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…

Getting the right name for characters in my crime fiction novels can be a tricky business. Sometimes they come to me completely out of the blue, as I am creating a character, other times I will struggle to find the name that best suits that particular character and until I do the personality refuses to come fully alive. The name has to fit. If it's not right then the character isn't right. The name also needs to fit with the age and nationality although you can have…

I recently did a fun feature piece on The Thrill Begins, an International Thriller Writers blog for debut authors. They asked me to blog about things new authors might want to know during the first year of publication. And I wrote about a topic that I wish I had known when I signed my contract...

Check out the story here.

FBI Special Agent Antonio Donato is special indeed. The second part of J.J. McCall's love triangle, his character based on my 20 year love affair with all things mafia related (thanks to an obsession with The Godfather I and II and The Sopranos) and an FBI Agent I met once while visiting the FBI's NY field office on a case and later for an intra-agency counterintelligence conference.

Drop.…

I haven't had many opportunities to talk about what I term "my former life" as an FBI operations specialist working in counterintelligence. I tend to not spread that around. But now that I'm writing this new J.J. McCall series all those years of experience have really become part of my writing craft, especially in terms of character development. I think it will ultimately help bring a more authentic experience to the reader.

What's Counterintelligence at the…

After the Severn House drinks party it was time for another drinks reception this time hosted by CrimeFest and with the purpose of announcing those authors shortlisted for some of the prestigious Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Daggers Shortlist. Here are some photographs from the event where I was lucky enough to meet up with some DI Horton fans and chat to them about the…

Today the Spotlight shines on novelist Thomas B. Sawyer who was Head Writer for the smash TV series Murder, She Wrote and wrote for many other series. He talks about how The Maltese Falcon influenced his career.

http://www.examiner.com/writing-in-los-angeles/spotlight-thomas-b-sawyer-murder-he-wrote

Comments always welcome.

In September I will…

The SECRET to Writing Picture books http://www.karentyrrell.com

When Kamal Abdel-Malek was a young student, he chose to study outside the Arab world, eventually becoming a professor at Brown and Princeton Universities in the US. It was the first step in the physical and intellectual journeys of this intriguing Egyptian writer. Born in Alexandria and now a teacher of Arabic…