Wednesday 3 February 2016

Reviews and upcoming events

I've updated the events page at the website with some new dates:

  • Blantyre Library - 15 February, 2:00pm
  • Waterstones Kirkcaldy - 26 February, 7:30pm
  • Aye Write festival - 12 March, 7:30pm

I'm really looking forward to all of these, especially Aye Write, where I'm on the bill with Mark Leggatt and Douglas Lindsay chatting about setting our thrillers internationally. Go here for more details on all of these - the Aye Write event is ticketed but the other two are completely free.

Elsewhere, Darren Brooks has posted a wide-ranging interview with me together with a really excellent, insightful dissection of the first two books over at his blog, titled 'A Ghost to Catch Ghosts'. I particularly enjoyed his likening of the series to anthology television shows - I hadn't really considered this, but it's a good point, and will hold true for Winterlong:


The anthology approach to the series works well, too. Like that practised by TV shows such as True Detective and Fargo – whose subsequent series tell new stories with new characters whilst retaining the parent title – it is an ideal device by which to gradually chip away at the hidden biography of Blake. Dropping the character into new cases with different investigatory teams is perfect for a man with secrets to maintain, in that he does not develop ongoing professional relationships and so avoids the familiarity common to conventional serial fiction, particularly the team ethic inherent to the police procedural. In adopting this anthologised style, it is ensured that Carter Blake – both the character and the history his chosen name is designed to disguise – lives on. For now.


I was really pleased to get a double-page spread in the Glasgow Evening Times about the Richard and Judy selection (apologies for my crappy camerawork - the full story is online here).




And hot on the heels of the US publication of The Samaritan, a great American notice from Raven's Reviews:


“Carter Blake” manages to remain mysterious. Precious and few are the clues that Blake drops, and little is told about the man at all. This doesn’t stop him from being a combination of James Bond and Jason Bourne, with maybe a pinch of the Punisher thrown in for seasoning.


Perhaps unsurprisingly, I love all of those characters, but it's the first time the Punisher has been mentioned. Makes sense, as I was reading Garth Ennis's superlative Punisher MAX around the time I was writing Killing Season. Funnily enough, that was basically a crime anthology series that revolved around one character.



Finally, I've just sent out my first update to the mailing list to mark the UK paperback and US hardcover publication of The Samaritan. If you want to be kept in the loop with occasional updates on when each new book is coming out, all you have to do is sign up right here - I promise not to spam you:

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That's it for now - I'll be posting about a new Goodreads giveaway next week, so watch this space!

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