Whose story is it? That is a question every writer needs to ask him or herself before starting to write a novel, or if not then certainly while writing and revising it. From whose viewpoint are you telling the story? Is it single viewpoint or multiple viewpoint? Is it male or female or a mixture of both? Beware the latter though and having too many viewpoints because that will not only muddle the story and slow it down but it will also confuse you, and more importantly the…

Time frames in novels, and particularly when writing a series, as I do with the DI Andy Horton novels, are a tricky thing. There is ‘real time’ and there is ‘fictional time’.

In ‘real time’ I write two DI Horton novels a year whereas in ‘fictional time’ the current novels are set over a period of sixteen months, which means there are an awful lot of murders in Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight, making it…

“Obituaries would be a lot more interesting if they told you how the person died.”

At first I thought this was a little insensitive to the dead person's surviving family. Do the grandsons really need to read about grandma getting run over by a reindeer? Then I thought: lighten up, these truths are supposed be light-hearted fun.

With the last truth I discussed how much detail to put into a…

Severn House publishers have announced they have brought forward the publication of two e books in the DI Andy Horton series.

A Killing Coast, the seventh in the DI Horton series,which was scheduled to be…

Wanted to pass this along;

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Kidnapping, Murder,

and Dark Pasts Collide in

DEATH IN THE HAIGHT

by Ronald Tierney

A Dutton Guilt Edged Mystery…

I'm often asked how I go about planning a novel.When starting a fresh crime novel (as I am now, having recently finished writing the ninth in the DI Andy Horton series) I have the basic idea in mind. I will start to flesh this out using spider grams and time lines to work up the basic plot lines and character outlines, working in pencil on recycled pieces of A4 paper.

Often I will create some characters who won’t appear in the novel at all because by the time I start to write the…

The eighth in the DI Andy Horton series of marine mystery crime police procedural novels, Death Lies Beneath is officially published today in the UK in hardcover by Severn House.  It will be published in the USA in November.

Death Lies Beneath by Pauline Rowson…

It was lovely chatting to Julian Clegg again on BBC Radio Solent this morning even though it was an early start, so if I look a little bleary eyed forgive me, I'm not used to getting up at 5.15 am!

We talked about the DI Andy Horton crime series including the latest Death Lies Beneath which will be published in the UK in July and in…

It only seems like five minutes ago I was writing the entry for June and here we are in July (and with little sign of the summer in the UK). So what's happening in July?



On 5 July I am to be guest crime author at the annual conference of the British Society of Criminology taking place at the University of Portsmouth, Institute of Criminal…

 I was interviewed…

Fakhra Younus was an attractive young woman. That's her in the picture. Take a good look at her face. I don't want you to forget it.…

The second Dead Detective Mystery, DEAD FOR THE MONEY, comes out on Friday, and the publicist for LL-Publishing has arranged a blog tour for me beginning in May. (This in itself is cool, because I've always had to arrange my own before.) In most of the posts, I'll be letting Seamus, Dead Detective, explain his view of things. I'll keep you apprised of the schedule as it develops.

So what is it like to be dead? There are so many possible answers that the mind boggles. Some say death is…

Jonathan Hayes, a veteran forensic pathologist, has been a New York City medical examiner, performing autopsies and testifying in murder trials, since 1990. A former contributing editor at Martha Stewart Living, Hayes has written for the New York Times, GQ, and Food & Wine.…

My publisher, Severn House, has brought forward the publication of the next DI Andy Horton crime novel, number eight in the series, Death Lies Beneath.

Death Lies Beneath will be published in the UK in July 2012. A Killing Coast, number seven in the series, was published in the UK in January and will be published in the USA in May 2012 and Death Lies Beneath will be published in the USA in November 2012.So Horton fans have two new crime novels in the series this year to…

I am sooo excited to be part of the Coffin Hop this year!  There are 100 authors participating which means YOU have a chance to win some really cool prizes like a Nook, gift cards, books, t-shirts, and even a chance to have your name in a novel!



Although I'm not a horror writer...YET, I am a mystery/thriller writer.  I write the…

Death investigation is the most important aspect of a medical examiner, coroner, or death investigator’s basic professional duty.  Death investigators play a key role in all types of death scenes; they contribute to the successful death scene investigation along with, but not limited to police officers, emergency personnel, hospital personnel, police detectives, forensic pathologists, funeral directors, and family members. 

The death investigation team is…