Crime Time FM

MERLE NYGATE chats to Paul about her spy thriller HONOUR AMONG SPIES, Eli Amiran, screenwriting, research and

HONOUR AMONG SPIES: At the heart of London's spy operations, Mossad head of station Eli carries the scars of a past disaster while grappling with the turbulent political landscape back home. His resolve to uphold his duty and keep his job is tested like never before.
Desperate to tip the scales in the espionage game, Eli concocts a risky plan involving tampered drones destined for Russian hands. But to execute this plan, he has to exploit those closest to him. Eli's moral compass clashes with the mission, leading him down a treacherous path of betrayal.
As the stakes escalate, Eli finds himself embroiled in a deadly web, racing to foil an apocalyptic agenda. Alliances are tested, sacrifices are made, and Eli must confront the consequence of his actions head-on, and navigate a shadowy underworld to prevent a terrorist plot from unleashing chaos on a global scale. Will they emerge victorious, or will the darkness consume them all?

Merle Nygate is a screenwriter, script editor, screenwriting lecturer and novelist; she's worked on BAFTA winning TV, New York Festival audio drama and written original sitcoms; previously she worked for BBC Comedy Commissioning as well as writing and script editing across multiple genres. Most recently, Merle completed her first espionage novel which won the Little Brown/UEA Crime Fiction Award. It was described by the judge as 'outstanding'.

Mentions: Lior Raz (Fauda) John Le Carré,
Recommend: Blue Lights (BBC TV).

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

Episode Two: On The Road With Victoria: Nicci French HAS ANYONE SEEN CHARLOTTE SALTER

Live event at Waterstones Colchester with dynamic duo Nicci French (aka husband & wife writing team Nicci Gerrard and Sean French) and a fascinating discussion ranging from inspiration to AI.

VICTORIA SELMAN
SundayTimes bestselling author of ALL THE LITTLE LIARS
Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3xmvMeS
Website for news and giveaways: http://www.victoriaselmanauthor.com
Twitter: @VictoriaSelman

We love to hear from our listeners! Find me on Twitter @VictoriaSelman and join in the chat using #OnTheSofaWithVictoria

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

I S Berry chats to Paul Burke about her espionage thriller THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW, already an Edgar First Novel, Barry and ITW Award Winner in the US, just published in the UK. The only female former field agent writing spy fiction.

THE PEACOCK AND THE SPARROW Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy, is ready to come in from the cold. Stationed in Bahrain for his final tour, he’s anxious to dispense with his mission ― uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency. But then he meets Almaisa, an enigmatic artist, and his eyes are opened to a side of Bahrain most expats never experience, to questions he never thought to ask.
When his trusted informant becomes embroiled in a murder, Collins finds himself drawn deep into the conflict, his romance and loyalties upended. In an instant, he’s caught in the crosswinds of a revolution. He sets out to learn the truth behind the Arab Spring, win Almaisa’s love, and uncover the murky border where Bahrain’s secrets end and America’s begin.
Now optioned for film by Scott Delman of Shadowfox productions (Producer of HBO Max hit series Station Eleven).

I. S. Berry spent six years as an operations officer for the CIA and has lived and worked in Europe and the Middle East, including two years in Bahrain during the Arab Spring. She has a degree in Law from the University of Virginia, and is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, International Thriller Writers, International Association of Crime Writers, and the Association of Former Intelligence Workers. The Peacock and The Sparrow was her debut novel, published in 2023. Berry currently lives in Virginia with her husband and son.

Recommended
The Little Drummer Girl John Le Carré, The Quiet American Graham Greene, The Innocent Ian McEwan, The Attack Yasmina Khadra, Joseph Kanon, David McCloskey & Paul Vidich.
Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

JOSIE LLOYD chats to Paul Burke about MISS BEETON'S MURDER AGENCY, Mrs Beaton, breast cancer, comedy, cosy crime, making drunk promises to run marathons.

