The Crime Interviews: Volume Two


Book Description

If you're interested in learning about how to write, how to be a writer, or about the writing life in general, what greater resource and pleasure than frank, in-depth interviews with best-selling authors? Len Wanner returns with the second in hisCrime Interviews series, this time featuring:• William McIlvanney• Tony Black• Doug Johnstone• Helen FitzGerald• Quintin Jardine• Gordon Ferris• Craig Russell• Douglas Lindsay• Ray Banks• Denise Mina• So much more than a collection of writing tips,The Crime Interviews Volume Two is brimming with pithy, witty and sometimes just plain weird revelations. It provides a unique and unforgettable insight into how authors think... and how they write."Fascinating stuff, whether you are a fan of any particular author, or of the genre as a whole, or even of the wider world of Scottish and British Literature in contemporary times. In fact, I may just have to go back and read both volumes again..."-from the foreword by Ian Rankin See also The Crime Interviews Volume One for nine more interviews. What they said about Volume One..."This is fascinating reading and a real treat. A rare insight into the minds of a diverse group of crime writers, writing in one genre, living in proximity, but all with utterly different, individual voices."-Peter James, author ofDead Like You "Len Wanner is the perfect interrogator, subtle, accommodating and incisive, and these interviews elicit many layers of deep, dark and vital intelligence."-John Banville author of The Sea




Crime


Book Description

"A bank robber goes on a spree. A man confesses to a murder he did'nt commit. A gangster tortures his accomplice. The perfect murder is attempted by two teenagers. These are just a few of the cases - fact and fiction, little known and legendary - that Alix Lambert explores in her investigation of the nature of crime, both real and imagined." "Throughout these compelling interviews - with detectives, actors, murderers, film directors, prison inmates and authors - a constant theme emerges: Could I do that? Is it bad luck or bad judgement that pushes someone over the edge? The boundaries between safety and danger aren't as defined as we'd like to believe."--BOOK JACKET.




The Crime Interviews: Volume Three


Book Description

If you're interested in learning about how to write, how to be a writer, or about the writing life in general, what greater resource and pleasure than frank, revealing interviews with some of today's best-selling authors? Len Wanner's acclaimed interview series continues with VOLUME THREE, featuring in-depth interviews with twelve of the leading lights of Scottish crime fiction and with a foreword by William McIlvanney, creator of Jack Laidlaw and the Godfather of tartan noir.-Peter May talks about writing for television, repairing bad dialogue, researching his China thrillers with the help of the Ministry of Propaganda, and receiving international exposure with a book no British publisher wanted to publish.-Charles Cumming talks about the rewards of a degree in literature, refining expositional storytelling, researching state secrets at home and abroad, writing the great international spy novel, and being recruited by the SIS.-Campbell Armstrong talks about going abroad to write about home, giving up on teaching creative writing, getting over the paralysis of a bad sentence, going on stake-outs, giving us his memoirs, and getting commissioned to novelise Indiana Jones.-Caro Ramsay talks about teaching herself how to write with her back against the wall, learning how to write crime fiction from agents and editors, teaching herself how to compartmentalise, and learning how to finish a book.-Aline Templeton talks about diving in and out of writing, writing a series of cosy police procedurals based on a subterranean cave system, living in the city yet writing about the countryside, and discovering that a fictional protagonist is a living person.-plus much more from Lin Anderson, Alex Gray, Gillian Galbraith, GJ Moffat, Craig Robertson, Ken McClure, and Frederic Lindsay.




The Crime Interviews: Volume One


Book Description

If you're interested in learning about how to write, how to be a writer, or about the writing life in general, what greater resource and pleasure than frank, in-depth interviews with best-selling authors? In The Crime Interviews Volume One, Len Wanner interviews: Ian Rankin• Stuart MacBride• Karen Campbell• Neil Forsyth• Chris Brookmyre• Paul Johnston• Alice Thompson• Allan Guthrie• Louise Welsh So much more than a collection of writing tips, The Crime Interviews Volume One is brimming with pithy, witty and sometimes just plain weird revelations. It provides a unique and unforgettable insight into how authors think... and how they write. See also The Crime Interviews Volume Two and Volume Three. [Two Ravens Press published a previous edition of this book in 2011 under the title Dead Sharp: Scottish Crime Writers On Country And Craft] What they're saying.... This is fascinating reading and a real treat. A rare insight into the minds of a diverse group of crime writers, writing in one genre, living in proximity, but all with utterly different, individual voices."•-Peter James, author of Dead Like You "Len Wanner is the perfect interrogator, subtle, accommodating and incisive, and these interviews elicit many layers of deep, dark and vital intelligence."•-John Banville, author of The Sea•




The Crime Book


Book Description

Investigate 100 of the world's most notorious crimes, including the Great Train Robbery, the Lindbergh kidnapping, and the murders of serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer. Were the perpetrators delusional, opportunist, or truly evil? Find out what really happened and how the cases were solved. Discover conmen with sheer verve, such as Victor Lustig who "sold" the Eiffel Tower to scrap dealers in 1925, adrenaline-fuelled escapes, and mind-bending exploits of pirates, kidnappers, and drug cartels. The Crime Book demystifies malware, cybercrimes, and Ponzi schemes and sets out the terrifying ploys of mass murderers from 16th-century Elizabeth Báthory who drained young girls' blood to the more recent exploits of Rosemary and Fred West. Like a virus, crime mutates and adapts. The Crime Book explains how pivotal moments in history opened up new opportunities for criminals, such as the smuggling of alcohol during the American Prohibition era. It also charts developments in justice and forensics including the Innocence Project, which used DNA testing to exonerate wrongly convicted convicts. It examines how the forces of law and order have fought back against crime, explaining ingenious sting operations such as tracking down the jewel thief Bill Mason and the final capture of murderer Ted Bundy. With a foreword from bestselling crime author Cathy Scott, The Crime Book is an enthralling introduction to humanity's darker side. Series Overview: Big Ideas Simply Explained series uses creative design and innovative graphics, along with straightforward and engaging writing, to make complex subjects easier to understand. These award-winning books provide just the information needed for students, families, or anyone interested in concise, thought-provoking refreshers on a single subject.




