wing and is, in reality, a well-equipped hospital with round-the clock nursing staff. It has guards posted, so that Lord Croft cannot escape unsupervised and cause harm to himself or others. The Family wing also provides nursing care for any members of the household who are unwell or infirm and serves this function for local villagers who need medical help.

The management of the house and estate is overseen by a board of trustees, which includes Harriet and Matthew, as well as Montgomery Wilson, a Shrewsbury solicitor, and four respected local residents. However, everyday decisions are left to Matthew and Harriet who have to juggle their status as servants with acting as host and hostess when visitors are staying at Thorncroft House. 

While digging the foundations for a new model village to provide the villagers with hygienic, well-built homes, several valuable archaeological artefacts were discovered. Now Harriet, Matthew and Wilson are staying in Oxford to attend the ceremony in which the chief archaeologist, Sir Francis Palmer, displays the treasures to the academic community. Harriet is enjoying this occasion and the opportunity to mingle with such interesting, well-informed people, and she is filled with joy when she encounters a dear friend whom she has not seen for many years. Lord Halesowen is now a county court judge but he has not forgotten Harriet and is delighted to meet her again. 

Although the three trustees are scheduled to stay in Oxford for several days to discuss which academic institution could best care for the treasures they have unearthed, Wilson is torn between two conflicting duties. As Lord Croft is unable to produce a legitimate heir, for some time Wilson has been searching for a successor for when his lordship dies, now an American heir, Mr Claude Baker, has turned up in England and is demanding that Wilson makes himself available immediately. Wilson is unsure whether he should obey Baker’s summons or stay in Oxford to help decide the disposal of the archaeological treasures, but his companions persuade him that his skills are needed to oversee the negotiations, and the importunate heir can wait a few more days. However, a few days a summons arrives that none of them can refuse. The village constable sends them a telegraph informing them of the discovery of a body in the grounds of the Thorncroft Estate; the body has been beheaded and mutilated. 

There now follows a period of great strain for Harriet. Mr Baker turns up unannounced and, although superficially charming, he soon reveals himself to be arrogant and opinionated, and Harriet suspects that he regards the servants with the same contempt that he treats his slaves on his plantation in America. He seems eager for Lord Croft to die, resentful of any money that the trustees spend, and furious when Harriet wears some valuable jewellery that had been bequeathed to her by the late Lady Croft, the present lord’s mother. Harriet fears that when Baker inherits the title and the Thorncroft estate, he will sell it and all the art works it contains and return to America, leaving the staff and villagers homeless and, in many cases, jobless as well.

To add to the stress, the police sergeant who is sent to investigate the murder is a buffoon, clearly out of his depth, and the Scotland Yard officer who later arrives is an arrogant bully. Worst of all, Harriet inadvertently glimpses the dead man’s head, which the police have recovered and stored in the estate’s icehouse. She recognises him at once as a figure from her past. She realises that a long-suppressed nightmare has become reality and knows that those with power will do anything to save this man’s reputation, even conniving at her imprisonment on a false charge.

In At The Death is the sixth novel in the series featuring Harriet and Matthew Rowsley. It is an excellent addition to an interesting Victorian mystery series. The characters are vividly drawn and engaging, the plot complex and the historical setting unusual and fascinating. A very good read, which I recommend.
------
Reviewer:  Carol Westron

Judith Cutler was born in the Black Country, just outside Birmingham, later moving to the Birmingham suburb of Harborne. Judith started writing while she was at the then Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize with the second story she wrote. She subsequently read English at university. It was an attack of chickenpox caught from her son that kick-started her writing career. One way of dealing with the itch was to hold a pencil in one hand, a block of paper in the other - and so she wrote her first novel. This eventually appeared in a much-revised version as Coming Alive, published by Severn House. Judith has seven series. The first two featured amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers (10 books) and Detective Sergeant Kate Power (6 Books). Then came Josie Wells, a middle-aged woman with a quick tongue, and a love of good food, there are two books, The Food Detective and The Chinese Takeout. The Lina Townsend books are set in the world of antiques and there are seven books in this series. There are three books featuring Tobias Campion set in the Regency period, and her series featuring Chief Superintendent Fran Harman (6 books), and Jodie Welsh, Rector’s wife and amateur sleuth. Her more recently a series feature a head teacher Jane Cowan (3 books). Judith has also written three standalone’s Staging Death, Scar Tissue, and Death In Elysium. Her new series is set in Victorian times featuring Matthew Rowsley. Death’s Long Shadow is the third book in this series.  

http://www.judithcutler.com  

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with
The Fragility of Poppies.  

www.carolwestron.com 

Japanese Crime Fiction by Lea O’Harra

Japanese crime fiction is enjoying a renaissance of late. But the phenomenon does not concern the Japanese themselves, who have long bought and read such books in great numbers. I am referring instead to western readers finally able to gain access to Japan’s huge treasure trove of mystery novels. Admittedly, it is a very limited access. Only a tiny percentage have been translated into English. But it’s a start, and one that provides a satisfying twist on what happened over a century ago, when the Japanese got hooked on western-style detective stories after an abridged Japanese version of the Sherlock Holmes story The Man with the Twisted Lip was included in the magazine Nihon-jin in 1894.

