The Northumberland of Karen Charlton’s Detective Lavender Books: “A Lawless, Godless No-man’s Land”

British writer Karen Charlton is the author of a pair of novels featuring  Detective Lavender and set in early nineteenth-century Northumberland. The first, Catching the Eagle, is a fictionalized account of an actual crime and trial that involved her husband’s ancestors. A robbery at a country house brings Stephen Lavender of the Bow Street magistrate’s court in London to the scene to investigate. London’s Daily Mail had high praise for this series opener, noting, “Told with gritty realism, Catching The Eagle is a suspense-filled page-turner, which spares nothing in its descriptions of the hardships and injustices suffered by the poor at the turn of the 19th century.“ Charlton has just released the second in the series, The Missing Heiress. 

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Maureen Carter’s Birmingham Police Novels: More Canals than Venice

Maureen Carter is the author of the critically acclaimed DS Bev Morriss crime series, seven books strong, and the  police procedural featuring reporter Caroline King and DI Sarah Quinn. Former BBC news presenter Carter  began her DS Bev Morriss series with the 2004 Working Girls, a title about which Reviewing the Evidence declared, “Carter can do dialogue… the writing has bounce and energy, as befits a journalist.” This was followed with Dead Old, Baby Love, and Hard Time, which  Eurocrime praised for its “no-nonsense pared down style which combined with an action filled plot leaves the reader gasping for breath and turning the pages.” Then came Bad Press, Blood Money, and  Deathline.

Carter’s DI Quinn series kicked off with the 2011 Question of Despair, of which Library Journal said, ” Crisply written with an electric pace – this story won’t soon leave you.” Mother Love followed, then with then this year’s Dying Bad.

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Peter Lovesey’s “Abrasive” Detective Peter Diamond and His Bath Mysteries

Peter Lovesey needs little introduction to aficionados of crime fiction. Known for his Victorian-era police procedurals featuring Sergeant Cribb written during the 1970s and a staple on British television in the 1980s, Lovesey now pens a series featuring Peter Diamond, a modern-day police detective in Bath. But Lovesey has also written a score of other works of fiction and nonfiction, some under the pseudonym of Peter Lear.

Of his 2011 Diamond novel, Stagestruck, Marilyn Stasio dubbed it a “brilliantly conceived and smartly executed mystery set in the hallowed Theater Royal of Bath,” in the New York Times Book Review. Of that same work, Publishers Weekly noted, “Lovesey proves he has few peers as a crafter of contemporary fair-play whodunits.” His newest Diamond novel, Cop to Corpse, is just out from Soho, and Publishers Weekly had glowing words in its starred review: “Nail-biting…. Lovesey leavens the suspense with Diamond’s trademark gallows humor, and closes with one of his cleverest solutions.”

Lovesey has won just about every writing prize that is out there, including the CWA Macallan Silver Dagger and Gold Dagger, the Barry Award, the Macavity Award, the Anthony Award, the Ellery Queen Readers’ Award–well, you get the idea. The New York Times Book Review dubbed him a “master of the classic puzzle,” and the Wall Street Journal noted that “Lovesey’s delicate balance of humor and suspense [is] one of the delights of contemporary crime fiction.”

Peter, it is an honor and delight to have you with us at Scene of the Crime. You know the drill–let’s start things off with a discussion of your crime scene.

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“Murder Was a Frequent Visitor to Blackpool”: The DCI Henry Christie Novels of Nick Oldham

Nick Oldham follows the old dictum of writing what you know. He spent thirty years in various positions in the Lancashire Constabulary before retiring in 2005 to write full time. He has written eighteen well regarded police procedurals in the DCI Henry Christie series, novels set mostly in Blackpool, England. “A flawed and very human hero, inside-the-cop-shop politics, heart-pounding suspense, and gritty realism are trademarks of Oldham’s excellent Henry Christie series” noted Booklist of these works. “Gritty and precise” is how the London Times described the series, while Kirkus Reviews dubbed these works “splendid British procedural[s] with complex plotting.”

