If you’re giving a book as a present (and what better gift is there) I can recommend the following titles. Something for everybody (as long as they read fiction).

The First Rule of Survival by Paul Mendelson

Unravelling Oliver by Lizzie Nugent

Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter by Tom Franklin

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh

Dark Tides by Chris Ewan

The Secret Place by Tana French

This Dark Road To Mercy by Wiley Cash

After Me Comes The Flood by Sarah Perry

How To Build A Girl by Caitlin Moran

Brooklyn by Colm Toibin

Thornfield Hall by Jane Stubbs

I love to read, I’m an unashamed addict and I get the jitters and can’t settle when I’m close to finishing a book and haven’t another one at hand. That usually necessitates a trip to the library or bookshop or some online browsing. Mainly thanks to Twitter, I am now getting way more word of mouth recommendations for books than I ever did in the past and so I  keep a list of those I fancy the sound of, and gradually they migrate to my TBR pile. The ones I like, go on my regular blog list of recommended reads. The ones I don’t, I ditch as soon as I realise they are not for me. I read quite fast, usually in the gap between the end of the working day and the start of my TV viewing – and often in the bath. Always when I travel. But lately I’ve noticed I’m sometimes going too fast, scrambling down the page, scooping up the gist of a story, racing to get to the end. I don’t think this is simply because I read a lot of ‘page turners’ and thrillers, I think it’s probably the result of that teetering pile of books I know I’ve still got to read. An insidious pressure (all of my own making I’m sure) to ‘get through’ another title and tick it off. I always bolted my food as a kid and do even now if I’m not concentrating: hungry and eager to fill the empty space but not really savouring the food. This style of reading feels a little like that though I still relish the books and enjoy being wrapped up in the story. But reading is such a joy I don’t want there to be even the slightest stress connected to it. I’m not sure what I can do about it; certain books, with more lyrical or poetic prose, make it harder to gobble them down, the writing demands a slower read but I don’t want to limit my diet, I like to read widely. And I like to spread the word. As do so many of you!

I was away in Corfu last month with the luxury of lots of time to read.  The books I enjoyed took me to all sorts of different destinations from The Isle of Lewis to the Arizona Desert, Dublin to Johannesburg, London to Glencoe, Amsterdam to Glasgow and Majorca (twice). So I arrived back home well refreshed and well travelled.  Thanks to everyone who recommended these titles to me, on Twitter and in person.

The Blackhouse by Peter May

Zoo City by Lauren Beukes

The Necessary Death of Lewis Winter by Malcolm Mackay

Corrag by Susan Fletcher

The Old School by P.M. Newton

The Vacationers by Emma Straub

Before We Met by Lucie Whitehouse

Faithful Place by Tana French

The Dinner by Herman Koch

The Lemon Grove by Helen Walsh

The Shadow Tracer by M.G. Gardiner

It’s been a very special week with Letters To My Daughters Killer featured on ITV3 Specsavers Crime Thriller Club on Monday and Ruthless, the third Scott and Bailey novel, out today 9th October to coincide with the new TV series. Today is also Super Thursday. 315 new titles will be in the bookshops and you can find out more about the special day here and here. It’s just three years since I started writing the novels based on the TV show.  I was a big fan of Scott & Bailey before I was approached to write a prequel and it was an honour, as well as a terrifying prospect, to be asked.   I loved the way the series captured female friendships – and fallings out – and the three strong women at the heart of it who are all gifted at the job they do.  Also impressive was the way the investigations were faithful to police procedure and reflected a Manchester I knew.  I’m delighted to be receiving some wonderful reviews for Ruthless.  If you’d like a taster of the novel you can hear an extract from the audio book version.

 

In case you missed Monday’s Crime Thriller Club, it included me talking about writing Letters To My Daughter’s Killer and a critique of the book from authors Mark Billingham, Sophie Hannah, Kate Mosse, Peter James and Val McDermid as well as guest actor Stephen Tompkinson and host Bradley Walsh.  I was really thrilled by the responses and have been walking on air ever since! You can watch the show on itvplayer – it is Episode 4. The awards ceremony is on October 24th in London and screened on 27th October.  One of the six books selected for the Crime Thriller Book Club will be chosen as best read.  Details of all the shortlists for the awards can be found here.

Now – where’s that bubbly?

My big news is that Letters To My Daughter’s Killer has been chosen for this year’s Specsavers Crime Thriller Book Club.  Six titles will be  featured in the weekly series Crime Thriller Club starting on ITV3 on September 15th and running up to The Specsavers Crime Thriller Awards on Sunday October 26th.  (Look out for me in one of the episodes. We had great fun filming this in Manchester earlier this year – though the use of Police Crime Scene Tape and white SOCO suits caused some consternation for the neighbours!)  It’s a real honour to have the book selected.  You can see the shortlists here http://www.crimethrillerawards.com/2013-daggers/. Happy reading!