Now, more and more western readers are discovering – and relishing – the uniquely Japanese take on this popular literary genre in such works as

Keigo Higashino’s
The Devotion of Suspect X and
Salvation of a Saint,
A Midsummer’s Equation,
Silent Parade and Invisible Helix.

Uketsu writes a mystery/horror series. He is an enigmatic Youtuber and author, specialising in horror and mystery. He always appears in videos wearing a white mask and black body stocking, with his voice digitally distorted. His true identity is unknown He has written three books

 
Strange Pictures,
Strange Houses

  Strange Buildings

Yukitp Ayatuji was born 1960. He strives to recapture the tone and tropes of classic detective fiction.

The Decagon  House Murders
The Mill Hill House Murders
the Labyrinth House Murders
The Clock House Murders

Soji Shimada

Born 1948 in Hiroshima. 

She has written
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
Murder in the Crooked House,
 a short story. 

 

Seishi Yokomizo. Small publishers like the Pushkin Press have played an important role in offering English translations of Japanese crime fiction in English, and social media platforms like BookTok have raised the profile of this literature for a younger demographic (Gen Z and readers in their twenties).
  

The Honjin Murders.
The 1^st book featuring Detective Kosuke

         Kindaichi.

There are now seven books in the series.

When I first arrived in Japan in the spring of 1984 to take up the position of ‘Guest Professor of English’ at a small private university on Shikoku Island, I eagerly devoured all the Japanese literature translated into English I found in its library. As an American who’d already spent a considerable time in Britain, France and Holland, I was used to trying to adjust to life in a new country. But Japan was different. Apart from superficial trappings of western ‘culture’ – including two McDonald’s and one KFC in the nearest city of Takamatsu – it soon became clear I was in the most alien environment I had yet encountered. The people simply thought and acted differently from ways I was accustomed to. Japan’s two and a half centuries of self-imposed isolation from the outside world had left an indelible mark. The culture and behavior and traditions were unlike anything I had ever known. 

Alas, the university library only had translations of the classics, including, of course, the complete works of Natsumi Soseki, books by two Nobel laureates – Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe – as well as a sprinkling of novels by Yukio Mishima. I recall being particular gripped by a book called A Dark Night’s Passing by Naoya Shiga which confirmed for me the inscrutability and ultimate unfathomability of the Japanese mind. Haruki Murakami had yet to have a book translated into English. His breakthrough international bestseller, Norwegian Wood (1987), wasn’t available in English until 1989.

 When I visited the local Miyawaki bookstore in Takamatsu or even the huge Kinokuniya in Tokyo, I found the selection of Japanese works in English even more limited, largely confined to translations of guides to famous sightseeing spots in the country, Japanese cookbooks, and a few books on Zen Buddhism.

It was only in the 1990s that the situation changed. In the Heisei Era, beginning in 1989, female writers began to dominate the field of Japanese crime fiction. The popularity of their works, which often took as their theme the country’s persisting gender inequality, led to a dramatic increase in English translations of so-called misuterii  novels. To understand what a seismic shift this represented. I’ll provide the context in a brief history of crime fiction in Japan.

The detective novel or, in Japanese, Tantei Shosetsu, is one of the most popular literary genres in Japan – and one of the oldest. It first appeared in the Tokugawa era (1600–1868), when it was a genre dominated by courtroom narratives such as Saikaku’s Trials in the Shade of a Cherry Tree. Like their Chinese precedents, these stories revolved around the notion of the wise judge. They glorified and upheld the state’s authority in the form of omniscient omniscient administrators who delivered infallible judgments. Although suspects’ confessions often had been wrung from them by torture, this fact was conveniently ignored or suppressed.

In the Meiji Era (1868 -1912), when the country had opened up to foreign influences, with the monolithic hierarchical nature of the state diminished and the notion of the individual accorded new importance, the focus of detective stories shifted to genuine mysteries in which a culprit guilty of a crime must be identified. At that time, the ‘puzzle’ aspect of the traditional detective story as it manifested in other countries was allowed to come to the fore. 

In the late 1800s, translated western texts flooded the Japanese market. The appearance of such stories as Murders in the Rue Morgue spurred renewed interest in western ideas and texts. One of the most influential proponents of the detective story at this time was Ruiko Kuroiwa (1862-1913) who saw in such stories the chance to educate the newly literate masses. He is credited with having written Japan’s first detective story in 1889, In Cold Blood Japan’s indebtedness to Edgar Allen Poe, the pioneer of American detective fiction, is illustrated in the decision of Taro Hirai (1894-1965), widely acknowledged as the ‘father’ of modern Japanese crime fiction, to choose to publish his works under the pen name of Edogawa Rampo – a phonetic reading of the American author’s name. 

The optimism of the Meiji Era darkened in the subsequent Taisho (1912-1926) and early Showa (1926-1989) periods with Japan’s venture into militarism and colonial expansion. Kuroiwa gave up writing detective fiction in the late 1890s when Japan fought and won three international wars within a decade, concentrating instead on political journalism. With his departure, the production of detective fiction was more or less halted for three decades. 

