Pauline Rowson's Blog, page 37

Pauline Rowson at Bookham talking about her detective DI Andy Horton

In this video extract taken from a talk I gave to Bookham U3A in Surrey
in July 2016, I am talking about my detective DI Andy Horton who
features in  twelve novels with number thirteen due to be published in
February 2017.



Watch the video

Five films from the 1940s that have inspired me Part 5.

In
this, the final article in my series of blogs about the five films from
the 1940s that have influenced my writing I  turn to one of the most
atmospheric and classic film noirs of all time, The Third Man.



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Five films from the 1940s that have inspired me Part 4.

In this, the fourth article of this series of blogs, I continue to reveal five films that have influenced me and
my style of writing.  There are so many great films to choose from that I
have selected five from the 1940s. 



My first was The Big Sleep, written
by Raymond Chandler, with the film starring the wonderful Humphrey
Bogart and lovely Lauren Bacall.  The second was another
classic Raymond Chandler crime novel, Farewell my Lovely, which was re
titled for the film in the USA as Murder My Sweet.  The film featured a
different Marlowe but an equally great actor who gives a perfect
performance, Dick Powell.  My third selection was another private eye
but this time not based on a Chandler novel. Dark Corner, starring Mark
Stevens, Lucille Ball, Clifton Webb and William Bendix..



Now it's time to switch to a British film and a more light-hearted one but still crime, of course, Green for Danger.



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Pauline Rowson explains how she chooses the titles of her crime novels

I'm often asked how I come up with titles for my crime novels and the
answer is usually with great difficulty. Some titles are like pregnancy, taking months
to develop and evenwhen the novel is finished I might still have no idea what
to call it. Other titles can come
instantly, almost the moment the novel hits the page although that is rare. Dead Man's Wharf was one such case, mainly
because it is set around a wharf where a dead man is found.



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Five films from the 1940s that have inspired me - Part 3

In this series of blogs I reveal five films that have influenced me and
my style of writing.  There are so many great films to choose from that I
have selected five from the 1940s.  My first was The Big Sleep, the novel written
by Raymond Chandler, with the film starring the wonderful Humphrey
Bogart and lovely Lauren Bacall.  The second was another
classic Raymond Chandler crime novel, Farewell my Lovely (Murder My Sweet in the USA) and this time the film featuring a
different Marlowe but an equally great actor who gives a perfect
performance,  Dick Powell.



Here is my third film with yes, you've guessed it another private eye but this time not based on a Chandler novel.

Five films from the 1940s that have inspired me- Part 2.

In
this series of blogs I reveal five films that have influenced me and my
style of writing.  There are so many great films to choose from that I
have selected five from the 1940s.  My first was The Big Sleep, written
by Raymond Chandler, with the film starring the wonderful Humphrey
Bogart and lovely Lauren Bacall.  Here is my second choice, another
classic Raymond Chandler crime novel and this time the film features a
different Marlowe but an equally great actor who gives a perfect
performance,  Dick Powell.



Read more.

It's Cowes Week and Horton has a missing man and a brutal killer to find

Cowes
Week 6-8 August is one of the highlights of Britain's summer sailing
sporting events
when countless number of yachts take part in the racing in the Solent
and many in the yachting world descend on the small town of Cowes on the Isle of Wight for
a week of festivities.  And it's Cowes that features in DI Andy Horton, Death Surge



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Five films from the 1940s that have inspired me - Part 1

A
while ago I was asked to write an article for a website blog on the
films that have inspired me. I was to choose five films that have
influenced me and my style of writing. There are so many great films to
choose from that it is almost impossible to do so. I therefore decided to focus
in on one particular era, the 1940s.



Here is my first choice. The other four will follow in subsequent blogs
this month. I wonder if they are some of your favourites.



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What's on in August

It's August and the summer is in full swing in Britain. Traditionally it is a quiet
month for talks and radio interviews so it is a good time to take a
break, except I find that very hard to do because I am always working on
the next crime novel and thinking through plots and characters. 



I can leave off pounding the keyboard though on those very hot days and
sit in the shade of the garden or the summerhouse with paper and pencil
in my hand to sketch out my characters or draw up plot lines, and
sometimes just to sit, knit and think. Writing involves a great deal of
thinking.



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On location with DI Andy Horton in A Killing Coast

Horton's investigations into his mother's disappearance and the arrival of a former girl friend complicate a complex murder investigation for the troubled detective, DI Andy Horton in A
Killing Coast, the seventh in the DI Andy Horton series of police
procedural mysteries. It opens with Horton at Lee-on-the-Solent on the
south coast of England where he is visiting the former copper, PC Adrian
Stanley, who was detailed to cursorily investigate Andy's mother,
Jennifer's, disappearance thirty years ago. Can Stanley tell Horton more
about what happened to Jennifer on that foggy November day when she
left their council flat in a tower block in inner city Portsmouth and
abandoned her ten year old son to the mercies of social services, and a
succession of children's' homes and foster parents?



As
I happened to be over at Lee-on-the-Solent recently before giving a
talk about my crime novels to a lovely audience at Stubbington library I
took the opportunity to take some photographs of the Solent.



Here are some location shots for A Killing Coast set against the
atmospheric backdrop of the Solent, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight on the south coast of England.