I had great time entertaining the ladies of the Young at Heart Club (part of Brandon Care) on Wednesday 5 February. They certainly lived up to their name. They were a very lively bunch.

Against the backdrop of fierce winds, torrential rain and thunder I talked about murder mystery and mayhem. Very appropriate

I spoke of how I get the ideas for my…

Severn House Publishershas bought World English language rights to the eleventh in the mystery crime series featuring the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton.

Shroud of Evil will be published in the UK and Commonwealth in April 2014 in…

The afternoon session at CSI Portsmouth 2013 began at 2pm on Saturday 2 November, following a highly successful morning panel session which focused on drugs and drug related crime with crime experts Mick Ellis from Hampshire Police and Dr Alex Allan a forensic toxicologist from Triple A Forensics along with myself as crime author and moderator and crime author Kerry Wilkinson.…

Death Surge, the tenth in the mystery crime series, featuring the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton, is published by Severn House in the UK and Commonwealth. It will be published in the USA on 1 January 2014 when it will also be released as an e book and available on all devices including Kindle, Kobo and Nook.

The DI Andy Horton series has received good reviews both in the UK and the USA where they have been hailed as 'multilayered, twisted and complex,' and likened to the…

Jeffery Deaver and Peter James are lined up to take part in this year’s Crimefest and I'm delighted to be there with them.

Peter James and Pauline Rowson, looking very happy or a bit sozzled! CrimeFest 2011

I haven't met Jeffrey Deaver but I am sure that his Thriller Writing Seminar as part of the festival’s Crime…

On Saturday night I appeared on the Arts and Culture Show on Voice FM  talking to the radio presenter Xan Phillips about my marine mystery crime novels, the inspiration behind my flawed and rugged detective DI Andy Horton, the latest in the Horton series, Undercurrent and the importance of marketing for authors, artists and musicians.

Click here to listen to the…

I had a great time speaking to the lovely members of the Holbury and Fawley U3A on Tuesday 26 February. They made me very welcome and were a superb audience. I talked about how I write my DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novels and my thrillers.

I'm pleased to say that I will be…

Undercurrent, the ninth in the marine mystery crime series featuring the flawed and rugged detective DI Horton is now published in the UK and Commonwealth by Severn House. It will be published in the USA on 1 May 2013.

Set in the Solent area on the South Coast of England the DI Horton series has received critical acclaim both in the UK and the USA where they have been compared to the works…

The new DI Andy Horton, number nine in the series, called Undercurrent, will be published in the UK and Commonwealth on 31 January and in the USA on 1 May 2013. Like all the DI Horton novelsit is set against the backdrop of the sea in the Solent area on the South Coast of England.

In this crime novel DI Horton has a new mystery…

I'm delighted to announce that the seventh in the DI Andy Horton crime series, A Killing Coast has been nominated by my publisher Severn House for the eDUNNIT AWARD at CrimeFest 2013.

Crimefest is an annual convention for crime fiction fans and draws top…

All writers have different ways of working and finding the ‘perfect system’ for planning, researching, plotting, structuring and writing a novel is often a matter of trial and error until something clicks. That’s how it was for me anyway.

Before I struck on my 'perfect system' I tried all sorts of ways of compiling my research, plotlines, and character outlines, from using note books to wall maps, from card indexes to ring binders. None of them worked. The ring binders looked…

Death Lies Beneath, which was published in the UK in July, has now been published in hardcover in the USA by Severn House and is also now available as an e book on Kindle, Nook and Kobo.

Death Lies…

Footsteps on the Shore, the sixth in the DI Andy Horton seriesof marine based mystery crime novels set on the South Coast of England, has been reprinted in paperback and is also available as an e book on…

I'm delighted to announce that I have signed a contract with my publisher Severn House for the next in the DI Andy Horton series of marine mystery crime novels set on the South Coast of England.

Undercurrent is the ninth crime novel to feature the flawed and rugged DI Andy Horton and is set in Portsmouth, UK. It is to be published in the UK January 2013 and in the USA in July 2013. It is…

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…

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'm often asked how I research police procedures and police matters for my crime novels and while the DI Horton crime series certainly doesn't conform to policing in the real world  there is an underlying reality about some of the situations and procedures.



So where do I get my research from?



From talking to real live police officers, those working on the coal face and those who have also retired and my thanks here to the officers in the CID, the Major Crime Unit and the…

I have been invited to be a guest panel author at the annual conference of the  British Society of Criminology taking place at the University of Portsmouth, Institute of Criminal Justice Studies, (ICJS) between 4–6 July 2012. I will be on a panel on the afternoon of 5 July with my fellow crime writers, Graham Hurley, Peter Lovesey, June Hampson and Linda Regan.



The conference is themed around ‘Criminology…

 I was interviewed…