Dear Reader, April showers of books and news coming your way! Occasionally, the Readers' News may be so feature packed that some email clients cut it off. Don't worry! You can always read the Readers' News online here. |
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Trekking the Three Summits of Audiobook Creation Susan Rogers & John Roosen
Almost four years ago we, Susan Rogers and John Roosen, knew little about producing a quality audiobook — one that could keep a listener awake all night, eager for more. Here’s what we learned. Summit One
Write Compelling Stories…Without Murdering Each Other
We’re two completely different personalities. On most topics, we see things differently, and our ways of expression are a stark contrast. We walk a fine line in writing our murder mystery series, while avoiding murdering each other.
Our books must sound like they were written by one person. At the same time, the audiobook must showcase the multitude of characters we create for each story. We thrive on impossible missions.
Summit Two
A Do-It-Yourself Audiobook? Not so Fast.
We did try to create an audiobook ourselves, plunging into the muddy sea of audiobook information and buying equipment from a local electronics store.
We transformed our closet into a soundstage hoping our clothes would absorb the noise and hung a wool blanket to dampen echoes. Extra blankets were borrowed from a neighbor. Duct tape sealed the door jamb. The door chimes were disabled. With extra camping mattresses and five sleeping bags over windows, our soundstage was ready. It felt like we were in a small igloo in Antarctica.
Then we listened to the playback.
“This isn’t working,” John concluded. “Let’s hire a narrator,” Susan replied.
After a variety of false starts, we found voice artist Rupert Degas, who only works with you if he ‘likes your stuff’. We sent him a copy of the first book, and he stayed up all night, read the entire thing, and loved it.
Rupert asked for our 'Christmas List of Voices'. We gave him a detailed biography for each character. We knew these characters well. John claimed that Ric, one of our main protagonists, was using his straight razor and leaving it foaming on the bathroom sink!
In our list, we also suggested the quirky qualities that best exemplified each character. Rupert was nonplussed by our details. The elasticity of his vocal range is characterized as 'akin to that of Jim Carrey’s face'. Read that as: a very wide range of vocal talent. 'Just make the list,' he said.
When we sat together to listen to our first audiobook, Dead Man’s Pose … it was magic.
Summit Three
Great Creations Take Time
Audiobook creation is less a finish line than a continuous unfolding — a miraculous power of story, voice, pacing, and perception. It transmutes something common, a digital recording, into something precious.
The creation requires the slow savour of a sentence until every breath, every pause, and every shimmer of tone reveals the story’s true shape.
Collaboration thus becomes a living instrument. Writers, narrators, editors, listeners, reviewers and judges — are all tuning together until the storyline within the audiobook sings out loud.
Ellen Quint provides sage advice for audiobooks.
'In my roles as reviewer and judge, I will listen to part or all of over one hundred audiobooks a year...The perfect recipe begins with one essential ingredient: strong writing. Everything begins with the written word. A skilled narrator can elevate a mediocre book, but even the most talented performance can’t transform poor writing into a worthwhile listen.'
The time spent listening is not measured in minutes, but with the truth of feeling and the glow of authenticity. At its best, the listener wants to spend time with these characters and will follow the tale wherever it leads.
Read more about Susan and John and their books here.
Warrior Pose, a gripping New Zealand thriller of dark family secrets and deadly stakes, is available now, and you can purchase it here. |
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That Tricky Second Book Chris Nickson
The second book in a series is always the trickiest, don’t you think? In the first, you’re discovering your character. By the second, you know them, but they’re not yet family; you’re still learning who they are and what they can do and bringing them fully alive.
With The Faces Of The Dead, I hope I’ve achieved that, a community surrounding Woman Police Sergeant Cathy Marsden, with her colleagues, family and friends. The first book, No Precious Truth, set in Leeds in 1941, saw her seconded to the Leeds office of the Special Investigation Branch for her local knowledge. She began to realise this job offered her opportunities she’d never have on the force.
The Faces Of The Dead takes place in early 1944, and after three years as part of SIB, she’s fully accepted, a valued squad member. Where the first book saw them pursuing an escaped German spy, this time the problem is domestic and criminal and draws in members of the American Army CID.
Cathy Marsden’s happiness at her boyfriend Tom’s brief leave from the army and marriage proposal is short-lived as she embarks on a new case in the Special Investigation Branch.
Eric Carr, a local gangster, is dead after crashing his car on the outskirts of Leeds. Not only that, but an alarming discovery is made in the boot: weapons, including guns, stolen from a US military base, to be sold on the black market.
Was the crash simply an accident, or something more sinister? One thing’s for sure — Eric’s death has set a chain of murder and gangland chaos in motion. As the number of people disappearing increases, and men start dying Cathy must work out who is pulling the strings, and why.
