R.J. Lynch's Blog, page 3

I find this very interesting. In October 2021 I reviewed The Couple at No 9 by Claire Douglas and I gave it four stars, though I said that should really have been three and a half. I also said the …

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I have four prints hanging over my desk in the room where I work. This is one of them: I brought that print back from the Prado after a short break in Madrid (the one in Spain, not the one …

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I began one of my books with the sentence, “All I’d said was, I wouldn’t mind seeing her in her knickers.” That was all I had – except the pantser’s abiding thought: “That sounds like an interesting book. I wonder …

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As well as As well as being a prolific and very successful writer, Debbie Young organises the Hawkesbury Upton literary festivals. She asked me to deliver a talk on 22nd April 2023 about the challenges of ghost writing. After I’d …

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I learned about ghost writing in my early teens, which were a long time ago. I was constantly in the library returning books I’d read and taking out new ones. I had a spell when I devoured sportsmen’s autobiographies. At this distance I may have got the names muddled up, but I’m pretty certain it was Tom Finney, Preston North End and England outside left, who described how he met his wife when he...

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Writers of genre fiction who don’t give readers exactly what they expect from that genre can pay a heavy price. It’s generally accepted by authors that writers of “literary fiction” can write their own rules, but if you write genre fiction you’d better stick to what’s expected. Almost as if readers want to read the same book again and again. A friend of mine who enjoys a successful writing career...

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If you’re a writer, or want to be a writer, you’ve heard about Show, Don’t Tell often enough, In fact, you believe you do it. So why all those adverbs? Show, Don’t Tell – The Webinar...

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If you’re a writer, or want to be a writer, you’ve heard about Show, Don’t Tell often enough, In fact, you believe you do it. So why all those adverbs?

Show, Don’t Tell – The Webinar

I read an enormous amount of crime fiction – English, Scottish, (I’m not going to say British because Scottish, English and Welsh crime fiction are very different from each other), Irish, American, Australian, Canadian, French, and of course the Scandis (though I’m not such a great fan of those as many people are). I wouldn’t, generally speaking, place American crime fiction in the first rank. I’m happy to debate that with anyone who disagrees but it’s my opinion. But Victor Methos is up there with the best. And what’s astounding about that is that he was born in Kabul in Afghanistan and didn’t immigrate to America until he was nine. His English is perfect. This book is pretty good – good enough that I’ve now bought the second in the series and I look forward to reading it. Methos writes in a simple, straightforward way. He has an equally straightforward view of justice, American style – it’s great if you’re rich but not so good if you’re a penniless nobody. And he should know – he’s been both prosecuting attorney and defending attorney and has so far worked more than a hundred cases. He reminds me in many ways of George V Higgins who was a DA before he was a crime writer, and I’ve been a fan of Higgins since he first came on the scene years ago, but Methos is better. He presents this story in a way that fills you with outrage and moves you uncontrollably right at the end. I foresee a binge read of Victor Methos on the horizon. I’m only giving it four stars instead of five because it’s essentially undemanding, but those four stars are well earned.

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Craig Robertson was a new writer to me, and this was one of those serendipitous discoveries for which you thank the fates. I can’t remember what led me to this book, but it’s one of the best I’ve read in any genre for a considerable time and certainly the best in crime fiction. Grace McGill’s job is deep cleaning and disinfecting rooms, flats and houses after someone has died there and not been found for long enough that they have decomposed. Robertson leads us step-by-step through a series of undiscovered and apparently natural deaths of old people before plunging us into the mystery of a young woman’s disappearance decades earlier. What happened to her? Was she murdered? If so, who by? Robertson unravels that mystery with great skill – and equally great humanity. Strongly recommended.

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