Martin Edwards's Blog, page 287

The Father of Forensics

The Father of Forensics, by Colin Evans, is sub-titled 'How Sir Bernard Spilsbury Invented Modern CSI' and at once it is evident that, although Spilsbury has his detractors, Evans is certainly not among them. This is a positive, but I think reasonably balanced, account of the work of the legendary pathologist, and there is certainly room for more than one way of judging the achievements of this flawed, but remarkable, human being.

I became interested in Spilsbury's work mainly as a result of h...

A View of the Lake

After my tour of the Theatre by the Lake on Wednesday, I had a look round Keswick to fasten in my mind some of the settings that play a part in my current Lake District Mystery work-in-progress. These included the River Greta, which flows beside Fitz Park in a part of the town that I haven't explored properly in the past.

After that, it was back to Windermere, and a walk up a fairly gentle slope to Orrest Head. This is the viewpoint from which Alfred Wainwright, famed for his walking guides...

The Theatre by the Lake

A highlight of my trip to the Lake District was a backstage tour of a truly fascinating place, the Theatre by the Lake at Keswick. There can be few theatres anywhere in the world that enjoy a lovelier setting, overlooking Derwent Water, and the building – opened eleven years ago - has been very sympathetically integrated into the landscape.

One of the many pleasant things that has happened to me as a result of writing this blog is that, after I mentioned the Theatre following my last visit to ...

Forgotten Book - Shadows Before

It's almost eighteen months since I featured Dorothy Bowers in Patti Abbott's series of Forgotten Books, so I thought she was more than due for another mention. She only wrote five novels in a career of great promise that was, sadly, cut short by TB. But they are books of distinct merit, which earned her election to the Detection Club not long before she died.

Shadows Before is an ambitious and elaborately plotted mystery. First published in 1939, it marked a welcome return for Chief...

Stone Circles

There is something fascinating about ancient stone circles. One has a sense of timelessness, of sharing with people long gone and forgotten. And yesterday I visited, for the first time in more than twenty years, a stone circle in a quite lovely setting. This was Castlerigg, on the outskirts of Keswick.

I decided to celebrate my birthday by having a day's holiday from work – and where better to spend it than in the Lakes? After the recent fine weather, the day began with drizzle, but –...

Reginald Hill

In discussing Peter Robinson yesterday, I mentioned that he and I first met at a CWA Northern Chapter meeting. At it was at the inaugural lunch of the Chapter, in Borougbridge, back in 1987, that I first met one of the finest crime writers of the last forty years. Reginald Hill has, since then, been something of an inspiration to me.

I'd read some of Reg's books before that first meeting, and I enjoyed the way he combined intricate plotting with witty characterisation. He was, and will no...

Peter Robinson

Peter Robinson is now one of the leading crime writers, but he certainly paid his dues. He wrote a good many novels about his series detective, Inspector Alan Banks, as well as an excellent stand-alone, Caedmon's Song, before his talents were widely recognised. When a publisher finally got behind him, and gave his work the marketing push that had previously been lacking, his sales soared.

I started reading Peter's books shortly after he was published for the first time. They appealed to me a ...

The Cipher Garden and Amazon

I've received glad tidings from Allison & Busby, namely that The Cipher Garden is to be reprinted shortly, with new cover artwork in the same style as that for The Serpent Pool and the recent reprint of The Coffin Trail. An early version is illustrated above, although there may be a few changes before it is finalised.

This is pleasing news, because one of the unfortunate aspects of life as a published writer – if you are lucky enough to hang around for a few years, and produce a number of...

Whether to Twitter?

After celebrating my 1000th blog post, it's perhaps timely to consider whether I should undertake any other online ventures. Several people have advised me to give Twitter a go, but until now I haven't indulged, due to lack of time. And it has been suggested to me that perhaps Twitter wouldn't be of any real benefit.

Why would I get involved with Twitter? Ultimately, I suppose the rationale would be something to do with raising my profile as a crime writer. I don't have a vast publicity...

1000 Not Out

I squeezed in a couple of blog posts yesterday, which took my overall tally of posts since I started 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?' to one thousand. Suffice to say that, when I began the project, I never dreamed I would get this far, let alone so (relatively) soon.

It's been a thoroughly enjoyable experience for me and, all being well, I don't plan to stop in the forseeable future. I do want to say how very much I appreciate the responses that I receive. Your comments often provoke much t...