Ashley Dyer's Blog, page 5

It was a busy 2020 for Ashley writing under her own name, with nine of her backlist titles being re-released, and another two brand new novels published with Joffe Books. If you would like to read more reviews of books new and old, and both fiction and non-fiction, drop by Ashley’s other website – Margaret-Murphy.co.uk. You will find eleven of her own psychological thrillers there, at bargain prices, too!

And if you want to know more about Ashley’s links to Margaret Murphy, take a look at h...

A History of My Family in Seven Sicknesses by Stephen McGann

Simon & Schuster (2018) ISBN: 1471160815

The McGann brothers Joe, Paul, Mark and Stephen were Liverpool royalty in the 1980s and 90s, and Stephen McGann has achieved international stardom in the hit TV series Call The Midwife since 2012. Yet his memoir is written in a spirit of humility. He never wanted, nor expected, to find grand ancestors hidden in the public records and he writes as candidly about his ‘slum blood’ as he does...

Head of Zeus, ISBN-13:978-1-78854-374-3

In the illusionist’s world, close-up magic is king, and eighteen-year-old prodigy Natalie Webb promised to be one of the best. Then she got burned by an unscrupulous artist who stole her heart along with her best illusion. Nine years on, honest, but grindingly poor, Natalie ekes out an existence performing at frat parties, bar mitzvahs and occasionally—if she’s really lucky—corporate shows. A seasoned entertainer, she has a ready stock of one-liners...

Canongate, ISBN-13:978-1-78689-376-5

A Costa Award winner, Kidd has been nominated for many more, and judging by Things in Jars, the accolades are well-deserved. She clearly delights in the written word—its rhythms, cadence and music, and her audacious playfulness with language bring to mind Dylan Thomas and Charles Dickens. Her exuberant prose conjures up the filth and squalor of Victorian London—its mephitic smells and high danger—but also its colour, vibrancy and wonder. Highly...

Oxford, ISBN-10: 0192880365

Presents an eclectic selection of stories, and although only about half are written by women, these and others like them, helped to shape the conventions of modern detective fiction. Some of the stories fall down on the question of fair play—that is, providing the reader with sufficient clues to make good guesses, which is half the fun of reading crime fiction. But the collection is interesting for the way in which is demonstrates the progression of the mystery story from the 1800s to the m...

Nosy Crow, ISBN-10: 1788004388

Athan Wilde dreams of flight. When his friend, Mr Chen, is murdered, Athan must rescue the flying machine they were building together and stop it falling into the wrong hands. The machine could be worth a lot—perhaps even enough to take his family out of poverty—but keeping it safe puts his family in terrible danger. Athan takes to the glittering and treacherous rooftops of the city to evade frightening strangers who lurk in doorways, watching him, waiting to pounce. But can he do what...

The good folk at Crime Reads asked Team Dyer to write about our favourite serial killer novel. Here’s what we said: Crime Reads

The Cutting Room is available at AmazonUK and at all these USA outlets

Strand Magazine invited Team Dyer to write about Serial Killers in Fact & Fiction. Read our take on real and fictional serial killers, including Dennis Nilsen and The Yorkshire Ripper in fact, and Hannibal Lecter, Dexter Morgan and The Bone Collector in fiction: Strand Magazine.

The Cutting Room is available at AmazonUK and at all these USA outlets

It’s a challenge to turn to p 69 of your novel, and assess  if it is representative of the rest of the book. I accepted the challenge for The Cutting Room, book 2 in the Carver & Lake series: it covered a murder, synaesthesia, and increased gamma brain waves in the dying brain. Click through to see how The Cutting Room measured up in the Page 69 test!

The Cutting Room is available at AmazonUK and at all these USA outlets

In this audio interview, Ashley Dyer chats with BBC Radio Merseyside’s Jermaine Foster about growing up in Liverpool, defying her strict Roman Catholic family expectations to go to university, later becoming a crime novelist, and now writing serial killer novels set in her home town, Liverpool. How she became founder of Murder Squad, breaking rules and defying stereotypes along the way. With musical choices that form a backdrop to some of her story. Listen to the podcast at Soundcloud