Pauline Rowson's Blog, page 68
February 12, 2013
Finished writing DI Andy Horton, ten, now writing the next crime novel
At the weekend I finished writing DI Andy Horton number ten. It's always a scary moment when I press 'send' on the keyboard and a new crime novel wings its way through the ether to my publisher, Severn House. I wonder could I have done better? Should I have rephrased something or added or omitted something? But it's done. Now I wait to see if my publisher likes it. Fingers crossed.
Meanwhile it's on with writing the next crime novel, which I have already begun, researching and fleshing out the characters and although I am working on DI Andy Horton number eleven I am also working on a new crime series featuring a new hero. But don't worry Andy Horton will be back.
In the meantime you can enjoy reading others in the series featuring the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton and the latest, Undercurrent, which is now available in hard cover to buy and on loan from libraries in the UK and Commonwealth. Those of you in America will have to wait a little longer because it comes out in the USA on 1 May 2013. It will also be released as an ebook on 1 May 2013.
The others in the DI Horton series are available as ebooks, in paperback, hardcover and some are also available in Large Print and as audio books.
I have now written and had published twelve crime novels which includes two stand alone thriller crime novels featuring Alex Albury in In For The Kill, and Adam Greene in In Cold Daylight.
This new novel will be my thirteenth.
In for the Kill
Meanwhile it's on with writing the next crime novel, which I have already begun, researching and fleshing out the characters and although I am working on DI Andy Horton number eleven I am also working on a new crime series featuring a new hero. But don't worry Andy Horton will be back.
In the meantime you can enjoy reading others in the series featuring the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton and the latest, Undercurrent, which is now available in hard cover to buy and on loan from libraries in the UK and Commonwealth. Those of you in America will have to wait a little longer because it comes out in the USA on 1 May 2013. It will also be released as an ebook on 1 May 2013.
The others in the DI Horton series are available as ebooks, in paperback, hardcover and some are also available in Large Print and as audio books.
I have now written and had published twelve crime novels which includes two stand alone thriller crime novels featuring Alex Albury in In For The Kill, and Adam Greene in In Cold Daylight.
This new novel will be my thirteenth.
In for the Kill
February 7, 2013
A hero with real problems is the key to creating a good crime series says Pauline Rowson
DI Andy Horton has been described as 'an especially good series hero, a likable fellow with plenty of street smarts and the requisite personal baggage - an abrasive supervisor (DCI Lorraine Bliss) and an antagonistic soon to be ex wife.' Booklist (USA) Footsteps on the Shore.
Heroes in detective novels are often ordinary people with their own set of problems and the key to producing a successful crime novel is not necessarily that the hero saves the world, aka James Bond, but that he also learns something about himself along the way. Putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances builds tension and readers tend to support characters in which they recognise certain traits they have themselves.
For me it is also important to write the stories I like to read and that is crime and thriller novels that have good strong characters and an intriguing and often complex plot that stimulates 'the little grey cells'. I don't do gratuitous violence and I don't write hard boiled crime. That isn't to say there aren't gory bits in the novels but I am not out to shock but to entertain. And I certainly get great satisfaction when people ask me if my detective Andy Horton is going to get back with his wife, Catherine? Will Andy find out the truth about his mother's disappearance? Who is Andy's father? These are not the main strands of the novels - nine now in the series - but they are the things that have shaped Andy Horton and made him what he is and therefore affect his decisions and his interactions with his colleagues and the villains.
In my view readers want to get stuck into a good crime novel that provides entertainment and a puzzle which they can solve at the same time as caring and feeling for the characters. It is my aim to achieve this in the DI Horton series and in my thrillers. I hope my readers enjoy reading about their exploits as much as I enjoy writing them.
Undercurrent, the ninth in the DI Andy Horton series is published by Severn House and available in hardcover in the UK and the Commonwealth. It will be published in the USA on 1 May 2013 when it will also be available as an ebook.
Undercurrent
Heroes in detective novels are often ordinary people with their own set of problems and the key to producing a successful crime novel is not necessarily that the hero saves the world, aka James Bond, but that he also learns something about himself along the way. Putting ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances builds tension and readers tend to support characters in which they recognise certain traits they have themselves.
For me it is also important to write the stories I like to read and that is crime and thriller novels that have good strong characters and an intriguing and often complex plot that stimulates 'the little grey cells'. I don't do gratuitous violence and I don't write hard boiled crime. That isn't to say there aren't gory bits in the novels but I am not out to shock but to entertain. And I certainly get great satisfaction when people ask me if my detective Andy Horton is going to get back with his wife, Catherine? Will Andy find out the truth about his mother's disappearance? Who is Andy's father? These are not the main strands of the novels - nine now in the series - but they are the things that have shaped Andy Horton and made him what he is and therefore affect his decisions and his interactions with his colleagues and the villains.