Miss Beeton's Murder Agency: Alice Beeton never meant to wind up single and childless on the wrong side of fifty. Like her distant relative Mrs Beeton – yes, that Mrs Beeton – she had hoped to have her own spic-and-span household by now. In reality, she lives in an immaculate but dingy basement flat in a rather shabby block in Kensington with Agatha, her fiercely intelligent, if rather over-territorial, corgi-Jack Russell cross.
Now Alice runs the Good Household Management Agency, providing discreet domestic staff to extravagant townhouses and sprawling country piles. So when Camille Messent calls in urgent need of a new housekeeper, Miss Beeton sends out new hire Enya. She’s rather forward but she does come with impeccable references and is fluent en français.
But in the early hours of New Year’s Day, Alice is rudely awakened with the news that Enya has been found dead. As the intriguing, if somewhat scruffy, Detective Rigby struggles to drum up an adequate investigation and the wealthy family and their party guests close rank, Miss Beeton takes it upon herself to solve the crime…

Josie Lloyd's first novel, It Could Be You, was published in 1997 and since then she has written 15 bestselling novels, (under various pen names), including the number one hit Come Together, which she co-authored with her husband, Emlyn Rees, which was number one for 10 weeks, published in 27 languages and made into a Working Title film. Josie has also written several bestselling parodies with Emlyn, including We're Going on a Bar Hunt, The Very Hungover Caterpillar and The Teenager Who Came to Tea.

Recommended: Butter Asako Yazuki, None of This is True Lisa Jewell, Elif Shafak, William Shaw, Julia Crouch.
Mentions: Nora Ephron Heartburn, Ian Moore, Emlyn Rees and Mrs Beaton's Book of Household Management.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

Season Seven #OnTheSofa
Episode One:

On The Road With Victoria: Lisa Jewell NONE OF THIS IS TRUE & Mark Edwards THE DARKEST WATERS.

Live event at Waterstones Tottenham Court Road with legends Lisa Jewell and Mark Edwards talking about everything from killing people in sand to Marvel superheroes.

VICTORIA SELMAN
SundayTimes bestselling author of ALL THE LITTLE LIARS
Amazon Author Page: https://amzn.to/3xmvMeS
Website for news and giveaways: http://www.victoriaselmanauthor.com
Twitter: @VictoriaSelman

We love to hear from our listeners! Find me on Twitter @VictoriaSelman and join in the chat using #OnTheSofaWithVictoria

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

THE REVIEW SHOW OCTOBER 2024

The Blue Hour Paula Hawkins
Disturbing the Bones Andrew Davis & Jeff Biggers
Edith Holler Edward Carey
Dark as Night Lilja Sigardardóttir trans. Lorenzo Garcia
The Great When Alan Moore
Angélique Guillaume Musso  
Identity Unknown Patricia Cornwell
In Too Deep Andrew Lee Child
Quick comment reviews:
The labyrinth house murders Yukito Ayatsuji trans. Ho-Ling Wong
The Forest of Lost Souls Dean Koontz
Here One Minute ...Gone the Next Alex Lake
And
And There There Were None Agatha Christie
Murder on the Orient Express Agatha Christie, graphic novel by Bob al-Greene

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

CHRISTINE BOYER chats to Paul about her noir crime debut Black Maria, the American dream, honing style, short story v novel, psychogeography, regional fiction.

BLACK MARIA: Business magnate Thomas Farney and Detective Felix Kosmatka both want the same thing: to catch the monster who brutally murdered Farney's young grandson.
Thomas, brutal and savvy, didn't become wealthy by playing by the rules or kowtowing to authority. Felix, smart but green, still believes in the integrity of law and order...and he believes solving this case may be his ticket out of his dying hometown.
Felix must team up with seasoned detective Adam Shaffer to hunt the killer. Their investigation leads them into the past-when Thomas and his coal company owned the town, and when the riches beneath the surface belonged to anyone ruthless enough to claim them. Thomas made a multitude of enemies in those lawless days, and perhaps a few followed him into the present to exact their revenge.
Set in the Pennsylvania Rust Belt in the 1970's, Felix's faith in his institutions is shaken when the killer reveals a difficult truth: the rich and powerful rarely pay for their own sins, and vengeance can sometimes look uncomfortably like justice.