In 1941, detective novels of Anglo-American origin were banned in Japan, and writers of such fiction turned to spy stories. Eventually, writers of any kind found themselves required to frame narratives that would publicly

support the war and inspire patriotism in their readers. A chronic shortage of paper during those years meant that publishing was sublimated to the war effort. Printed material needed to have as its goal the country’s ultimate victory.

Japan’s defeat in 1945 was followed by a resurgence in the popularity of detective fiction. Mysteries provided much-needed solace and entertainment to the general public after a decade of near-complete subjection to an authoritarian government waging all-out war on various fronts. They also offered the Japanese a chance to reassert the right to indulge in a private life, free from the dictates of the state. The author Seishi Yokomizo argued in 1946 that his compatriots should read such literature as much as possible to recover their equilibrium, arguing that the general misery pervading the population at that time stemmed from their not reading enough detective fiction. He also argued that rationality is a feature of crime fiction – and a quality the Japanese had signally lacked in surrendering their ideals to the dictates of a fascist government and continuing to fight a war long after it was obvious it would end in defeat. 

Two decades later, the popularity of detective fiction in Japan was largely attributable to one man – Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992). Matsumoto was Japan’s bestselling, highest-earning writer in the 1960s, and one of its most prolific, publishing over 450 detective stories and mystery novels as well as historical fiction. Reviews of one of his most famous books, Inspector Imanishi Investigates, liken the author to Georges Simenon and its eponymous protagonist to Simenon’s Maigret or P.D. James’s Inspector Dalgleish. 

Matsumoto, who was born in poverty and never completed high school, was not content to follow the pattern of old-fashioned detective novels whether penned in Japan or the west. Thirty years before Japanese women writers began publishing work that critiqued Japanese society, Matsumoto captured the public imagination by focusing on the minutiae of daily life and on ‘real life’ social problems. Despite the pre-eminent status of Edogawa Rampo, it is said that Matsumoto, writing as a cultural activist, had the greatest influence on that surge of Japanese women writing crime fiction in the late twentieth century. 

Before 1989, there were few female crime fiction novelists. After that date, there were many. In taking up the pen to express themselves, these women followed an honourable and ancient precedent. Japan boasts two women who, against all odds, wrote books in the first century esteemed now as classics of world literature. Both were noblewomen who served as ‘court ladies’ in Japan’s Heian period, a position in which they were isolated from theoutside world and encouraged to cultivate such aesthetic pastimes as writing diaries and composing poetry. Sei Shonagon, who joined the court of Empress Teishi when she was in her late twenties, around the year 993, is famous for The Pillow Book (1002) and her contemporary and rival, Murasaki Shikibu, who served the Empress Shoshi, for The Tale of Genji, written between 1000 and 1010. As aristocratic Heian women, they were denied not only the benefits of formal education but forced to live restricted, secluded lives within the family or at court, forbidden to consort with any male not a close relative or household member. Women were seen as inferior and necessarily subordinate. They were believed to be incapable of real intelligence. 

Many centuries after Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu achieved lasting fame through their writing, their female descendants are still constrained by sex. In present-day Japan, women often remain second-class citizens in their own country, expected to derive much of their sense of self-worth through their roles as daughters, wives and mothers. 

It has been argued that the rise of women crime writers in Heisei Era Japan (1989-2019) can be attributed to three main factors. First, in response to an explosion in literary prizes offered by corporations, individuals and publishers, the 1980s saw the emergence of writing schools that attracted many women, including housewives looking for a free-lance career that would allow them to juggle domestic responsibilities with work. It was a time of unprecedented affluence in Japan that seemed as if it would never come to an end. Second, while the

phenomenon of Japan’s ‘red-hot economy’ preoccupied men, women writers had more opportunities to publish their own work. Also, with more women joining the work force, there was an increased readership for women’s fiction. Third, the boom in women’s detective fiction in Japan was matched by and partly inspired by a corresponding boom in the US and the UK, with the works of such popular writers as Sara Paretsky, Marcia Mueller, Liza Cody and Sue Grafton issued in Japanese translation. 

The publication of Miyuki Miyabe’s Kasha in 1992, issued in English four years later as All She Was Worth, represented a watershed moment, its massive popularity inspiring an upsurge in Japanese women writing crime fiction that dealt with sociological problems. In Miyabe’s case, she depicted issues then gripping the society: personal bankruptcy, rampant consumerism, and the devastating effects of the collapse of the ‘bubble’ economy.

Natsuo Kirino proved a worthy successor and heir to Miyabe’s achievement in her bombshell novel Out, published in Japan in 1997 and in English in 2004. Like All She Was Worth, Out is a work that is not so much a ‘who-dun it’ as a ‘why-dunnit’: a searing analysis of a society which can drive its female citizens to that most extreme of acts – murder.  Kirino’s novel addresses the problem of domestic violence and the unfair disparity between the sexes, with women earning, on average, over the course of a lifetime, only around 75% of men’s wages despite often doing the same work. Until recently, a Japanese woman was expected to quit her job on marrying and, if not then, on falling pregnant with her first child. After maternity leave, she would be unable to get a full-time tenured position, hired instead as a ‘part-timer’ on low wages (despite often working a forty-hour week) and missing out on bonuses and employment protections and retirement benefits. On hearing that Japanese male readers said of her book that it made them afraid, Kirino reportedly remarked that she was glad.

