How do you take on one of the biggest literature legacies of the past half-century? That’s what Nick Harkaway was asked to do after his father, David Cornwell (aka John Le Carré) died in 2020.

Karla’s Choice, Nick’s latest in the George Smiley world puts us in a sinister world of subterfuge, Hungarian agents and 1960s London.

In this interview, Nick tells us how he approached the writing of Karla’s Choice, what he learned from his father - and what he had to learn on-the-job, and how he balances writing in the Le Carré world with his own books.

You can get Karla’s Choice here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Karlas-Choice-John-Carr%C3%A9-Novel-ebook/dp/B0CZPPHPCR?ref_=ast_author_mpb

PLUS: My book ‘Decoy’ won ‘Book of the Year’ at the True Crime awards in London last week. Judges praised the quality of the writing, the high-end research and journalism and the issues raised.

You can grab a copy here:

UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Decoy-secretive-historical-undercover-operations/dp/0008666814/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

USA: https://www.amazon.com/Audible-Decoy/dp/B0CS6XNB54?ref_=ast_author_dp

Canada: https://www.amazon.ca/Decoy-secretive-historical-undercover-operations-ebook/dp/B0CLTGQDQJ?ref_=ast_author_dp

Australia: https://www.amazon.com.au/Decoy-secretive-historical-undercover-operations-ebook/dp/B0CLTGQDQJ?ref_=ast_author_dp

Want to watch this interview? Check it out here: https://robertmurphy.substack.com/publish/posts/detail/165538997/share-center

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Recorded at CrimeFest in Bristol, England, May 2025

Lee Child on how his TV career helped him write, his favourite authors, how he ‘writes the fast stuff slow and the slow stuff fast’ and handing the Jack Reacher baton to his brother Andrew.

Links mentioned in the show:

https://www.jackreacher.com/us/

https://www.crimefest.com/

Decoy book: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Decoy-secretive-historical-undercover-operations/dp/0008666814/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

To Hunt A Killer: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Hunt-Killer-gripping-Longlisted-non-fiction/dp/0008507473/ref=tmm_pap_swatch_0

Want to watch the interview? Paste this into your browser: https://robertmurphy.substack.com/p/lee-child-talks-reacher-his-craft

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Lee Child on how, when faced with redundancy he turned to writing. Why he’s made it as a multi-million selling author and others haven’t, the secrets of his craft… and why he’s leaving Trump’s America to return to the United Kingdom.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com

Neil Woods spent fourteen years as an undercover police officer, helping dismantle some of Britain’s most notorious drug gangs.

Yet after his biggest victory he came to the conclusion: was it worth it?

He started to feel that the problem was helped by repeated failures of governments to tackle the cause of Britain and America’s drugs epidemic. In fact by handing control of drugs supply to criminals governments were the cause.

‘A doctor controlling it (drugs supply) with a prescription pad has no incentive to find new customers and so the market doesn't develop. So what happened is it becomes a pyramid scheme. If you're organised crime, you want to find new customers, you find someone who's addicted and you say, ‘Look, if you find five more customers and you sell to them, they'll pay for your habit’ and the pyramid scheme explodes.’

Neil’s views are controversial views. But they are compelling. In this interview Neil describes:

* How the world used to experience two competing drug policies: The American System and The British System - with the American System winning.

* How following criminalisation in the 1960s, addicts fell into the hands of organised crime.

* How some schemes decriminalising drugs have worked in recent years.

To find out more about Neil and to get copies of his books ‘Good Cop, Bad War’ and ‘Drug Wars’ click here: https://www.neilwoods.net/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com

On November 7th 1974, a children’s nanny Sandra Rivett was murdered at the home of the family in which she was in service.

It was the Lucan family.

Lord Lucan - her suspected killer - may have been targeting his estranged wife.

But a man who had squandered his family fortune at Belgravia’s gaming tables proved to be as inept at murder as he was at gambling.

And he killed poor Sandra.

This is the perceived wisdom - and the finding of an inquest.

But with so little known for sure, conjecture fills the gaps facts leave behind.

What really happened on November 7th 1974?