Christine Boyer's writing has been honored in both the Best American Mystery and Suspense anthology (Distinguished Mystery and Suspense of 2022) and the Best American Essays anthology (Notable Essays of 2020). Her work has been published in numerous anthologies and literary journals, including Jacked: A Crime Fiction Anthology, Weren't Another Other Way to Be: Outlaw Fiction Inspired by the Songs of Waylon Jennings, FOLIO, Little Patuxent Review, and Tahoma Literary Review. Black Maria is her first novel. Originally from Pennsylvania, Christine now lives in Massachusetts.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

KATE SUMMERSCALE chats to Paul about her new history THE PEEPSHOW, 10 Rillington Place, misogyny & male violence, the cultural and wider societal impact of a notorious murder.

THE PEEPSHOW: London, 1953. Police discover the bodies of three young women hidden in a wall at 10 Rillington Place, a dingy terrace house in Notting Hill. On searching the building, they find another body beneath the floorboards, then an array of human bones in the garden. But they have already investigated a double murder at 10 Rillington Place, three years ago, and the killer was hanged. Did they get the wrong man?
A nationwide manhunt is launched for the tenant of the ground-floor flat, a softly spoken former policeman named Reg Christie. Star reporter Harry Procter chases after the scoop. Celebrated crime writer Fryn Tennyson Jesse begs to be assigned to the case. The story becomes an instant sensation, and with the relentless rise of the tabloid press the public watches on like never before. Who is Christie? Why did he choose to kill women, and to keep their bodies near him? As Harry and Fryn start to learn the full horror of what went on at Rillington Place, they realise that Christie might also have engineered a terrible miscarriage of justice in plain sight.
In this riveting true story, Kate Summerscale mines the archives to uncover the lives of Christie's victims, the tabloid frenzy that their deaths inspired, and the truth about what happened inside the house.

Kate Summerscale is the author of the number one bestselling The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, winner of the Samuel Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction 2008, winner of the Galaxy British Book of the Year Award, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and adapted into a major ITV drama. Her first book, the bestselling The Queen of Whale Cay, won a Somerset Maugham award and was shortlisted for the Whitbread biography award. Kate Summerscale has also judged various literary competitions including the Booker Prize. She lives in north London.

Recommend: 

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,  

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Crime Time


Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023
& Newcastle Noir 2023
2024 Slaughterfest, National Crime Reading Month, CWA Daggers

KATE RHODES chats to Paul Burke about her new thriller THE STALKER, The Isles of Scilly mysteries, stalking, and Cambridge.

THE STALKER Elly is an expert in stalking – an academic at Cambridge University and a popular media pundit. She knows the subject intimately: what motivates a stalker, how they behave, how to rehabilitate them.
But now it’s personal. Someone is following her, making silent phone calls and sending her ominous notes. The message is always the same – me or you.
Elly can’t trust anyone – not her family, her friends or her colleagues. She knows that her stalker must be someone close to her. And when they suddenly turn violent, she realizes she’s running out of time to find out who it is.
Because it looks like only one of them will survive.
A terrifying cat-and-mouse chase, told from the perspective of the stalker and the stalked – a roller-coaster ride with an ending you won’t see coming.

KATE RHODES is an acclaimed crime novelist and an award-winning poet. She lives in Cambridge with her husband, the writer and film-maker Dave Pescod, and visited the Scilly Isles every year as a child, which gave her the idea for this series. She is one of the founders of the Killer Women writing group.p

Recommend: Rachel Abbott The Last Time I Saw Him

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023-2026 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,