Pauline Rowson talks about the crime authors who have inspired her

I loved adventure and mystery novels when I was a child and a teenager and this love of crime fiction, thrillers and mystery novels has continued throughout my adulthood.  In my teens I enjoyed the novels of Leslie Charteris featuring Simon Templar, The Saint, and those written by John Creasey featuring The Baron and Gideon to name only two of his characters. Creasey was a very prolific writer and also the author of Westerns which I went through a phase of reading, including those penned by Zane Grey, an author who locked together character and land so that they were indivisible something that perhaps also took root with me, locking my characters, DI Andy Horton and Art Marvik in with the sea and the sea with my characters.

Following this I progressed to reading many different crime writers and I particularly love the Golden Age of Crime novels, those set from say 1930 to 1960 some of which I am delighted to say are being reprinted for the first time by the British Library in their Classic Crime Series. There are mystery novels by John Bude featuring Inspector Meredith, along with those written by Freeman Wills Crofts to name only a couple. If you like mystery novels these are well worth a try.

Blood upon the Snow by Hilda Lawrence is another favourite of mine, a very atmospheric crime novel which I have re-read many times. Published in 1946 it's a sinister story with an atmosphere that contains extraordinary power and suspense and keeps you guessing to the end. You can actually feel and taste the cold and you shiver in the snow as you read how private detective Mark East is summoned to a lonely house in the hills in Bear River USA to protect a frightened lonely old man. Here he meets the occupants of the house and a series of accidents culminate in a fatal one. Sadly Hilda Lawrence only wrote four novels and I will continue to browse the second hand book shops for the other three I do not have.

There are many more great crime writers from the Golden Age of Crime I could name who have inspired me, and still do, but I cannot close without mentioning one of my all time favourites, the hugely prolific, Georges Simenon particularly his Maigret novels, which are also being reprinted.  You just can't keep a good crime writer down!

With Simenon I love the atmospheric writing, the quick dialogue and the fact that you often follow the story through Maigret’s eyes.  Simenon can conjure up the mood and the atmosphere in one simple short sentence and plunge you right into Maigret’s world.  I also like to count up the number of alcoholic drinks Maigret consumes in a day, it makes me feel far less guilty at taking that glass or two of wine in the evening!

These classic crime novels never date and continue to provide enjoyment to me and many others.

If you need to search for a crime writer you love then check out the Fantastic Fiction website. Happy reading.


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