May brings a bouquet of fresh news and stories from the world of crime writing. Enjoy!

Or rather, why aren’t more crime fiction series set in Coventry?

I’m a Coventry kid, raised here since childhood and it’s always baffled me why more books – especially crime fiction novels – aren’t set here. An extensive Google search has revealed very few authors making use of this fair city’s many charms. Compare it to Manchester, London or even Birmingham and the difference is stark. Hundreds of titles compared to just a handful.

So when I was devising my new Foxe and Kennard police series, one thing was certain – it had to be set in Coventry.

Coventry has everything a novelist needs. It’s a medium-sized, bustling city with a storied history and an exciting present. The three church spires dominating the city’s skyline have witnessed centuries of pivotal moments and inspired myths and legends. Many are aware of the apocryphal tale of Lady Godiva riding naked on horseback through the streets of 11th century Coventry, but did you know that the phrase ‘peeping Tom’ refers to a local resident who couldn’t resist a sneaky peek? 

Coventry is famous for its two cathedrals – the first of which was destroyed by the Luftwaffe in November 1940. Its spire remained unscathed and its ruins stand adjacent to the new cathedral, built to foster peace and reconciliation. But did you also know that Coventry was the effective seat of government on several occasions in the 15th century?

Coventry enjoyed a post-war boom, fuelled by an influx of migrants from across the Commonwealth who helped rebuild its devastated streets and support its world-leading car industry. Unfortunately, the decline of manufacturing in the 1980s led to a sharp economic downtown and its accompanying social ills. Not least crime.

During the 2000s, Coventry reinvented itself, even being awarded 2021 City of Culture. Yet its dark underbelly remains. The perfect setting for a crime fiction series.

And so to this modern Coventry, my two detectives are sent. In Deadly Truths we meet DS Robinson Ellington Foxe, who turned his back on the family business of high finance to become a detective in the Metropolitan Police, and DC Amy Kennard, a proud, outspoken, working-class Salford lass who worked in an elite unit in Manchester.

After being forced out of their previous jobs, Foxe and Kennard find themselves in the only place that will take them: Coventry’s Moat Lane CID unit. 

Marginalised by their colleagues, Robbie and Amy are forced to work alone after the official investigation into the death of a career burglar is a whitewash. Uncovering a web of deceit and corruption, their own difficult histories are weaponised against them, and they find themselves fighting for their careers and their lives.

Paul Gitsham is the writer of the DCI Warren Jones series and the standalone thriller The Aftermath. Deadly Truths is book one in the Foxe and Kennard series.

Deadly Truths: To solve a murder, sometimes you have to risk everything.

Why would a  world-famous university don risk his reputation as a respectable middle-aged bachelor by searching for a missing pregnant student in postwar Oxford?

 

 That was the starting point for my debut  crime novel, The Mystery At Rake Hall; C.S.Lewis Investigates (Swift Press), which imagines a fictional life for the renowned academic and author ‘Jack’ Lewis as a clandestine amateur detective in 1947. Until then, journalism had absorbed most of my writing life, although I did have two non-fiction books published. 

 

But  five years ago when a young woman I knew was ordered by a court to live in a single mothers’ unit where CCTV monitored everything, it reminded me of my own expectant mother’s pitiful situation in 1950 Oxford when Jack Lewis was a Fellow at Magdalen College. In those days, pregnancy outside marriage was judged a major scandal to be hidden away in bleak and punitive hostels where the culture of secrecy could lead to crime and exploitation. 

 

What if those parallel Oxford worlds of impoverished town and privileged gown collided  in a work of fiction? I recalled my 2018 interview with Dame Diana Rigg when the actress talked about her Game Of Thrones character: the sulphurous Olenna Tyrell. When Rigg explained that her Christianity made her a believer in evil, I wondered if the stakes in a crime story could be raised by having a man of faith as its hero, tested by temptation -- including by a femme fatale drawn from film noir. So gradually my plot evolved with Lewis at the helm as the vicious power-games of don-eat-don overlapped with the street villainy of dog-eat-dog after the shortages of postwar rationing had opened the back door to black-market racketeering. Since the real Lewis had begun writing his Narnia stories at the time, I also included some allusions like seeds scattered on a forest trail.