Apart from Matsumoto, male Japanese crime writers had traditionally tackled the composition of their stories as an abstract, intellectual exercise, content to write locked-room mysteries or stories that privileged the puzzle aspect, taking care to provide sufficient clues for the reader to solve the mystery and identify the culprit. Female crime fiction writers, on the other hand, examined sociological issues obviously dear to their own hearts, offering, one suspects a kind of catharsis. In some novels, most notably Kirino’s Out, female characters exact delicious revenge on the men in their lives who have treated them badly. 

The enthusiasm for the writing of authors like Kirino and Keigo Higashino has meant English translations of Japanese crime fiction are now flooding the market. It is not only new works that are being translated. When I first encountered Matsumoto’s Inspector Imanishi Investigates a few years after arriving in Japan, it was the only book of the astonishing number he has published I could find available in English. Now, more and more of his books – and those of many other writers – are finally getting the attention from western readers they deserve. 

I believe Japanese crime fiction performs an invaluable service. It offers a mirror of Japan, allowing western readers insights into a country famously ‘different’ – exotic and mysterious. From its earliest incarnations, it has
presented a portrait of Japanese society. Where their literary forebears had used the genre to frame narratives glorifying the state or simply to provide light entertainment, in the 1990s, female writers like Miyabe and Kirino gave us an unvarnished critique of Japanese society and particularly of the position of women within it.  

In Japan, the traditional ie or family structure privileged males over females and assigned roles by sex. It led to girls facing limited life options, with what has been described as the ‘rigid order of sex polarity’ frustrating their aspirations. Equally, wives and mothers were expected to be self-denying creatures who devoted themselves to their families.  

Miyabe’s All She Was Worth not only held up a mirror to Japan but also exerted a strong influence upon society, helping it to change. While the female characters in Matsumoto’s Inspector Imanishi Investigates were
girlfriends, wives and mothers, peripheral to the action, significant primarily in their relations to the male figures in their lives, in her murderer Kyoko Shinjo, Miyabe convincingly created a resourceful and self-sufficient if
immoral individual. Miyabe’s groundbreaking work encouraged other female novelists also to include brave and resilient women in their books. Women were permitted to be lawbreakers, no longer doomed to their former role as ‘angel of the house’. 

In a similar vein, Japan’s crime fiction can help western readers understand another little-known aspect of its society: why it boasts the unenviable distinction of having a record number of citizens killing themselves. A 2019 survey found that Japan had the highest suicide rate among seven developed nations, comparing it to France, the US, Germany, Canada, the UK and Italy. Why? Japanese businessmen kill themselves because of the stress of work, and Japanese children because of the stress of exams. But there are also ‘honour’ murder/suicides when a man facing financial ruin might decide to kill not only himself but all his family, fearing his wife and children will suffer disgrace after his death. The continuing importance of the bushido code in Japanese thought meant that the famed author Yukio Mishima decided to commit seppuku rather than accept that his call for revolution was rejected and even derided by the Japanese military and the public. And the list goes on.  

When I came across a collection of twelve short Japanese detective stories published in 1978 as Ellery Queen’s Japanese Golden Dozen, I was surprised to find the number of people killed by stabbing, strangulation, or having their throats slit was nearly eclipsed by those who had decided to kill themselves. In the dozen stories, suicide is suspected in as many as seven of the deaths. In five of the stories, deaths initially attributed by the investigating officers to be suicide are only subsequently found to be murders.

It has been said that crime fiction resembles a sonnet with ‘endless variations on an inflexible form’. Variations include the ‘Golden Age’ novels of the 1920s and 1930s, the private eye novel, the hard-boiled suspense story, police procedural, the serial killer mystery, the legal thriller, and forensics-driven detective stories. Japanese crime fiction represents yet another take on the ‘inflexible form’. For western readers interested in exploring that new avenue, Goodreads offers an invaluable list of publications and resources:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/19227.

Lea O’Harra.  An American by birth, did her postgraduate work in Britain – an MA in Lancaster and a doctorate at Edinburgh – and worked full-time for 36 years at a Japanese university. Since retiring in March 2020, she has spent part of each year in Lancaster and part in Takamatsu on Shikoku Island, her second home, with occasional visits to the States to see family and friends. An avid reader of crime fiction since childhood, as a university professor she wrote academic articles on it as a literary genre and then decided to try her hand at composing such stories herself, publishing the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue mystery series’ comprising three murder mysteries set in rural, contemporary Japan. The fourth and final book of this series will appear in spring 2026. She has also published two standalones.

Lea’s latest book is

Falling Leaves

Published 20 February 2026

Book 4 in the Inspector Inoue series

One cold night in 1983 in a coastal town in Japan a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl disappears on her way home from badminton practice. The local police explore all avenues, but as is often the case, when there are no clues, there are no answers.