Summer reads in the sense that it is summer and these are the books I’ve enjoyed this season so far. It’s a varied list with works from famous prize-winning authors as well as from those just starting out.  Some are crime, some not.  Some British, some American. Reading the titles again I’m struck by how each book has a completely distinctive style and voice, creates a unique world. Exactly what the best books do. Take a peek…

Cold Light by Jenn Ashworth

The Goldfinch by Donna Tartt

Safe House by Chris Ewan

The Weight of Blood by Laura McHugh

The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland

American Rust by Philipp Meyer

The Long Fall by Julia Crouch

Luke and Jon by Robert Williams

Other People’s Money by Justin Cartwright

This Friday 18th July the House of Lords will give a Second Reading to the Assisted Dying Bill.  I have generally been a supporter of individual liberty when it comes to matters about a person’s health and well-being and in the past thought it would be better to have more options at the end of life but although I’ve supported the principle of assisted dying I hadn’t considered it in much depth until I wrote a novel on the topic – The Kindest Thing.  Researching this, where a woman helps her terminally ill husband end his life and is then tried for murder, convinced me that we need a law to protect and safeguard people who are dying and their loved ones who wish to support them in choosing when to die.   And that having safe, medical means to end our lives would be a far more humane system than the current situation where people are forced either to travel abroad earlier than they might wish or risk a fraught DIY attempt at ending life.  Preparing a paper about the issue for St Hilda’s Mystery and Crime  conference 2011, I was struck by the success of the assisted dying bill in Oregon USA and how the experience there has allayed many of the fears people have about a change to the law, resulting in a much more humane situation than is the case here.

Lord Falconer’s Assisted Dying Bill would clarify the situation here and (as is the case in Oregon) it would be robustly designed to prevent abuse or coercion of vulnerable people and would enable people who are close to death a chance to die with dignity and care.

As a patron of Dignity in Dying, I’d invite you to visit the website and lend your support to the campaign.  If I may quote Sir Terry Pratchett from his Richard Dimbleby lecture on the topic, ‘Let us consider me as a test case…. if I knew that I could die at any time I wanted, then suddenly every day would be as ­precious as a million pounds.  If I knew that I could die, I would live.  My life, my death, my choice.’

UPDATE:  The Bill passed the Second Reading Stage and will now progress to Committee Stage.  For details of the route to legislation see here.

My list of recommended reads is even longer this time – I’ve been away and that meant more reading opportunity. Especially as we were without a TV.  Enjoy!

The Humans by Matt Haig

After the Fire, A Still Small Voice by Evie Wyld

Strumpet City by James Plunkett

The Spinning Heart by Donal Ryan

I Am Pilgrim by Terry Hayes

The Flight by M.R. Hall

What Lies Within by Tom Vowler

The Fault In Our Stars by John Green

The Boat by Clara Salaman

The Rosie Project by Graeme Simsion

Perfect by Rachel Joyce

We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler

Countdown City by Ben H. Winters

The Cuckoo’s Calling by Robert Galbraith

Gods in Alabama by Joshilyn Jackson

The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriarty

 

 

Most of May I spent in Chengdu, in China, researching my new novel. It was a fantastic trip, a combination of soaking in the sights, sounds, smells and everyday life of the city interspersed with day trips out to surrounding attractions. We were staying with my eldest son who works there as an English teacher. He is fluent in Chinese which was a huge advantage for us in negotiating journeys and talking to Chinese people about some of the questions I had. And he was able to show us the ropes so we could get around and fend for ourselves while he was at work. We learnt a smattering of words before we went but it is possible to order food purely by pointing at pictures and performing energetic sign language. I was delighted to be invited to give an author talk at The Bookworm Chengdu, an English language bookshop, library, restaurant and bar. My first international bookshop appearance. It was a lovely venue and a really enjoyable evening. The Bookworm hosts a large literary festival every March with authors from all over the world appearing at their branches in Chengdu, Beijing and Suzhou.

There was some irony in that we were staying in the city that now makes 20% of the world’s computers but there were swathes of the web that were simply not available to us due to internet censorship. So I had no access to Twitter or any wordpress or blogspot sites. I also discovered that I couldn’t send any emails only receive them. Half-way through our visit I got an email from writer and editor Martin Edwards subject: Short Story Dagger, saying, Hi Cath, By the time you read this, I am sure you will know that you have been shortlisted for the Dagger again. I’m really pleased for you!! Talk about a wonderful surprise! I was too excited to sleep that night. Since then I’ve been able to see the shortlist and I am awed to be in such spectacular company. So a big thanks to Martin and to the CWA for all the work in organising these awards which do so much to promote crime fiction. The results will be announced on June 30th along with the results of the International Dagger, Debut Dagger, Library Dagger, Non-Fiction and the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger as well as the presentation to Simon Brett of the Diamond Dagger. And I shall be tweeting all about it. If there’s a signal…

The idea for this novel was quite simple – a bereaved mother writes to the person who killed her daughter in an attempt to move beyond rage, and the desire for vengeance, and to find some sort of acceptance.  There is a long tradition of novels written in letter form, Shelley’s Frankenstein is one, as is Dracula by Bram Stoker and more recently Shriver’s We Need To Talk About Kevin.  There were challenges in choosing to use this narrative style, in getting the tone right and working out what information was revealed when and what would be divulged to the murderer through the letters, but I found it refreshing to try something so different. These days many of us use emails in place of letters but for the most personal most significant events, around love and death and birth, we still may choose to write a physical letter.  Something that can be held and kept safe and re-read.  When I was younger I wrote regularly to lots of people, family and friends, as a way of keeping in touch.  Now decades later that has shrunk to continuing correspondence with just two.  Prison must be one of the few places where personal letters still predominate, as prisoners are unable to send email or use Skype or mobile phones.  And there is no limit on the number of letters a prisoner can receive.  So the epistolary form did seem to be the best narrative device for the story I wanted to tell.  Hope you like it.