In my view readers want to get stuck into a good crime novel that provides entertainment and a puzzle which they can solve at the same time as caring and feeling for the characters. It is my aim to achieve this in the DI Horton series and in my thrillers. I hope my readers enjoy reading about their exploits as much as I enjoy writing them.
Undercurrent, the ninth in the DI Andy Horton series is published by Severn House and available in hardcover in the UK and the Commonwealth. It will be published in the USA on 1 May 2013 when it will also be available as an ebook.
Undercurrent
February 5, 2013
New DI Horton published Undercurrent by Pauline Rowson
Undercurrent,the ninth in the marine mystery crime series featuring the flawed and rugged detective DI Horton is now published in the UK and Commonwealth by Severn House. It will be published in the USA on 1 May 2013.
Set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England the DI Horton series has received critical acclaim both in the UK and the USA where they have been compared to the works of Ed McBain and Joseph Wambaugh, and their British counterparts Peter Robinson and John Harvey. Translation rights to the Horton series have recently been sold to China where they are being published in 2013.
American Reviewer Booklist says, "Andy Horton is an especially good series hero, a likeable fellow with plenty of street smarts and the requisite personal baggage – an abrasive supervisor and an antagonistic soon-to-be ex-wife. Procedural fans who haven’t already read Rowson should be encouraged to do so in the strongest possible terms."
Undercurrent
When naval historian Dr Douglas Spalding is found dead in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, the Major Crime Team is adamant it is suicide. Detective Inspector Horton is not so sure. Then another body is found in similar circumstances and Horton is convinced they’re looking at murder; but not so his bosses. Angry and frustrated at the lack of investigation, Horton goes out on a limb to prove he’s right. Whichever way he turns, he finds the deaths have all the hallmarks of a cover up at the highest level, but who is behind it and why? Soon Horton begins to find disturbing similarities with his own private investigations into the disappearance of his mother thirty years ago. As he gets closer to the truth someone is determined to prevent it from ever being revealed, even if means death . . .
Undercurrent
Set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England the DI Horton series has received critical acclaim both in the UK and the USA where they have been compared to the works of Ed McBain and Joseph Wambaugh, and their British counterparts Peter Robinson and John Harvey. Translation rights to the Horton series have recently been sold to China where they are being published in 2013.
American Reviewer Booklist says, "Andy Horton is an especially good series hero, a likeable fellow with plenty of street smarts and the requisite personal baggage – an abrasive supervisor and an antagonistic soon-to-be ex-wife. Procedural fans who haven’t already read Rowson should be encouraged to do so in the strongest possible terms."
Undercurrent
When naval historian Dr Douglas Spalding is found dead in Portsmouth’s Historic Dockyard, the Major Crime Team is adamant it is suicide. Detective Inspector Horton is not so sure. Then another body is found in similar circumstances and Horton is convinced they’re looking at murder; but not so his bosses. Angry and frustrated at the lack of investigation, Horton goes out on a limb to prove he’s right. Whichever way he turns, he finds the deaths have all the hallmarks of a cover up at the highest level, but who is behind it and why? Soon Horton begins to find disturbing similarities with his own private investigations into the disappearance of his mother thirty years ago. As he gets closer to the truth someone is determined to prevent it from ever being revealed, even if means death . . .
Undercurrent
January 29, 2013
Fourth in DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime series, Dead Man's Wharf, to be published in China
The fourth in the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime series, Dead Man's Wharf,by Pauline Rowson,has been published in China by Nanhai Publishing Company of Haikou.
Nanhai Publishing bought translation rights to six novels in the DI Horton series published in the UK, Commonwealth and USA by Severn House. Deadly Waters, the second in the Horton series and The Suffocating Sea, the third in the series have recently been published in China and the remainder in the DI Horton series are to be published over the coming months.
Dead Man's Wharf
Horton and Cantelli are called to a nursing home where an elderly resident, suffering from dementia, claims she's been attacked by an intruder. Horton is ready to dismiss it as senile ramblings until he discovers that her room-mate has died, the dead woman's belongings are missing and her son, convicted for armed robbery, has been found dead in his cell. Coupled with a series of threatening telephone calls to a television personality, and a mother's conviction that her son's death on Christmas Eve was no accident, Horton finds he is caught up in a complex investigation that has far-reaching international implications. With the pressure on to find a killer, and hampered by his belief that his bosses are lying to him, Horton discovers that he's stepped into a web of intrigue, deception and corruption that stretches back into the past.