Decades later, the repercussions of her mysterious disappearance are still being felt in Japan in unspoken secrets and lies and broken lives that are left littered behind. When a half-Japanese, half-Korean student is found hanged in her room on the campus of Fujikawa University, the local police at first suspect suicide, never dreaming that this death could possibly be connected to the fortieth anniversary of that schoolgirl's disappearance.

Chief Inspector Inoue and his trusted team of detective inspectors face their most challenging case yet in a race against time to apprehend the culprit before more lives are lost.

CAPITAL CRIME ANNOUNCES 2026 HEADLINERS.

GLOBAL SENSATIONS LEE AND ANDREW CHILD,
JANE HARPER, CLAIRE DOUGLAS, ANDREA MARA
AND COMEDY WRITING TALENTS ARDAL O’HANLON
AND ANDI OSHO 

• The 2026 festival to return to the Leonardo Royal Hotel, St Paul’s, on 18^th-20^th June
• Partnership with The Reading Agency announced, in the National Year of Reading
• Founder David Headley heralds crime as ‘one of the most engaging and accessible genres, and the perfect way to help people rediscover a love of reading’
• Fingerprint Awards to return on 18^th June, presented by radio and TV broadcaster, and host of The Bookshelf Podcast Ryan Tubridy 

Capital Crime, the celebrated crime and thriller festival led by Goldsboro Books’ co-founder and managing director David Headley, has announced its first confirmed headlining authors, attending in June 2026. The programme features authors at all stages of their careers, from much anticipated debut novelists to global sensations from around the world. 

Capital Crime will also be Going All In on the National Year of Reading, a nationwide campaign designed to help people rediscover the joy of reading, and the biggest reading initiative the UK has ever seen. The festival has agreed a partnership with The Reading Agency, a UK charity that inspires social and personal change through the proven power of reading, and the organisation behind Quick Reads. This partnership will be a step change for Capital Crime’s Social Outreach initiative, a cornerstone of the festival since it launched in 2019, which has seen schoolchildren from all around London invited to meet, hear and engage with publishing representatives and authors, in order to demystify the industry; encourage a diverse range of people to consider a future career in books; and grow its community of readers by inspiring a lifelong love of reading. As part of the partnership, Capital Crime will host a panel with Quick Reads authors from 2026 and previous years, chaired by Debbie Hicks MBE, a founding member of The Reading Agency. Goldsboro Books and Capital Crime have been committed to creating reader communities since the bookshop’s inception, and the team firmly believes that crime fiction can be the most brilliantly accessible route into a lifelong love of reading. 

The festival returns to the Leonardo Royal Hotel in St Paul’s, and confirmed authors and speakers so far include:  

• Lee Child, creator of the globally famous Jack Reacher novels, and his brother Andrew, who has taken up the baton, will be in conversation with author and journalist Stig Abell
• Jane Harper, the international #1 bestselling Australian author of The Dry
• Andrea Mara, million copy bestselling author of All Her Fault
• Actor, comedian and novelist Ardal O’Hanlon
• Bestselling creator of Maeve Kerrigan Jane Casey
• Award-winning psychological suspense writer Liz Nugent 

Also confirmed to be taking part are Sunday Times bestselling thriller writer Claire Douglas; Andi Osho, stand-up comedian and thriller writer; multi-award-winning bestseller Clare Mackintosh; creator of Roy Grace Peter James; bestselling creator of The Guest List and The Paris Apartment Lucy Foley; and the author of Reece’s Book Club selected Broken Countries, Clare Leslie Hall. 

Audiences will also hear from CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of Wyndham and Bannerjee novels Abir Mukherjee; Sunday Times bestselling Anatomy of a Scandal writer Sarah Vaughan; Sophie Hannah, #1 bestselling author of Poirot continuations; former barrister and Traitors star Harriet Tyce; and Lucy Rose, author of 2025’s debut sensation The Lamb. 

The festival will also be welcoming some of the most critically acclaimed and eagerly anticipated debut novelists of 2026, including Yemi Dipeolu, launching psychological thriller Kiss Marry Kill; Ellie Levenson, author of the heartstopping suspense Room 706; and renowned wine writer Olly Smith, launching the first in The Bottle Bank Mysteries series. 

Also returning are the Fingerprint Awards, this year to be presented on Thursday 18^th by Ryan Tubridy, and sponsored by the festival’s official international cultural partner, the Sharjah International Book Fair. This year the shortlist in each category will be chosen by the Capital Crime Tastemakers – an independent committee of bloggers, journalists and readers. The award winners will, as always, be voted for by the readers and fans who make this genre the best in the world. 

Last year the eagerly anticipated awards received over 6,000 votes from the public and winners included bestsellers Vaseem Khan and M.W. Craven, for the Historical Book of the Year and the Overall Best Crime Book of the Year respectively. 

Finally, on Thursday 18^th, Capital Crime is thrilled to open its doors to aspiring, unpublished writers ready to take the next step towards securing literary representation. Agents from DHH Literary Agency who are actively searching for the next standout voice in crime fiction will be available for an open afternoon with all ticketholders. If you’ve written a gripping thriller, a twist-filled mystery, or a page-turning police procedural, this could be your opportunity to get your work in front of top industry talent. Festival ticketholders will be invited to submit ahead of the festival, and will be given a meeting slot with their agent of choice. 

