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Journalist and crime author Andrew Wilson spent half a decade researching and writing Beautiful Shadow: A Life of Patricia Highsmith.

When she died, aged 74 in 1995, Highsmith left one of the world’s largest literary estates.

Inside her notebooks, or cahiers, Andrew found never-before-seen reminiscences of her many (and I mean many) love affairs, notes about the dark crimes which prompted her stories and people she had watched which inspired her characters.

Highsmith rarely sold more than 8,000 copies a year in the USA. She was far more celebrated in Europe, to where she moved in the 1970s.

But now, following the superb Netflix series ‘Ripley’ as well as the 1999 film ‘The Talented Mr Ripley,’ interest in Highsmith has never been higher.

Who was Patricia Highsmith?

A lesbian writer who wrote a queer classic yet was deeply misogynistic. A political liberal who held profoundly racist views. A writer of psychological thrillers who hated people.

And how did she manage to persuade quite so many married women into bed?

And what her fascination with snails? Why did she keep them in her bra?

Andrew Wilson describes all of this and about why he spent five years writing ‘Beautiful Shadow.’

You can find more about Andrew Wilson here: https://www.andrewwilsonauthor.co.uk/

Andrew’s Agatha Christie mysteries are available here: https://www.andrewwilsonauthor.co.uk/the-agatha-christie-mysteries

His new biography of Marilyn Monroe I Wanna Be Loved By You is here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Wanna-Be-Loved-You-Marilyn-ebook/dp/B0FB496Q27/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0

In this episode we refer to Truman Capote. You can hear more about In Cold Blood here:

And Andrew talks about Highsmith’s interest in the Lord Lucan case. You can hear more about that here:

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The creator of The Snowdonia Killings talks true crime, pivoting from screenplays to novels (via teaching) and how his own publishing company has proved far more lucrative than being traditionally published.

When, in 2020, Simon couldn’t get an agent or a publisher, he decided to self-publish his first novel, expecting just a few friends to buy it.

But soon it was soaring up the Amazon charts.

The Snowdonia Killings, with its lead character of Det Insp Ruth Hunter, seemed to touch a nerve with fans of crime fiction.

Since then, Simon has written more than THIRTY books and has sold millions of copies.

Simon’s books are fantastic reads, with great characters, evocative settings and terrific twists.

You can find out more (and claim a free book) here:

https://www.simonmccleave.com

To WATCH this interview - click here: https://open.substack.com/pub/robertmurphy/p/simon-mccleave-the-screenwriter-turned?r=1lsdh7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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

Mark Gatiss’s new crime drama is set in 1946 London: a city recovering from the Blitz, when gangs ran wild and gun crime was rife.

Bookish is inspired by both true crimes and the Golden Age of Detective Fiction which preceded the Second World War.

But what were the true crimes of this period?

And how does Mark, who works across so many genres (comedy, horror, sci-fi, action, period-drama) and platforms (TV, books, theatre, film) create a show which resonates? Bookish is already posting big audience numbers on U&Alibi in the UK.

You may know Mark from The League of Gentlemen, Sherlock, Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Dracula - and MANY other shows.

But what is it that brings him back to crime?

To watch this interview, click here:

https://open.substack.com/pub/robertmurphy/p/sherlocks-mark-gatiss-true-crime?r=1lsdh7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

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

The Detection Club, established in 1930, is the world’s first social network for crime writers.

It’s founder fathers and mothers included Agatha Christie, Dorothy L Sayers and Anthony Berkeley.

Its current membership includes Ian Rankin, Val McDermid and Richard Osman.

The current (and only the eighth) President, Martin Edwards, has released an updated edition of his book ‘The Golden Age of Murder’ in which he talks about the true cases which inspired the literary greats of the Inter-War years.

And he describes how many of our classic crime novels riff around the subject of a ‘justified murder.’

To WATCH this interview, click here: https://open.substack.com/pub/robertmurphy/p/video-interview-martin-edwards-president?r=1lsdh7&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true

More about Martin Edwards : https://martinedwardsbooks.com/ and https://substack.com/@martinedwardsbooks/

This podcast mentions an earlier episode about the Thompson-Bywaters with laura thompson case. You can hear that here:

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

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

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

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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

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

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'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe

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'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe

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'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit robertmurphy.substack.com/subscribe