Chris Nickson is the author of eleven Tom Harper mysteries, seven highly acclaimed novels in the Richard Nottingham series and seven Simon Westow books. Born and raised in Leeds, he lived in America for 30 years, working as a music journalist before he turned to crime (writing). He’s now firmly and happily back where he began.
Read more about Chris and his books here.
The Faces of the Dead is available now from Severn House, and you can purchase it here.
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Arm of Eve: Investigating the Thames Torso Murders Sarah Bax-Horton
Arm of Eve: Investigating the Thames Torso Murders is my second true crime book re-examining the unsolved case of a Victorian serial killer.
Jack the Ripper is often called the world’s most notorious unidentified killer, but he was not the first modern serial killer on the streets of London. Before him was another murderer who hunted from his boat along the River Thames – one arguably more sadistic and mercurial. The Thames Torso Killer has always lurked in the Ripper’s shadow, despite the fact he murdered and dismembered at least four people over two years. He started to kill in 1887, over a year before the Ripper, and his last murder was in 1889.
This series of crimes appeared impossible to solve. The four Torso murders present several difficulties which at first sight appear intractable: where the perpetrator operated; how and where he accosted his victims if they were strangers; if not, how he knew them; where he killed them and secreted their body parts before disposal; even where he dumped their remains, as the tide took them far from central London to places such as Rainham in Essex.
My challenge was to find a new prime suspect, and by searching in digital newspaper archives I found a compelling candidate, Bermondsey waterman James Crick. My hypothesis featured in the BBC’s recent three-part documentary Lucy Worsley’s Victorian Murder Club, now on iPlayer. The show drew heavily on my award-winning book Arm of Eve and validated my suspect as the Thames Torso Killer.
On the evening of Thursday 23 April at 6.30 p.m. I am doing an in-person and online event for Bow Street Museum of Crime and Justice in Covent Garden. In this talk, I discuss my own investigation and how I used modern criminal profiling to come up with my own suspect – a known criminal who knew the Thames like the back of his hand. I will also give a behind-the-scenes insight into my involvement in the TV show and what it was like to work with the brilliant Lucy Worsley.
The talk lasts an hour including a Q and A session and is followed by a book signing. I would love you to join me. You can buy a ticket using this link:
Read more about Sarah and her books here.
Arm of Eve is available now from The History Press. You can purchase it here.
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The Woman in the Wall Heidi Amsinck
The gruesome discovery of the body of a young woman, bricked up in a luxury apartment, triggers the action in The Woman in the Wall. It’s the fifth book in my series about Copenhagen crime reporter Jensen, and the most sinister to date.
We first meet Jensen in My Name is Jensen (2021), when she has just returned home from a long spell abroad. Lonely and discombobulated, she is struggling to settle in Copenhagen, when she stumbles across a body buried in the snow.
An awful lot has happened since, as loyal readers will know from The Girl in the Photo (2023), Back from the Dead (2024) and Out of the Dark (2025).
By this new book, Jensen has her own place in the city and a five-month-old daughter, Ea, but her sense of displacement has grown.
Why does she find it so hard to make friends? And why is her mother so cagey about her past, including who her father is?
Legendary fantasy author Valde Brix says it’s him, but he has an ulterior motive: he wants Jensen to use her sleuthing skills to find the stalker who is threatening to ruin his life.
When a woman connected to Brix turns up brutally murdered, Jensen and her teenage apprentice, Gustav ,become embroiled in the police investigation. It becomes clear that the stalker won't stop, until Brix is destroyed.
Realising with growing horror that her own loved ones are in mortal danger, Jensen races to uncover a truth so devastating it will shatter everything she thought she knew about family, trust, and survival.
The woman in the wall holds the key, and in the book she becomes symbolic in many ways of the depressingly high incidence of violence against women.
For Jensen it all becomes terrifyingly personal as the stalker closes in. She has never understood the unusual first name her mother gave her (after four books, we still don’t know what it is) but when the truth comes out, it finally makes perfect sense.
Of course I can’t tell you what that name is. You’re just going to have to read the book for yourself.
Read more about Heidi and her books here.
The Woman in the Wall is coming on 23 April from Muswell Books. You can pre-order it here.
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The Pledge Sarah Yarwood-Lovett
The Pledge — the plight of billionaires on the edge
I cannot be the only one who eye rolls when reading about the global elite gathering on some remote paradise by private jet or mega-yacht to discuss sustainability solutions — so maybe a book based on the idea of that idyll turning lethal will appeal to many!
As a huge fan of Glass Onion, And Then There Were None, and The White Lotus, I wanted to write a book channeling the sense of a killer closing in, while also relishing the opportunities for nature to be just as ruthless as a cold-blooded murderer. And the result is The Pledge.