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Eighteenth-Century Leeds: The “Heartbeat” of the Richard Nottingham Series by Chris Nickson

British music journalist Chris Nickson is the author of the Richard Nottingham books, historical mysteries set in Leeds in the 1730s and featuring Nottingham, the Constable of the city, and his deputy, John Sedgwick. As Nickson has said of his series: “The books are about more than murder. They’re about the people of Leeds and the way life was – which means full of grinding poverty for all but the wealthy. They’re also about families, Nottingham and his and Sedgwick, and the way relationships grow and change, as well as the politics, when there was one law for the rich, and another, much more brutal, for everyone else.”

Nickson’s debut, The Broken Token, earned a starred review from Publishers Weekly, which called it “impressive,” and further noted: “Nottingham and Sedgwick interview whores, pimps, and procurers in an effort to catch the lunatic who slays three couples in six days. Multiple threads of the case come together at the end in an unexpected and disturbing conclusion.” Second in the series, Cold Cruel Winter, appeared in 2011 and earned another starred review from Publishers Weekly as a “superb” novel. It also was named one of the ten best mysteries of that year by Library Journal. His third, The Constant Lovers, comes out in the spring from Severn House’s Crème de la Crime imprint.

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Stephen Booth’s Cooper & Fry Series: The “Darkness Lurking Underneath” England’s Peak District

British writer Stephen Booth was a journalist for twenty-five years before turning to fiction. In 2000, his debut novel, Black Dog, marked the arrival in print of his best known creations — two young Derbyshire police detectives, DC Ben Cooper and DS Diane Fry. Black Dog was the named by the London Evening Standard as one of the six best crime novels of the year, the only book on their list written by a British author. In the USA, it won the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel and was nominated for an Anthony Award for Best First Mystery. The second Cooper & Fry novel, Dancing with the Virgins, was shortlisted for the UK’s top crime writing award, the Gold Dagger, and went on to win a Barry Award for the second year running.

Booth has turned a novel a year in the series since its inception; the eleventh Cooper & Fry novel, The Devil’s Edge, came out this year in England. All the critically acclaimed Cooper & Fry books are set in England’s Peak District.

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“The UK Writ Small”–Graham Hurley’s DI Joe Faraday Novels and the Island City of Portsmouth

Graham Hurley is an award-winning former director and producer of documentaries in England who finally made a long-time dream come true by turning to fiction writing in 1990. Since that time he has penned a score of novels, beginning with such popular stand-alone thrillers as Rules of Engagement, The Perfect Soldier, and Permissible Limits, and since 2000, with the Joe Faraday series. The eleventh in that series, Borrowed Light, was published in England last November.

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“Utterly Desolate”–The Norfolk of Elly Griffiths’ Ruth Galloway Novels

Elly Griffiths is the author of a series of crime novels set in England’s Norfolk county and featuring forensic archaeologist Ruth Galloway. The first in the series, Crossing Places, earned a good deal of praise both in Griffiths’ native country, England, and in the U.S. The Literary Review termed it “a cleverly plotted and extremely interesting first novel, highly recommended.” Kirkus Reviews also lauded the work, noting, “A winning debut…. the first-rate characters and chilling story are entrancing from start to finish.”

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Nick Quantrill’s Joe Geraghty Books: The Incredible “Hull”

British author Nick Quantrill opened his PI Joe Geraghty series with the 2010 Broken Dreams, set in Hull, England. Here Geraghty, a former rugby player turned private investigator, becomes involved in a murder and subsequent police investigation that involves the demise of the city’s fishing industry and explores the problem of how Hull can build a new future for itself. A reviewer for thisisUll.com felt that “Quantrill’s passion for this neglected part of East Yorkshire is evident in his writing and reminiscent of Ian Rankin’s love affair with Edinburgh.”

Nick, thanks for joining us at Scene of the Crime. Let’s start out with your connection to Hull, England. How did you come to live there or become interested in it?

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