This is a compendium episode - a trilogy re-released to mark the fiftieth anniversary of Sandra’s murder.

In the first two episodes, I’ve interviewed the brilliant author Laura Thompson - who has written a wonderful book A Different Class of Murder about the run up and aftermath of the killing.

And in episode three, I speak with screenwriter George Kay about the nanny who could have been on-rota that night, managed to swap shifts - and cheated death.

Yet Christabel Boyce met a dreadful end a decade later - leading some to believe there was a curse of the Lucan nannies. George has a personal connection with this second tragedy.

You can find out more about Laura, her writing and her books here:

http://www.laurathompson.co.uk/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com

Neil Woods spent years as an undercover police officer. He says his techniques in included ‘weaponising empathy’ - using the good nature of society’s most vulnerable.

And as Britain was being hit by a wave of cheap drugs and a rise in heroin and crack cocaine addicts, Neil had the most staggering results.

In just one operation against Britain’s most notorious gang - The Burger Bar Boys - his work led to 96 arrests.

But what impact did living a double-life have on this family man? What was it like having knives held at his throat?

And why does he now believe undercover policing should only be used in the rarest and most extreme cases?

Neil Woods has written two thought-provoking books. Links to them and him are here:

https://www.neilwoods.net/

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com

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In Cold Blood started as a study in how a heartbreaking killing impacted a Mid-West community. But Truman Capote got sucked into the story.

At first, the folk of Holcomb, Kansas, distrusted the flamboyant writer.

But slowly, he won the small city round.

And when the killers were caught, he built an unbelievable and controversial bond with them.

In this episode, Capote’s friend and biographer, Gerald Clarke, describes the awful murders of the Clutter family in 1959, how Capote spent six years writing his masterpiece and its legacy on true crime and non-fiction literature.

You can get a copy of In Cold Blood here.

You can get a copy of Gerald Clarke’s Capote here.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com

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Maxim Jakobowski has sold millions of books. But you may not have heard of him.

After releasing a book aged 16, he moved into publishing and worked with Patricia Highsmith (‘an incredible talent… a very difficult lady…’) he then turned to crime writing.

When ‘50 Shades of Grey’ was released, he was drafted into writing a series of erotica - which sold millions of books.

And how did he sell the rights of a novel to Nicole Kidman… for a fortune?

A quick warning… if True Crime is your thing, this episode may not be for you. But fiction fans may find it fascinating.

But Maxim speaks in detail and depth about how to publish crime, the state of the book industry and fiction trends which have come and gone.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com

Billie-Jo Jenkins was a talented 13-year-old schoolgirl who had found what appeared to be the perfect foster family: four daughters, a mum who was a social worker and a dad who was a deputy headteacher.

Sion Jenkins was an upstanding member of an affluent town’s community. But he had secrets. Like the lies about his academic qualifications and the affair with a teenage girl who looked a lot like Billie-Jo.

When Billie-Jo was found dead in her garden in 1997, it was Sion who called 999. Detectives first arrested a mysterious figure, known as Mr B.

But then they turned their attention to Billie-Jo’s own foster father.

He had just a three-minute window to have killed the 13-year-old. Could he have done it? And why?

What followed was a roller-coaster of a police inquiry, prosecution and series of trials.

For her series ‘Who Killed Billie-Jo’ podcaster Naomi Channell has gone back to the schoolgirl’s friends, family and the inquiry team to find out more about what happened.

You can listen to her series here:

To learn more about Naomi and her podcast, click here:

https://linktr.ee/realtruecrimepodcast

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com

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Jackie Kabler met one of Britain’s most notorious killers for her job as a breakfast TV correspondent. Years later, she used her experience covering crime for her fictional thrillers.

Her psychological drama The Perfect Couple has sold over 400,000 copies and she has sold nearly a million books in total.

Her latest story, The Life Sentence, is based on a case of wrongful prosecution which she heard about on a true crime podcast.

You can find out more about Jackie here: www.jackiekabler.com

@officialjackiekabler and @jackiekabler

Subscribe to robertmurphy.substack.com to watch the video interview.

This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com