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I read an article  at the weekend that said "Crime often spikes when the economy splutters, but does demand for crime fiction surge as well? Publishers hope so."  So do crime authors. The article went on to detail how several publishing houses are launching mystery imprints in hopes of gaining a toehold in the thriving crime-fiction market. Crime has always been a popular genre, and it encompasses such a wide variety from cozy crime to hard boiled, historic to contemporary, detective to private eye and everything in between. Mysteries and thrillers accounted for nearly 30% of fiction sales in 2010, a study by industry analyst Bowker found. Mystery became the top-selling genre in 2010, up five spots from the previous year, according to Simba Information, which tracks the publishing industry. Even Amazon are entering the crime fiction field as a publisher with its Thomas & Mercer line of thrillers publishing in digital, print and audio.  But then...

Round and About Magazine recently ran a competition for the chance to win a Signed Copy of Dead Man's Wharf, the fourth in the DI Andy Horton Marine Mystery crime series of police procedurals, which was given a starred review by USA reviewer Kirkus. Congratulations to the five winners who should by now, hopefully, have received their signed copies.  I hope you enjoy reading Dead Man's Wharf and the others in the DI Horton series. Horton and Cantelli are called to a nursing home where an elderly resident, suffering from dementia, claims she's been attacked by an intruder. Horton is ready to dismiss it as senile ramblings until he discovers that her room-mate has died, the dead woman's belongings are missing and her son, convicted for armed robbery, has been found dead in his cell. As if this isn't enough, Horton also has to deal with a series of threatening telephone calls to a television personality, and a mother's conviction that her son's death on C...

Murder, treachery, deceit and betrayal set against the backdrop of the south coast and the Solent? It must be another case for DI Andy Horton .  I'll be appearing at the Isle of Arts Festival Ventnor at the splendid Royal Hotel ,Ventnor on Sunday 17 April at 4pm. Tickets cost £3.00 I'll be revealing what inspires me and how I research and write my crime and thriller novels, two of which are set on the Isle of Wight, the DI Horton crime novel Blood on the Sand and the thriller, In For The Kill. All my crime novels and thrillers are set around the Solent area, Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. I do hope some of you can join me on the Isle of Wight and I look forward to the talk at the Royal Hotel , a magnificent hotel. Tickets can also be purchase on the door there.

Next week I have an interview on Angel Radio, this time on the Isle of Wight rather than at my local Angel Radio Station in Havant. It's always great to be on Angel Radio and I'm looking forward to chatting to David Nove between 12.00 and 1pm on 31 March on 91.5 fm. Angel Radio accentuates the positive aspects of being an older person and provides a radio station for older people to run themselves. It is unique in that it specializes in playing music made before1960.  It provides entertainment, information, reminiscence therapy, mental and physical stimulation, self-esteem, bereavement therapy, and friendly voices with natural personality, all produced by older people specifically for an audience aged 60 years and over. No other radio station in Europe provides this all encompassing service for older people. But you don't have to be over 60 to be on the radio! or to listen to it and I know that many younger people really enjoying listening to the 'vintage music...

I was recently asked this question by a journalist and although the percentage of women who read crime fiction is higher than men, I am pleased to say that I have both male and female readers of my crime and thriller novels. So why are so many people drawn to reading crime fiction? In crime fiction we know that justice will be done and the case will be resolved and that doesn’t always happen in real life. In crime fiction the villain either gets caught or gets his/her comeuppance but in real life the evil and manipulative, the guilty can get away with it as in the case of the unsolved murder in my own family in 1959.  A man was charged for the murder of my great aunt but was acquitted at trial. The case was investigated by Scotland Yard and has never been re-opened leaving the family with a great big question mark over their lives. Crime fiction though can give us a resolution. It can also give us an insight into what makes people tick. I am fascinated b...

My sister's house was burgled yesterday.  She discovered this on returning home after collecting her husband from the hospital where he'd been overnight recovering from an operation.  Needless to say it was a horrible shock for them but they were fortunate enough not to have the house ransacked and it appears only lost £100 in cash.  It was obviously opportunist thieves who saw a way in and out quickly, looking for ready cash. My sister says the police were brilliant, they were there in a matter of minutes and the fingerprint bureau followed hot on their heels.  They were also marvellous.  I know members of the Hampshire Police and the Fingerprint Bureau , writing crime fiction, as I do, and I know that they are a great team. Whether the police will catch the culprits, who knows, but the police have already questioned the neighbours and have two male suspects they're seeking who had been seen lurking about the area. At some point in our lives c...

An article on the Bookseller web site reported that the e-reader market doubled over Christmas with 7% of British adults receiving a dedicated e-reader bringing the total percentage of adults with e-book readers up to 13%, or 6.5m adults. I have certainly seen a considerable rise in the sales of my e books and on Kindle, which was revealed as the most popular device and the fastest growing overtaking the Sony Reader. And for anyone who wants a bargain for a limited period my e book publisher is offering my DI Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel Blood on the Sand on Kindle and my crime thriller novel , In For The Kill on Kindle at a special offer price on Amazon of 94p in the UK - yes 94pence!  And in the USA  the e book on Kindle of Blood on the Sand is on offer at $1.51 and In For the Kill   for the same bargain price. But if you prefer  to get your hands on the printed version of these novels or any of my other crime and thriller novel...