Capital Crime co-founder and Goldsboro Books managing director David Headley, said:

“I set up Capital Crime because I wanted to create a festival that brought together crime writers, readers, and industry professionals in a way that was welcoming to both established and emerging authors. It has been a joy to see the festival go from strength to strength, and our community of crime fans and writers grow. In this, the National Year of Reading, I’m delighted to announce our partnership with The Reading Agency. Crime is one of the most engaging and accessible genres of writing, and the perfect way to help people rediscover a love of reading. As well as our Quick Reads panel, we have panels for every reader, from discussions about AI to ‘property noir’, and courtroom dramas to comedy in crime.” 

Capital Crime Festival Director Lizzie Curle, said:

“I’m thrilled with how our programme is shaping up, with some of the best crime writers in the world joining us, such as international sensations Lee Child, Jane Harper and comedy legend Ardal O’Hanlon and fan favourites like Lisa Jewell and Peter James. As always, I’m also delighted by the extremely exciting new voices we’ll be welcoming this year, including Lucy Rose, Olly Smith, Yemi Dipeolu and Ellie Levenson.” 

The full line-up will be announced at the end of March. 

Headley and his team at Goldsboro Books have helped launch the careers of so many authors since it opened over 25 years ago, by uniting incredible writing with their loyal, ever-growing community of passionate readers. Capital Crime is a brilliant extension of that vision, having become an unmissable fixture in the literary calendar, one of the largest crime fiction festivals in the UK, and the only one to be owned by an independent bookshop. With a line-up which fully reflects the vibrant and culturally diverse city that it calls home, Capital Crime’s goal is to create a year-round home for crime and thriller readers and authors, celebrating books and stories, and nurturing the next generation of talent and book enthusiasts. The festival attracts authors from around the world, to create a unique, innovative and entertaining programme, pairing debuts with household names. The festival welcomes more than 1,000 attendees, the majority purchasing full weekend passes, and previous attendees have included Ian Rankin, Irvine Welsh, Dorothy Koomson, Abir Mukherjee and Kate Atkinson. 

Capital Crime Festival | Join the Thrill

Interview: Dot Marshall-Gent in Conversation with Carol Westron

 

Carol Westron is a successful author who has contributed countless book reviews, articles and author interviews to Mystery People. 
She is an expert on the Golden Age of Crime Fiction and has presented papers on that subject to a variety of conferences organised by academics, libraries and bookshops up and down the country. 
She is also a founder member and moderator of the formidable
Deadly Dames and, for several years, organised and fronted Portsmouth’s Mystery Fest as part of the city’s annual BookFest.  In February, I was lucky enough to interview Carol and discover more about her life as a writer of adult and children’s fiction. 
Carol Westron: Writing Blog 

Dot:      Carol, thanks for agreeing to discuss your writing career
             with me today. I’ve lots of questions for you but may I
             begin by asking you to tell our readers when you first
             realised that you wanted to be a writer?

Carol: That’s an interesting one. I’m not sure that there was a specific
            moment and for a long time I didn’t really consider writing as
            a serious career option for a working-class girl. I loved reading,
            I still do, and I had always enjoyed making up stories of my own,
            but for many years it was for my own pleasure. I did try sending
            this point and was unsuccessful. In the early 1980s I discovered
            it was a good way to bribe my children to go to school. I started
            to tell my children a long story, a fantasy tale with dragons and 
            witches, and if they went to school without complaining, I would
            promise them a new chapter when they came home. It turned out
            to be a good strategy, and I still love the memory of those
            afternoons, curled up on the sofa with my three children reading
            them a story nobody had ever heard before.

 Dot:    Did you keep the stories?

Carol: Yes, I got them out last year and gave them a serious edit, and
             I now have two books ready to publish when I can spare enough
            time from my crime fiction. They are called Enchanters Power
            and  Enchanter’s Quest. 

Dot:     And I know that you have already published four children’s books in the Adi and the Dream Train series.  Could you say a little bit more about those?

Carol: This is another family-inspired venture, although much later in my writing career than the books we’ve just discussed. One of my grandsons has autism, and he has always loved trains, especially steam trains. When he was about ten, I wrote him a story about a magic train that steamed through the night bringing happy dreams to children who were sad or afraid. In the story, the children could not see the Dream Train, until one night he encountered Adi, a little boy who was different, a child who could see the secrets behind the darkness. I read it to Adam, who liked it and drew some pictures of it, which we used as illustrations for the book. I had already self-published two or three crime novels and the friend who had helped with cover design and lay-out kindly produced the book for him. To my delight, Adam became very interested in the adventures the trains could have and started to contribute new train characters and by the time we wrote Adi and the Ghost Train he was outlining the entire plot. We have some more stories written and waiting for Adam to have time to illustrate them. The ones that are published still sell quite well at in-person events and are still occasionally purchased by people who work in Special Education, for their classrooms and school libraries. 

Dot:      So, writing is in your blood, Carol, and it is no wonder that you have been called a “born storyteller.”  Could you tell us more about how you became a published writer.