 

Jack seemed enough of a maverick in real life to make a plausible investigative outsider. As a proud, sometimes prickly Ulsterman in England with a rare common touch for his class, this one-time belligerent atheist had become the most unstuffy, beer-drinking, pipe-smoking convert in the world. After serving in the First World War trenches before being invalided out, he  patrolled the back-streets of Oxford at night during the Second World War as a member of the Home Guard. Why would such a man not risk everything to look for a missing girl? 

When you research real people for a historical crime novel, and especially if you write books set in the Second World War, like my Eddie Giral series about a French police detective in Paris under the Nazi Occupation, you very often come across individuals who are truly inspirational for their courage and perseverance and whose stories you want to include. But then, just once, you discover something about them that is even more exciting.

The most decorated woman in French history, Rose Valland was appointed ‘attachée’ at the Jeu de Paume museum in Paris in 1941. Before the Germans had entered the city, Jacques Jaujard, director of the French national museums, had overseen an ingenious scheme that had progressively evacuated most of the pieces in the public art collections to various castles in France. However, not the same could be said about the private collections belonging to Jewish families, which were subjected to wide scale and systematic looting. The art stolen in this way by the Nazis was stored at the Jeu de Paume before it was shipped to Germany. Which is where Rose Valland comes in.

Naturally shy, Rose forced herself to engage with the people working at the museum to gather information. She befriended the person in charge of packing and would listen to the French lorry drivers employed by the Germans, picking up gossip that she could later use. She also pretended not to understand German and would listen to officials talking about the provenance and destination of the stolen art. The Nazis did their best to minimise a paper trail, but Rose would go through wastepaper baskets and memorise everything she’d seen and heard. In the evenings, she would go home and note down everything she could remember, visiting the Louvre frequently, where she reported everything to Jaujard and his secretary Jacqueline Bouchot-Saupique, who worked for the Resistance.

Rose once said that she expected to be murdered by the Nazis once they’d taken their fill, so one can only imagine the courage it took to work with them day in day out, recording everything and passing it on to the Resistance. It is largely thanks to her bravery that so much of the stolen artwork was recovered after the war, and she eventually worked in Berlin cataloguing the art that she’d recorded as it left Paris.

And the exciting part? I learned while writing The Art of Occupation that I had a tenuous family link to Rose. Her partner was Joyce Heer, who was my cousin Andy’s aunt. He spent all his school holidays in Paris with Rose and Joyce, and he sent me copies of letters between them, which really brough Rose to life for me.

I suppose everyone wants to receive ratings or ‘stars’ for their latest book or any of their books  and reviews are always good to have under your belt, aren’t they?

Broadly, I think any review or rating is good. I try and encourage people to leave star ratings and/or reviews, when they can – I don’t want to appear too pushy.  My success rate in this shows that I possess very little talent in persuasion, however, when the stars do appear on Amazon and Goodreads I stop what I’m doing and have a sneaky peek. If these stars and remarks show anything, it is that someone out there is reading something that you have spent many hours over quite a few weeks or months putting down on paper. 

I must admit to leaving reviews and stars myself, these are in the three, four or five stars range. I do this because I tend to practice what I preach. What’s the point of asking a review or rating of others when you can’t afford the same? Occasionally, even a favourite author might be marked down. This generally occurs when I start to lose or never did feel a connection with the main characters. 

A few years ago, I was invited as a guest at a library event. One member of the audience was a little too picky, but as you do, I took it in good part. A few days later on Amazon a one-star rating and quite a long review* for one of my titles.

I’ve had other one stars since but why are the one stars accompanied by such long critiques? Not reviews, critiques. It would be much easier just to say, ‘Not my cup of tea’ or something along those lines and leave it there. You only gave it one star. It is obvious you didn’t enjoy the read.

It seems that to some, one star and a long comment go hand in hand. As I’ve heard said, It says more about them than it does of you - perhaps they want to see their words in print and this is one way to do it.  But they do stick with you these comments, or at least with me, for a while. 

The flip side of this is that I do receive occasional emails from people who have enjoyed one or other of my books and these always make the days brighter. As with most things in life you have to take the rough with the smooth.

And when all is said and done, I still like to get ratings and reviews.

*The person here had a photo aside their review. It was said person.

Earlier this year, organisers invited me to give a talk as part of the National Year of Reading. As an author, reading is naturally close to my heart, but the choice of venue was surprising. 