I drew upon some of my own adventures in this book. Having lived on a remote coral atoll while doing ecology surveys for two months, I know what it's really like to trek into a jungle for your ablutions, accompanied by snakes crisscrossing your path and lurking spiders scuttling closer at your most vulnerable moments!
Working as a sustainability expert, and having some insights into a few high-net worth individuals, let me imagine what could really happen when hubris takes hold to those few who are immune to any accountability. And my experience of training environmental lawyers inspired my main character, Thea.
Trapped on an idyllic private island with a killer, Thea is increasingly looking, and behaving, like the guilty party. After a lifetime of using the law for her own advantage, she is forced to face what justice really means while she’s surrounded by those who are so wealthy they are truly untouchable.
I love the idea of billionaires behaving badly, mixed with deadly ecology – and what happens when everyone’s true natures come out. I hope you will too!
Read more about Sarah and her books here.
The Pledge is available now from Zaffre, and you can purchase it here. |
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The Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) is a not-for-profit organisation started by writers for the benefit of all types of writers. Owned by its members, ALCS collects money due for secondary uses of writers’ work. It is designed to support authors and their creativity; ensure they receive fair payment and see their rights are respected. It promotes and teaches the principles of copyright and campaigns for a fair deal. It represents over 120,000 members, and since 1977 has paid over £650 million to writers. |
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Murky Justice Sam Steele
If every story needs plot, character, setting and conflict, the crime story needs one more element: the quest for justice. Se,eking justice is usually left to the professionals, but revenge is an unstoppable force. And it makes for a cracking story.
Perhaps our love for these stories is driven by our constraints within common law, but who wouldn’t want to return the favour when their car is pranged in the supermarket car park, or seek retribution on behalf of the granny whose handbag was snatched? The truth is, we don’t have to, as a robust policing and judicial system is in place on our behalf. But what if we decide to operate beyond the law?
Murky justice has long held a special appeal for readers, from the bloodthirsty revenge of Seneca’s first-century Thyestes, to Prince Hamlet and his rather more navel-gazing approach to avenging the death of his father.
The ‘wronged anti-hero’ is a classic of modern literature. Recall the Count of Monte Cristo, a formerly imprisoned sailor who amasses a fortune and recreates himself in order to exact revenge on those who brought about his downfall. And then there is Heathcliff, meting out cruel revenge across two generations of those who wronged and abused him (unless you’ve seen the recent film, of course!). And how about Gillian Flynn’s Gone Girl, whose married protagonists become involved in the ultimate game of revenge for past grievances?
Revenge can also, of course, be sought on behalf of others, and one can only sympathise with poor Guy Haines in Patricia Highsmith’s classic novel, inveigled into a plot to switch murders with a stranger he meets on a train. And how about Margaret Attwood’s rebelling Handmaids, whose violent acts form revenge on behalf of an entire gender?
The most potent form of revenge, however, is that exacted by those who have already lost everything, acting on behalf of a ruined family member or murdered loved one. And here we have a course of dark justice that engages the reader’s sympathy and keeps us turning the page until late in the night, whether we like it or not!
Read more about Sam and her books here. Five Silver Spoons is coming on 23 April from Allison & Busby, and you can pre-order it here. |
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National Crime Reading Month
June is National Crime Reading Month, and authors, publishers, and the entire crime reading/writing community are invited! If you have an event happening in June, let us know, by submitting it at www.crimereading.com. We'll help you to publicise your event and spread the love of crime reading! |
The 2027 Daggers are now open!
It’s that time of year again… the 2027 Daggers are now open for entries! Every year the CWA awards the best novels in 13 categories, from cosies to thrillers. Read more about the awards and how to enter your book here. |
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Bursaries Available
Have you been thinking about joining the CWA, but the price of membership is giving you pause? The CWA has bursaries available for applicants to cover the cost of membership. The process is confidential and easier than ever. See this page for more details. |
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A Summertime Murder by Mary Grand
'I thoroughly enjoyed this intriguing mystery set in a beautiful location with deliciously menacing undercurrents.' Frances Evesham
Susan never imagined herself an amateur sleuth, and she certainly never goes looking for trouble, preferring days spent walking her loyal dogs Libs and Rocco, and maybe even a dip in the sea to cool off after this interminable heatwave. When she hears of a break-in at the vet’s where her new neighbour works, Susan’s curiosity is piqued.
And then, a few days later, the lead vet, Peter, mysteriously disappears. They assume it's business related until his body is washed up on the beach close to his clifftop home.
Susan is convinced he was murdered and slowly discovers that each of the small group of suspects has a motive. Is the killing linked to the break-in… or is this a crime of passion?
Once again, Susan finds herself piecing together clues in her search for the truth. Can she untangle the lies before someone else dies?
A Summertime Murder is available now from Boldwood Books, and you can purchase it here. |
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