Carol: Well, after I had polished up my craft, I began to submit short stories to women’s magazines, and Woman’s Weekly magazine published several of them. That was over thirty years ago, and I was delighted to be paid very well for the First British Serial Rights, which meant that if somebody else wanted to publish it, perhaps in another country, I got paid a second time. I was impressed that Woman’s Weekly would accept stories that involved more complex  relationships, rather than pure romance. However, I wanted to write longer stories that explored the social issues that I felt were important and which interested me.  I already loved crime fiction and decided that was what I wanted to focus on. Unfortunately, because I had returned to teaching, I didn’t have time to write both the short stories and the books, so I turned to crime. 

Dot:     Yes, I enjoy the social issues that your characters
grapple with. Would you agree that your writing is character driven?

Carol:  I would agree with that. I think most people
who know me would agree that I’m  a people
person, (which is probably why I’m still teaching
a local creative  writing class ten years after my
official retirement age). When writing a novel,
it’s obviously impossible to begin with just the
characters, unless you’re going to have them
floating in space or sitting in a totally featureless
place. However, once I’ve got a place to situate
my characters, and found the start of a mystery or
crime for them to solve, I allow them to interact and
work in their own way, and this is  how the plot
starts to unfold. Often, I have no idea who committed the crime or  how the detectives are going to solve the mystery until I’m a long way through the book.  In one novel, I was literally three-quarters through the story before the killer appeared. Of course, I had to go back and insert the person much earlier on,    in order to play fair to with the readers. In the same way, I had no idea when I wrote the first Galmouth Mystery, The Fragility of Poppies, that this would turn into a seriously long series. Although I have only published three novels in the series so far, I have four more waiting for their final edit, and another in First Draft. In The Fragility of Poppies, the crime has to be central, because the disappearance of a young girl must matter more than anything else. However, the book also focuses on the relationship between the two protagonists, Detective Inspector Rick Evans and his wife Annie, an artist and teacher. It was through following their turbulent relationship that I discovered the plot and sub-plots. As soon as I finished writing The Fragility of Poppies, I knew that I would return to Rick and Annie, but again the characters took control and in the second book of the Galmouth Mysteries, Paddling in the Dead Sea, the main protagonist is Gina Grey, a woman fleeing from an abusive marriage, who finds herself championing Chris Harland, a nineteen-year-old with a painful  past, who is struggling to rehabilitate his life, having been a drug addict since he was sixteen. When Gina gets a job at the Art College, she and Annie become colleagues, and she and several other characters from The Fragility of Poppies appear in Paddling in the Dead Sea. In the third book in the series, Delivering  Lazarus, Rick and Annie are again the viewpoint protagonists, but Gina and Chris appear frequently as well. You asked me about ‘plotters’ and ‘pantsters’ as a way of describing writers. Actually, I prefer the  expression ‘writing into the dark’ which describes what I think I do. 

Dot:     Doesn’t writing into the dark worry you?

Carol: No. Although it used to when I started writing books and I was scared I wouldn’t get a suitable ending. I was surprised at how relaxed I felt when I’d got such a long way through Karma and the Singing Frogs and still had no idea about the identity of the killer. Now I just trust the process - I set the stage with the starting characters, usually one or both of the protagonists, and see what happens. In other ways I’ve never been much of a gambler, but in this way, I suppose I am. Control comes with the editing process, which needs to be rigorous.    

Dot:     Are there any things you wouldn’t write about?

Carol: I would never have a narcissist as a protagoni st.  I like to get into the psychology of my characters and, of course, there are some characters I like more than others, but I so dislike narcissism in people that, if I’ve got a narcissistic character, I would rather stay on the outside of their mind.  Another aspect of crime fiction that I treat carefully is the description of violence.  I never wish to glorify it.  I also have a firm belief that children matter and so I am careful about how I write about them.  For example, in the opening chapter of About the Children, when Superintendent Kev Tyler is viewing the bodies of two young boys who have been shot, it was important to me that the horror of that act was conveyed without gratuitous depictions of the brutality of their killing. In fact, in the majority of my police procedurals or psychological crime novels, the victim is usually dead at the very beginning of the book, so the violence is filtered through the reactions of the investigators. 

Dot:     Your interest in character includes their psychology, how and why the characters act the way they do.  That said, you have published two cosy crimes, so my next question is which do you prefer writing about? 

Carol:  It’s interesting that you ask that because I believe that a well-written cosy has as  much depth of character and psychological insight as darker crime novels. As for asking which sub-genre I like best, that’s impossible to answer. It’s like saying ‘you have three different breeds of dogs and three different types of cat, which of them do you love best? - oh, and don’t forget the rabbits!’ Honestly, I’m in the fortunate position of enjoying whatever I happen to be writing or editing at the time.

Dot:    What inspires your stories?

Carol: It could really be anything.  The Terminal
            Velocity of Cats was prompted by the    
            reply of a Scene of Crimes Officer when I
            asked about their day, and his answer
            became the opening paragraph in the book.
            Seeing a couple sitting together on a
            bench inspired About the Children.     
            I thought of the Start of This Game of
            Ghosts while attending the last Fareham
            Folk Festival. A line of poetry inspired
            the title and title and the deep theme of
            The Fragility of Poppies. Inspiration is
            like being given a pack of mixed seeds,
            planting them, and seeing what (if anything) comes up). 