One of the essentials for a good novel is a strong central character, someone the reader can have empathy with, urge on, sometimes get angry and frustrated with and someone the reader can get close to and believe in.   I was recently asked to provide some tips for creating a strong central character for the web site Write On and thought about my own central character in my marine mysteries , Inspector Andy Horton, and the protagonists in my two thrillers: Adam Greene in In Cold Daylight and Alex Albury in In For The Kill . I like heroes so I guess they have to be that, but heroes have flaws too, and can sometimes be reluctant heroes, they are human after all, and so too are my lead characters, to me anyway. Below is the background to my central character in the marine mysteries, Andy Horton.  In two blogs this week I'll look at what shapes Adam Greene in In Cold Daylight and Alex Albury in In For The Kill . Main characters need to take control. The...

I'm delighted to be returning to Crimefest in 2011 and I'm looking forward to meeting crime fiction fans from all over the World and some of my fellow crime writers at this very popular annual crime convention.  CRIMEFEST will be held at the Bristol Royal Marriott Hotel from 19 - 22 May 2011.  It is a convention for people who like to read an occasional crime novel as well as for die-hard fanatics. First organised in June 2008, CRIMEFEST is now one of the most popular dates in the crime fiction calendar. The annual convention draws top crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the world and gives delegates the opportunity to celebrate the genre in an informal atmosphere. It follows the format of US conventions and includes interviews, panels, a gala dinner, and one or two surprises. I'm not sure which panel I will be on yet, when and with whom but will certainly post the details here and they'll be on my official web site as soon as...

The new Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery crime novel, Footsteps on the Sho re , is due to be published on 27 January 2011 and is now available to pre-order. It is set around the Solent area on the South Coast of England like the others in the series, with this particular one being set in Portsmouth, around Portchester Castle and the Hayling Island Coastal Nature Reserve.  I've been promising to post details about this latest crime fiction police procedural featuring my hunky DI, Andy Horton for ages so here it is. Friday the thirteenth begins badly for DI Andy Horton when he wakes to find his Harley has been vandalized and his boss, DCI Lorraine Bliss, has returned early from her secondment to HQ. Then, convicted murderer, Luke Felton, released on licence, is reported missing and a decomposed corpse is washed up in Portsmouth harbour. But before Horton can get a grip on either case, he’s called to a house where a woman he’d only met the day before has been brutally...

Good talk last night to twenty ladies from the Koinona group (which I've been told is Greek for fun and friendship).  They made me feel very welcome and I enjoyed giving my talk on how I write my crime fiction and telling them about my marine mystery crime novels. It was a pleasure to meet you all and thank you for buying so many of my crime novels. Crime author Pauline Rowson being introduced to the Koinona Group Pauline Rowson talking about her marine mystery crime and thriller novels Tomorrow I’m on Express FM on the Sally Cronin programme between 1.30 pm and 4.30pm. You can listen via the Internet on the Express FM web site or on 93.7.

A reporter from the local newspaper, The News , is coming today to interview me for an article which will appear in Friday's newspaper ahead of the Crime and the City CSI Portsmouth event in which I'm participating on Saturday 6 November along with fellow crime writers, Graham Hurley, Peter Lovesey, Simon Brett and June Hampson. On the panel we will be joined by police and forensic experts and the fingerprinting bureau will also be in attendance.  Delegates can have their fingerprints taken and pressed into a keyring to take away. A novel idea!  The event, which is broken down into two sessions (morning and afternoon) is selling extremely well, and I think the afternoon session has almost sold out. So if you want to come along you'd better book soon.  Details are on the page to the left of this blog or on my official web site . To get back to the reporter. She is also bringing a photographer, which is the worse part of the interview, it's always a dilemm...

I spent Sunday afternoon, all day yesterday, and today working on the copy-edits of the next Inspector Andy Horton marine mystery police procedural crime novel: Footsteps on the Shore . I'm relieved and pleased to say that I finished going through the novel at about four o'clock yesterday and then decided to read it through again to double check everything.  Today I should finish that and then it's a deep breath and press send to e mail it to my editor. The next time I will get to see Footsteps on the Shore  will be at the proofs stage and by then it will be too late to change much, if anything. That's when I get the jitters.  Could I have re-written that section to improve it?  Should I have included something else? Too late. But it's been an interesting exercise and not too painful and it's helped me with writing the current Inspector Andy Horton which follows directly on from Footsteps on the Shore . Footsteps on the Shore will be the sixth in the...