Dead Man's Wharf
Nanhai Publishing bought translation rights to six novels in the DI Horton series published in the UK, Commonwealth and USA by Severn House. Deadly Waters, the second in the Horton series and The Suffocating Sea, the third in the series have recently been published in China and the remainder in the DI Horton series are to be published over the coming months.
Dead Man's Wharf
Horton and Cantelli are called to a nursing home where an elderly resident, suffering from dementia, claims she's been attacked by an intruder. Horton is ready to dismiss it as senile ramblings until he discovers that her room-mate has died, the dead woman's belongings are missing and her son, convicted for armed robbery, has been found dead in his cell. Coupled with a series of threatening telephone calls to a television personality, and a mother's conviction that her son's death on Christmas Eve was no accident, Horton finds he is caught up in a complex investigation that has far-reaching international implications. With the pressure on to find a killer, and hampered by his belief that his bosses are lying to him, Horton discovers that he's stepped into a web of intrigue, deception and corruption that stretches back into the past.
Dead Man's Wharf
January 25, 2013
See where the new DI Horton, Undercurrent, is set
The new DI Andy Horton, number nine in the series, called Undercurrent, will be published in the UK and Commonwealth on 31 January and in the USA on 1 May 2013. Like all the DI Horton novels it is set against the backdrop of the sea in the Solent area on the South Coast of England.
In this crime novel DI Horton has a new mystery to solve as well as continuing with the search for the truth surrounding the disappearance of his mother over thirty years ago. Undercurrent is set in July around Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, at Gunwharf Quays - which is renamed Oyster Quays in the Horton novels - and around Langstone Harbour.
Click here to see photographs of where Undercurrent was created and how DI Horton is sucked into another baffling and complex case.
Undercurrent
In this crime novel DI Horton has a new mystery to solve as well as continuing with the search for the truth surrounding the disappearance of his mother over thirty years ago. Undercurrent is set in July around Portsmouth's Historic Dockyard, at Gunwharf Quays - which is renamed Oyster Quays in the Horton novels - and around Langstone Harbour.
Click here to see photographs of where Undercurrent was created and how DI Horton is sucked into another baffling and complex case.
Undercurrent
January 18, 2013
DI Horton novel nominated for Book Award
I'm delighted to announce that the seventh in the DI Andy Horton crime series, A Killing Coast has been nominated by my publisher Severn House for the eDUNNIT AWARD at CrimeFest 2013.
Crimefest is an annual convention for crime fiction fans and draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world. It follows the format of US conventions of interviews, panels, a Gala Dinner, and one or two surprises. The event takes place at the Royal Marriot Hotel, Bristol from 30 May to 2 June 2013.
The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2012.
I've appeared at Crimefest for the last three years and will again be appearing on a panel in 2013.
A Killing Coast is the seventh in the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime series set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England. It was published by Severn House in the UK and the USA in 2012.
Death Lies Beneath, the eighth in the Horton series was also published in 2012.
A Killing Coast is also available as an e book.
The winning author receives a cash prize, an eReader and a commemorative vase provided by Bristol Blue Glass.
Undercurrent, the ninth in the series is published in hardcover in the UK in January 2013 and in the USA and as an ebook in May 2013.
For further information please visit my website at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
Death Lies Beneath
Crimefest is an annual convention for crime fiction fans and draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world. It follows the format of US conventions of interviews, panels, a Gala Dinner, and one or two surprises. The event takes place at the Royal Marriot Hotel, Bristol from 30 May to 2 June 2013.
The eDunnit Award is for the best crime fiction ebook first published in both hardcopy and in electronic format in the British Isles in 2012.
I've appeared at Crimefest for the last three years and will again be appearing on a panel in 2013.
A Killing Coast is the seventh in the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime series set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England. It was published by Severn House in the UK and the USA in 2012.
Death Lies Beneath, the eighth in the Horton series was also published in 2012.
A Killing Coast is also available as an e book.
The winning author receives a cash prize, an eReader and a commemorative vase provided by Bristol Blue Glass.
Undercurrent, the ninth in the series is published in hardcover in the UK in January 2013 and in the USA and as an ebook in May 2013.
For further information please visit my website at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
Death Lies Beneath
January 15, 2013
Author on location research - looking for a good place to put a body
Last week on rather a grey, chilly January day I went on location research for the DI Andy Horton Marine Mystery crime novel I am currently writing, number ten in the series.
I have finished the first drafts and am now working on the revisions and although I know the area where I have set this novel well, I wanted to visit it and check out a few things.
I've already written about one of the areas where DI Horton (10) is set and that is Hilsea Lines in Portsmouth. In addition this novel is set around Haslar Marina, Gosport and my very grateful thanks to the marina manager and staff at Haslar Marina for letting me roam about the pontoons and bombard them with questions.