Dot:      You have also written a Victorian Murder Mystery, Strangers and Angels, which I  just couldn’t put down.  Again, the characters are more important than the history, but the setting is entirely different from your  modern stories.  What made you decide to write the story and how challenging was it compared to your  contemporary crime books?

Carol: I think the history is important, both because
it’s the setting that allows  the characters to
function, and because if the writer gets it wrong,
lots of  knowledgeable readers will be very
cross. History was especially important in 
Strangers and Angels, because it was based on
the real-life deployment of two  ships of
Turkish sailors to Gosport. At least a third of
the young men died, mainly of cholera. I kept
dwelling on how lonely it must have been for them,
different language, different religion, and not
wanted in town they’d been posted to. Regarding

the rest of your question, one problem with writing a novel set in  the Victorian Era is that the era went on for a very long time, and things were very different at the start of Victoria’s reign than in the later years. Writing a story set in Victorian times requires lots of research in terms of clothes, attitudes, transport, trades and the language used by different levels of society. For me, a particularly tricky aspect was ensuring that the voice of each character remained  consistent to their social class and gender, and in Kemal’s case his Turkish background; at the same time, I had to make the main characters likeable to 21^st century readers. The one thing Molly, Adelaide and  Kemal share is a sense of powerlessness, although their situations are quite distinct. The trouble is that you have to stop writing in order to research minor points, like when did umbrellas come into fashion, if so, what shape were they, and who would have possessed them.  All the same, I’ve found it even harder to write something set, fifty years ago. The book I am working on at the moment is called The Apples of    Sodom, and it’s set in the drought of 1976. When something is within your living memory, you may think            you remember things accurately, but you’re never quite sure, especially about which expressions were popular at that time. Still, it’s interesting to recall a time when the protagonist is isolated, not because their mobile is out of charge, but because they don’t know where the nearest phone box is situated, and when  they find it has been vandalised. 

Dot:     You have worked with a publisher and now happily self-publish. What are the pros and cons of both routes to publication?

Carol: I got on very well with my Woman’s Weekly editor, who would either accept my stories, or tell me if something had potential for publication and ask me to adapt it. She would also tell me, with reasons, if a short story was not suitable for them. After that, I had an agent, unfortunately, although she liked my
writing, she didn’t want my crime fiction and wanted me to write sagas. I did try, but it didn’t work out well, and we parted on mutually polite terms. Self-publishing has become much more accepted in the last few years, which means that the difficulties I faced in the early days are gradually diminishing. Of course, the problems are being replaced by other irritations: I usually receive two or three kind emails every day offering to publicise my book and make it a bestseller, and a few who assure me they can get my work televised. All those emails get glanced at and deleted, but it is a waste of time. For me, the great advantage that self-publishing offers is that I can write what I want.  I think that traditional publishing is being challenged by the success of self-published authors, although many very reputable small publishers are appearing, which may be a good way to go, as long as they have a credible business plan and are actively promoting their authors’ work.  I would say that the abundance of celebrity authors has also changed the nature of the major publishing houses. I know I’m never going to make a fortune self-publishing my work, but I’m having a lot of fun. 

Dot:     It has been suggested that as a society, we are at a stage where people are reading a lot less because
traditional book reading is competing with other forms of entertainment. Do you agree?

Carol: I think most people are very busy nowadays and there are several things competing for their attention. And, sadly, nowadays most schools are forced to be more preoccupied with preparing kids for yet another test, rather than exploring the joys of stories or music. When I was in school (both secondary and junior), we had well-equipped school libraries. I don’t think most comprehensives nowadays have libraries, indeed some of them don’t even provide the GCSE pupils with copies of set texts. That said, I know many people who still find reading a good way to settle down and relax, and many who still read to their children most evenings before bed.

Dot:      So, after eight contemporary crime novels, a Victorian murder mystery and four children’s books already published, what are you working on now, Carol?

Carol:  I am editing The Apples of Sodom, my book set in 1976, ready for publication this summer, although hopefully without the accompanying drought. I have also put together an anthology of some of my ‘preloved’ short stories, The Winter Butterfly and Other Stories, as well as a second Victorian murder mystery, From Envy, Hatred and Malice. These are winter stories, so may not be published until the autumn. If I have time, I’d like to publish Enchanters Power and Enchanter’s Quest - partly because our village collective is short of children’s books for our stall. However, The Apples of Sodom must take
priority, (and if you’re wondering, the title means the same as Dead Sea Fruit - something that’s perfect on the outside but dust inside.) 

Dot:     I look forward to reading them Carol, and thanks again for giving us an insight into your experiences as an author, it’s been great spending time in your company.  

Dot Marshall-Gent worked in the emergency services for twenty years first as a police officer, then as a paramedic and finally as a fire control officer before graduating from King’s College, London as a teacher of English in her mid-forties.  She completed a M.A. in Special and Inclusive Education at the Institute of Education, London and now teaches part-time and writes mainly about educational issues.  Dot sings jazz and country music and plays guitar, banjo and piano as well as being addicted to reading mystery and crime fiction.