Meet in the Midlands, not in St Louis, as the song goes but I won't be singing (promise) but talking about how I write my marine mystery police procedural crime novels featuring my rugged detective Inspector Andy Horton and my thrillers. On 27 September 2010 @ 2pm I'll be at the newly refurbished Perry Common Library, Birmingham. Tickets are free. Contact Perry Common Library, College Road, Birmingham West Midlands,UK B44 0HH perry.common.library@birmingham.gov.uk for more details or to book your place. Next up on 28 September 2010 @ 10am is Burton-upon-Trent Library, where I am guest author in the 'Reading Cafe' from 10 am to 12 noon. I'll again be talking about how I write my crime novels, answering questions and signing copies of my books. Do join me if you can for this informal, entertaining morning session. For further information contact: Tel: 01283 239564 paul.tovell@staffordshire.gov.uk http://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/ If you would like me to speak...

Figures from Nielsen's library book loan tracking service LibScan on the first year of its operation show library goers favour crime and saga authors more than any other books, which is good news for me and my crime novels. And good news for  saga writers.  (I wrote three saga novels some years ago, which aren't published - maybe I should resurrect them!)  My marine mystery crime novels and thrillers  are available to borrow not only in UK libraries but also in libraries in the USA, Canada, New Zealand and Australia. Not sure what library borrowers prefer in those countries, or if there are figures to track loans but I suspect the pattern would be similar.  Library loans are often different to book sales because libraries stock a vast range of books (currently under threat because of government cut backs as are libraries), and libraries also stock a great backlist of titles, so if you discover an author you like you can usually get access ...

Portsmouth BookFest is a new festival to promote reading for pleasure and enthusiasm for literature in the city of Portsmouth. It's being held between 26 October and 13 November, and I'm delighted and honoured to be part of it.  I'm in great company too. Appearing at the Portsmouth Bookfest is saga writer Josephine Cox, children's author Jacqueline Wilson, SAS hero and author Chris Ryan to name but a few. My own special event is called  Crime and the City CSI Portsmouth and is being held on Saturday 6 November . Crime and the City - CSI Portsmouth - 6 November 2010 I will be joined by forensic and crime scene experts from the Police and University and fellow crime writers Peter Lovesey, Graham Hurley, Simon Brett, and June Hampson in a lively panel debate and Q & A session chaired by broadcaster, Cheryl Buggy, station director of Express FM.   There will even be a chance to have your fingerprints taken and to take away as a keepsake and to ask auth...

The Crime Writers' Association (CWA) (of which I am a member) has announced that it will again run two highly successful initiatives next year, which were first introduced this year. National Crime Writing Week, formerly National Crime Fiction Week, will run between June 13 and 19, 2011. The name change is designed to encompass both non-fiction and fiction and the nationwide celebration of crime writing will see the culmination of the CWA Young Crime Writers' Competition, which was run by libraries and the CWA this year and attracted 600 entries nationwide. I was the CWA representative and judge for entries on the South Coast of England this year and I am happy to say that I will be next year.  I very much look forward to being involved and once again reading the entries from young writers. In addition, during National Crime Writing Week, members of the CWA, including yours truly, will take part in readings, discussions, read...

Portsmouth Central Library will be hosting the first ever Crime and the City (CSI Portsmouth) event on Saturday 6 November. Four of my fellow crime writers will join me and experts from Hampshire Constabulary and The International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology to discuss crime fiction and fact in a unique event, as part of the Portsmouth Book fest. More to follow but I can annouce that joining me, Pauline Rowson will be  Simon Brett , June Hampson , Peter Lovesey and Graham Hurley. On the expert side will be DS Martin Chudley, in charge of the Crime Scene Investigation team for Hampshire Constabulary and Jane Aston and her team from the Fingerprinting Bureau. With them will be Dr Claire Nee, Director of the International Centre for Research in Forensic Psychology at Portsmouth University, an expert in forensic psychology, and Paul Smith, an expert in Crime Scenes. A mobile bookshop will be provided by the Hayling Island Bookshop. It looks like...

Yesterday I started to blitz my office, the place where I write my marine mystery crime novels.  The Bank Holiday weekend affords the perfect opportunity to do this especially when it's cool, wet and windy. And, because I have finished writing the sixth Inspector Horton crime novel, ( Footsteps on the Shore) I am now ready to sift through all those ideas I've accumulated over the last year and shoved in a folder ready to pick out those that appeal to me, which might begin to form the basis of a plot for number seven in the series. So it's not only cleaning and chucking out time (why did I keep that magazine from 2008?) it's also filing and thinking time. I already have some ideas for Andy Horton's next adventure. If and when you read Footsteps on the Shore you'll see that I've left it on a bit of a cliff hanger - what will happen to Andy Horton next?  Will he still be in CID? Will he get any closer to finding out what happened to his mother after s...

I'm looking forward to my appearance at CrimeFest on Friday 21 May where I am on a panel with fellow crime writers, J. G. Goodhind, Linda Regan, Neil White and Lindsey Davis. We'll be discussing No More Heroes: Today's Sleuths &Crime Solvers between 10.10 - 11.00, so do come and join us if you're there. CrimeFest is an International convention attracting crime fiction fans, crime novelists, readers, editors, publishers and reviewers from around the World. It is supported by The Times and Blackwells. CrimeFest runs from 20-23 May 2010 and takes place at the Royal Marriott Hotel, Bristol. Click here for the full programme.