I am hoping to finish DI Horton (10) by the end of February then it will be on with the next one.
You can view the photographs from my location research for DI Horton (10) on my marine mystery blog at http://paulinerowsonmarinemysteries.b...
Undercurrent
I have finished the first drafts and am now working on the revisions and although I know the area where I have set this novel well, I wanted to visit it and check out a few things.
I've already written about one of the areas where DI Horton (10) is set and that is Hilsea Lines in Portsmouth. In addition this novel is set around Haslar Marina, Gosport and my very grateful thanks to the marina manager and staff at Haslar Marina for letting me roam about the pontoons and bombard them with questions.
I am hoping to finish DI Horton (10) by the end of February then it will be on with the next one.
You can view the photographs from my location research for DI Horton (10) on my marine mystery blog at http://paulinerowsonmarinemysteries.b...
Undercurrent
January 2, 2013
A busy year ahead with new DI Horton crime novel, events and interviews
It’s customary at this time of the year to look ahead to the coming year and while none of us can predict what 2013 will bring and how it will shake out I’ve taken the opportunity to highlight on my website blog some of the things that are planned. Here's a taster. You can read the full entry on my website
First up I’m looking forward to the publication of the ninth in the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime series, Undercurrent, which will be published in hardcover by Severn House in the UK in January and in the USA in May. It will also be released as an ebook in May. So another one in the series to keep DI Horton fans happy. And as to whether he will discover the truth behind his mother’s disappearance over thirty years ago… well you’ll have to buy (or borrow the book from the library) to find out.
I’m also pleased to announce that Footsteps on the Shore, the sixth in the DI Horton series, will be published in Large Print by Severn House in March. It is already available in paperback and as an ebook.
You can read more about my books, events, radio and video interviews for 2013 on my website at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
Wishing all my readers a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2013.
Undercurrent
First up I’m looking forward to the publication of the ninth in the DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime series, Undercurrent, which will be published in hardcover by Severn House in the UK in January and in the USA in May. It will also be released as an ebook in May. So another one in the series to keep DI Horton fans happy. And as to whether he will discover the truth behind his mother’s disappearance over thirty years ago… well you’ll have to buy (or borrow the book from the library) to find out.
I’m also pleased to announce that Footsteps on the Shore, the sixth in the DI Horton series, will be published in Large Print by Severn House in March. It is already available in paperback and as an ebook.
You can read more about my books, events, radio and video interviews for 2013 on my website at http://www.rowmark.co.uk
Wishing all my readers a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2013.
Undercurrent
December 21, 2012
Looking back over the highlights of 2012
2012 was another busy and rewarding year for me with two new DI Andy Horton Mystery crime novels, (number seven and eight in the series published), A Killing Coast and Death Lies Beneath set against the backdrop of the sea on the South Coast of England; some lovely reviews in the UK and the USA; radio interviews; guest appearances, talks and panel events; location research and translation deals and in the time honoured tradition I thought I’d do a round up of the highlights from 2012 on my website blog
You can read the full entry and view the pictures from 2012 on my website
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.
You can read the full entry and view the pictures from 2012 on my website
Wishing you all a very Happy Christmas.
December 11, 2012
CSI Portsmouth 2012, crime fiction meets crime fact, now on DVD
A DVD of CSI Portsmouth 2012 has now been released.
The two disk set DVD includes both the morning and afternoon panel sessions featuring crime authors Ann Cleeves, Stephen Booth, Matt Hilton and Pauline Rowson and crime experts from Hampshire Police, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services, the universities of Portsmouth and Surrey.
CSI Portsmouth 2012 DVD is on sale for £20.00 plus £3.50 postage and packaging (UK). To order or for enquiries outside the UK please contact http://www.rowmark.co.uk/contact/
Running time: 2hrs. 17 mins.
For more details about CSI Portsmouth 2012 visit http://www.rowmark.co.uk/csi-portsmouth/ or watch vidoe extracts on this website or on http://www.youtube.com/paulinerowson13
The two disk set DVD includes both the morning and afternoon panel sessions featuring crime authors Ann Cleeves, Stephen Booth, Matt Hilton and Pauline Rowson and crime experts from Hampshire Police, Hampshire Fire and Rescue Services, the universities of Portsmouth and Surrey.
CSI Portsmouth 2012 DVD is on sale for £20.00 plus £3.50 postage and packaging (UK). To order or for enquiries outside the UK please contact http://www.rowmark.co.uk/contact/
Running time: 2hrs. 17 mins.
For more details about CSI Portsmouth 2012 visit http://www.rowmark.co.uk/csi-portsmouth/ or watch vidoe extracts on this website or on http://www.youtube.com/paulinerowson13