The aim was to tackle the decline in reading enjoyment in the UK and reconnect all people of all ages with reading and pursue interests they already love, be that music, sport or … crime. 

The link with crime was especially pertinent, as I was invited to go to a prison. The charity helps adults improve their literacy and numeracy skills in prisons and other community settings. Two-thirds of prisoners either can't read or struggle to. 

I was asked to attend HMP Ashfield. Discovering it housed sex offenders was troubling, and I hesitated before deciding everyone deserved a chance to read. 

I prepared by considering how much reading is key to unlocking a new world before realising that phrase was not the most appropriate. 

Around forty prisoners assembled, with tea, coffee, and biscuits on offer. This was a good omen, as along with murder and identity, biscuits are one of the key themes of my work. 

To knowing nods, I recounted a childhood with few books beyond a map book, a bird guide, and untouched Dickens volumes. I lived in a village with few amenities, but something happened that changed my life. A mobile library visited every two weeks, and the staff encouraged me to get a library card and borrow any books I wanted. In early days, I enjoyed stories about natural disasters and later moved on to novels, with a particular relish for anything fantastical. HG Wells was a revelation. 

Although most attendees said they did read, a high proportion admitted to having difficulty. Several also said that they wanted to write. During a highly interactive session, I busted a number of reading and writing myths. 

Reading is not confined to a big, heavy book. A short story, magazine, or audio book still counted. And it didn’t matter what you read as long as you did. 

Although I couldn’t promise actual release from their immediate surroundings, I painted a picture of escaping into another world and walking in someone else's shoes. 

I gave some readings and talked to individuals before they finally released me on good behaviour, but not before promising to return for Crime Reading Month. Talk about a captive audience! 

Writers, are you curious about Crime Writers' Association membership? Does the subscription price give you pause? The CWA offers bursaries to members and potential members to offset the price of subscription. Application is easy, and awards are completely confidential. See this page for more details.

Friends of Southwold Library present Slaughter in Southwold: Southwold Library Crime Writers Festival, Saturday 13th & Sunday 14th June at Southwold Arts Centre, St Edmunds Hall.

Author talks by: Millicent Binks, Simon Brett, Nicci French, Elly Griffiths, Anna Mazzola, Abir Mukherjee, Andrew Hunter Murray, Salman Shaheen, Harriet Tyce & Julie Wassmer. Enjoy fish and chips with the authors, a crime quiz night, and much more.

Tickets £7 per talk, £30 Saturday, £25 Sunday or £55 for the weekend. Book at the library, by phone 01502 442817 or on the website www.ticketsource.co.uk/slaughterinsouthwold

Author 1:  Author 1's party piece is being very good at pulling a Wallace face (as in Wallace & Gromit) when they get anxious. 

Author 2: Author 2's mother briefly triggered a kidnapping alert when she disappeared after helping a driver that appeared to be in distress.

Author 3: While researching their latest book, Author 3 discovered they had a distant family connection to one of the real-life characters they were writing about… fortunately not a Nazi.

We asked this month's authors, 'What's the last crime novel you read which left you seething with jealousy, it was so darn good?' These are their answers.

Paul Gitsham: The Final Vow by MW Craven

Chris Lloyd: The Hunters Club by Alis Hawkins

DI Steph Lewis comes under an unforgiving media spotlight in this twisty locked room mystery, where murder is committed live on air.

While attending a police conference at Cheltenham Town Hall, Steph is summoned to a nearby film studio. A chat show panelist has collapsed during a live broadcast.

At the scene, Steph discovers the man sprawled on the floor. The livestream is still running, other panelists are horrified and the studio is in chaos. Is the death accidental, the result of a severe allergy, or is there more to the fatality than meets the eye?

Despite intrusive press interest in the case, Steph must investigate her suspects: the producer, the studio runner, the cameraman and the diverse cast of panelists.

Nothing about this on-screen death adds up.

Is just one of them a murderer? Or do they all have something to hide?

Her Rising Star is the third book in the Gloucestershire Crime Series, featuring DI Steph Lewis, a spirited, no-nonsense detective with secrets of her own.

Author 1:  Maureen Paton

Author 2:  Paul Gitsham

Author 3:  Chris Lloyd