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Malcolm Richards

Goodreads Author

Born

in Cornwall, The United Kingdom

Website

https://www.malcolmrichardsauthor.com

Genre

Crime, Thriller, Mystery

Member Since

March 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/malcolmrichardsauthor

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Malcolm Richards crafts stories to keep you guessing from the edge of your seat. He is the author of several crime thrillers and mystery novels, including the PI Blake Hollow series, the award-nominated Devil’s Cove trilogy, and the Emily Swanson series. Many of his books are set in Cornwall, where he was born and raised.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Malcolm worked for many years in the special education sector, teaching and supporting children with complex needs. After living in London for two decades, he has now settled in the Somerset countryside with his partner and a cat named Sukey.

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Popular Answered Questions

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Malcolm Richards The ideas behind The Hiding House came from a few different places. The setting is very much from my childhood. I grew up in Cornwall and spent almost…moreThe ideas behind The Hiding House came from a few different places. The setting is very much from my childhood. I grew up in Cornwall and spent almost every weekend at my grandmother's farm, which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. She lived quite an isolated life in that respect, and I think there's a lot of that in the book.

I'd also been teaching children with complex emotional and behavioural needs at the time, and some of the experiences that they'd lived through were just shocking. They were tough these kids, they'd learned to cope with terrible circumstances. I have the utmost respect for them. I wanted to put that resilience in the book - kids are much more resourceful than we give them credit for.

Finally, I'd grown up with an obsession with Grimms fairy tales. I love the darkness to them - the original versions are essentially horror stories for kids! It seemed fitting, giving the settng of the story, a bit of a fairy tale twist - which is why you'll find several analogies and references in The Hiding House.(less)

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Malcolm Richards Writer's block can be a real nightmare for me, but I've learned a few tools to combat it.

1. Get up and move away from your laptop. There's no point g…moreWriter's block can be a real nightmare for me, but I've learned a few tools to combat it.

1. Get up and move away from your laptop. There's no point getting angry with yourself while staring at a blank page.

2. Go do the laundry, clean the house, go for a walk - I find monotonous, repetitive actions help to free up my brain.

3. I learned this trick from someone else - if you find you're procrastinating when you should be writing, get up and go stand in a corner of the room until you're geared up to write again. It may sound like I'm sending you to the naughty corner, but it's a good trick to take your mind off Buzzfeed and refocus it on your writing.

4. Even if you think that what you're writing sucks, remind yourself that you can always redraft it later. I've got stuck on this so many times, freezing up on a first draft because I'm spending too much time focusing on how well I'm writing, instead of just writing. For me, the first draft is about getting words onto a page, getting the story out. The second draft is where you make sense of the story, and the third is where you can go to town on making your prose shine.

5. Write every day. Even if it's for five minutes. Even if you write just a paragraph. A sentence. A word. As long as you show up and write something - even if you think it's crap (see number 4), you'll find yourself chipping away at that block little by little.(less)

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Combine Editions
Malcolm Richards’s books

Average rating: 4.03 · 7,288 ratings · 546 reviews · 25 distinct works • Similar authors

	Next to Disappear (Emily Swanson Thrillers #1) 3.94 avg rating — 4,604 ratings — published 2015 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cove (The Devil's Cove Trilogy, #1) by Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author) 4.12 avg rating — 1,035 ratings — published 2017 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Desperation Point (The Devil's Cove Trilogy, #2) 4.40 avg rating — 360 ratings — published 2018 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Devil's Gate (The Devil's Cove Trilogy, #3) 4.38 avg rating — 224 ratings — published 2019 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mind For Murder (The Emily Swanson Series, #2) 4.20 avg rating — 232 ratings — published 2016 — 13 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Wish Me Dead: A Prequel Novella (Emily Swanson Thrillers, #0) 3.91 avg rating — 165 ratings — published 2017 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hiding House 3.86 avg rating — 162 ratings — published 2011 — 8 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Trail of Poison (The Emily Swanson Series, #3) 4.39 avg rating — 123 ratings — published 2016 — 3 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Watch You Sleep (The Emily Swanson Series, #4) 4.52 avg rating — 79 ratings — published 2019 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Walking After Midnight 3.67 avg rating — 88 ratings — published 2015 — 2 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Malcolm Richards…

Series by Malcolm Richards

Emily Swanson Thrillers (5 books)
by

Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author)

3.98 avg rating — 5,291 ratings

The Devil's Cove Trilogy (3 books)
by

Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author)

4.22 avg rating — 1,643 ratings

P.I. Blake Hollow (1 book)
by

Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author)

4.45 avg rating — 60 ratings

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Malcolm Richards is now friends with Bjorn Thomassen
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Quotes by Malcolm Richards (?)

“She was drowning, pulled under by a froth of limbs and bodies, swept along by currents of voices, music, and car engines. Dark shadows circled her like hungry sharks. She rose up, dragged to the surface by an impatient crowd. Hands and elbows pushed and shoved. Exhaust fumes and food smells clogged her nostrils. This was the old part of the city, where archaic buildings stood side by side, defences pitched against the onslaught of the modern. There were no smooth walls here, no towers made of steel and glass. This was all shadows and sculpture, buttresses and winding alleys; the impenetrable heart of a long ago city, beating to a circadian rhythm. The”
― Malcolm Richards, Lost Lives

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“He just does what they tell him to and then before you know it, he's off his feet again and dosed up on painkillers. It's an unfair system, Emily. All those bloody scroungers who can work but won't. Meanwhile, it's my poor Andrew who's getting grief. Of course, what he really needs is the love of an honest woman. At least he's got his old mum, eh? Tea?”
― Malcolm Richards, Next to Disappear

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“pleasant enough, with varnished floorboards and terracotta walls decorated with prints of sun-blistered landscapes. The aroma of coffee”
― Malcolm Richards, Lost Lives

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Malcolm’s Quotes

“See, if you hate, you don’t just hate one group. If you hate Jews, you probably also hate blacks, Gypsies, whomever. The problem is you, not them. You’re the one with the hate.”
― Anatol Chari, From Ghetto to Death Camp: A Memoir Of Privilege and Luck

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“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

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