Darker than Night


Book Description

A chilling account of the murders of two hunters in rural Michigan—a mystery that haunted a community and baffled the police for two decades. In the bitter cold of 1985, two buddies from Detroit embark on a hunting trip to the Michigan wilderness, unaware they will soon become the hunted. The eerie silence surrounding their sudden disappearance is broken after nearly two decades when a relentless investigator inspires a terrified witness to break her silence. The witness narrates a haunting scene that had unfolded years back, pointing fingers at the prime suspects—the Duvall brothers. With no bodies unearthed, the justice system is riveted by the startling revelations during an electrifying trial in 2003. The brothers, Raymond and Donald Duvall, had bragged about the murders, evocatively explaining how they dismembered their victims and fed them to pigs. Despite the shocking confession, the case holds its ground purely on a single witness’s account, taking the courtroom through a labyrinth of dark secrets and sinister acts. This gripping thriller presents a vivid tale of crime that reveals the devastating power of evil.




Ted Bundy: Conversations with a Killer


Book Description

In a series of death row interviews done shortly before his execution, infamous serial killer Ted Bundy gave a third-person "confession" of his many murders. This definitive book on Bundy was recently made into a Netflix documentary. What goes on in the mind of a serial killer? Drawn from more than 150 hours of exclusive tape-recorded interviews with the handsome, charismastic Bundy, whose grisly killing spree left at least 30 young women dead across seven states between 1974 and 1978, this chilling exposé provides a shocking self-portrait of one of the most savage sex murderers in history. Speaking eerily in the third person, Bundy reveals appalling details about his crimes, discloses how he attracted his victims, explains how he methodically disguised his acts, and recounts his two daring jailbreaks. Bundy also offers his thoughts on other infamous serial killers, including John Wayne Gacy and Son of Sam.




Tartan Noir


Book Description

A comprehensive and fascinating guide to the worldwide crime fiction phenomenon known as Tartan Noir covering all its major authors. What is Tartan Noir? Which authors belong to this global crime fiction phenomenon? Which books should you read first, next, again, or not at all? And what are the many historical, political, and cultural influences that have woven themselves into the Tartan Noir success story? Here, Len Wanner investigates the literature's four main sub-genres - the detective, the police, the serial killer, and the noir novel. Covering four decades' worth of literary history, Wanner offers not only four in-depth cross-examinations but also close readings of another 40 novels - everything from commercial hits and critical triumphs to curiosity pieces and cult classi. Books critiqued include international bestsellers by the likes of Ian Rankin, William McIlvanney, Val McDermid, and Denise Mina, alongside lesser known gems by counter-cultural icons such as Hugh C. Rae, Ray Banks, Allan Guthrie, Helen FitzGerald, and many more.




I Know You Know


Book Description

From New York Times bestselling author Gilly Macmillan comes this original, chilling and twisty mystery about two shocking murder cases twenty years apart, and the threads that bind them. Twenty years ago, eleven-year-olds Charlie Paige and Scott Ashby were murdered in the city of Bristol, their bodies dumped near a dog racing track. A man was convicted of the brutal crime, but decades later, questions still linger. For his whole life, filmmaker Cody Swift has been haunted by the deaths of his childhood best friends. The loose ends of the police investigation consume him so much that he decides to return to Bristol in search of answers. Hoping to uncover new evidence, and to encourage those who may be keeping long-buried secrets to speak up, Cody starts a podcast to record his findings. But there are many people who don’t want the case—along with old wounds—reopened so many years after the tragedy, especially Charlie’s mother, Jess, who decides to take matters into her own hands. When a long-dead body is found in the same location the boys were left decades before, the disturbing discovery launches another murder investigation. Now Detective John Fletcher, the investigator on the original case, must reopen his dusty files and decide if the two murders are linked. With his career at risk, the clock is ticking and lives are in jeopardy…




The Criminal World of Sherlock Holmes - Volume Two


Book Description

A shocking account of the savage world in which Sherlock Holmes operated. The crimes of The Ripper; Conan Doyle's knowledge of the killer's identity; the methods employed by criminals, and of their pursuers; the harrowing truth about Holmes' drug abuse, and of his gang of 'street arabs', the long-lost crime monographs by the Baker Street sleuth; and much more, this book tells the true story of Holmes' gas-lit and sinister criminal world. "Victorian society was violent & exploitive..., footpads and garrotters stalked the streets of the City...beggars were rife.". Kelvin is the author of many books about Holmes, the definitive biography of Doyle as a spiritualist & the 3 volume edition of the author's spiritualist writings. A distinguished life member of the Sherlock Holmes Society of London, he has published contemporary crime novels and poetry, and is a member of the Crime Writers' Association. "The almost legendary Mr Jones..."- Roger Johnson, commissioning ed. of The Sherlock Holmes Journal. "Kelvin Jones takes the reader into Victorian England, walking side by side with the Great Detective..., an all-round, relentless researcher..." - Mark Alberstaat, ed. of Canadian Holmes.