Turning To Crime

A few weeks ago I found out that, after coming third in Nottingham Writers' Club autumn short story competition, I actually won the winter one. The brief was to write a crime story with the theme of 'Identity'. Judging the competition was author Stephen Booth who has written a series of crime novels.

I have to admit that, when I submitted my entry, I wasn't sure if it would appeal to an established crime writer. My story was based on a lone hit-man rather than being a conventional cops versus criminals tale. As it turns out I must have done something right.

Stephen Booth has written several novels set in Derbyshire so, living on the Notts/Derbys border, they are of particular interest to me. Descriptions of familiar countryside and the mention of real place names gives his stories an extra edge. His two main characters are a sergeant and constable rather than inspector and sergeant and so the action is centred at a lower level in the police hierarchy than many other series such as Morse and Frost. If you like crime or fancy a change from your usual genre then I recommend you give these a try.