Crime Time FM

SIMON SCARROW chats to Paul Burke about his new to paperback thriller BLACKOUT, the importance of teaching and understanding history, challenging views of the past, writing historical fiction, Cato and Macro and how telling a joke could get you executed in Nazi Germany.

BLACKOUT: Berlin, December 1939
As Germany goes to war, the Nazis tighten their terrifying grip. Paranoia in the capital is intensified by a rigidly enforced blackout that plunges the city into oppressive darkness every night, as the bleak winter sun sets.
When a young woman is murdered, Criminal Inspector Horst Schenke is under pressure to solve the case, swiftly. Distrusted by his superiors for his failure to join the Nazi Party, Schenke walks a perilous line - for disloyalty is a death sentence.
The discovery of a second victim confirms Schenke's worst fears. He must uncover the truth before evil strikes again.
As the investigation takes him closer to the sinister heart of the regime, Schenke realises there is danger everywhere - and the warring factions of the Reich can be as deadly as a killer stalking the streets . . .

SIMON SCARR is a Sunday Times No. 1 bestselling author. After a childhood spent travelling the world, he pursued his great love of history as a teacher, before becoming a full-time writer. His Roman soldier heroes Cato and Macro made their debut in 2000 in UNDER THE EAGLE, and have subsequently appeared in many bestsellers in the Eagles of the Empire series, including CENTURION, INVICTUS and DAY OF THE CAESARS.
Simon Scarrow is also the author of a quartet of novels about the lives of the Duke of Wellington and Napoleon Bonaparte, YOUNG BLOODS, THE GENERALS, FIRE AND SWORD and THE FIELDS OF DEATH; a novel about the 1565 Siege of Malta, SWORD & SCIMITAR; HEARTS OF STONE, set in Greece during the Second World War; and PLAYING WITH DEATH, a contemporary thriller written with Lee Francis. He also wrote the novels ARENA and INVADER with T. J. Andrews.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
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,  

NIKKI SMITH chats to Paul Burke about her new psychological thriller LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO.

LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO: Two people can keep a secret . . . if one of them is dead.
Sisters Jo and Caroline are used to hiding things from each other. They've never been close - taking it in turns to feel on the outside of their family unit, playing an endless game of favourites.
Jo envies Caroline's life - things have always come so easy to her. Then a family inheritance falls entirely to Jo, and suddenly now Caroline wants what Jo has. Needs it, even.
But just how far will she go to get it?

NIKKI SMITH: studied English Literature at Birmingham University before pursuing a career in finance, working in a variety of different companies including an investment bank and a trampoline park. She always had a passion for writing and in 2017 she had a 'now or never' moment and applied for a Curtis Brown Creative 3 month writing course which she absolutely loved. Later that year she had a short story published in the Writer's Forum Magazine, and submitted the opening chapters of her novel to a competition where she won the opportunity to be mentored by the author Amanda Reynolds. She lives near Guildford with her husband, two daughters and a very friendly Burmese cat called Saffi.

Recommendations by Nikki:
Fiona Cummins - When I Was Ten
Jack Jordan - Do No Harm (May 2022)

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
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,  

Bonus Episode: THE CORKSCREW EFFECT- Sunday Times bestseller, Samantha Downing (MY LOVELY WIFE) discusses what makes a great twist, pantsing and trying to out twist yourself. Victoria doesn’t see any of it coming.

VICTORIA SELMAN

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
music courtesy of Southgate & Leigh

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,  

HE’S BEHIND YOU- C.J. (CAZ) Tudor, (THE CHALK MAN) & Catriona Ward (THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET) discuss the difference between crime and horror, giving monsters a human face and tapping into childhood fears. Victoria excuses herself to switch on the lights.

VICTORIA SELMAN

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
music courtesy of Southgate & Leigh

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,  

ALAN JOHNSON chats to Paul Burke about his debut thriller THE LATE TRAIN TO GIPSY HILL. Inspirational teachers, the library education. Character and plot and why Hull isn't the money laundering capital of Europe.

THE LATE TRAIN TO GIPSY HILL: A woman hiding a deadly secret. And the man who went in search of adventure, but found himself in danger ...
Gary Nelson has a routine for the commute to his rather dull job in the city. Each day, he watches as a woman on the train applies her make up in a ritual he now knows by heart. He's never dared to strike up a conversation . . . but maybe one day.
Then one evening, on the late train to Gipsy Hill, the woman invites him to take the empty seat beside her. Fiddling with her mascara, she holds up her mirror and Gary reads the words 'HELP ME' scrawled in sticky black letters on the glass.
From that moment, Gary's life is turned on its head. He finds himself on the run from the Russian mafia, the FSB and even the Metropolitan Police - all because of what this mysterious young woman may have witnessed. In the race to find out the truth, Gary discovers that there is a lot more to her than meets the eye . . .

ALAN JOHNSON'S childhood memoir THIS BOY was published in 2013. It won the Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize, and the Orwell Prize, Britain's top political writing award. His second volume of memoirs, PLEASE MR POSTMAN (2014) won the National Book Club award for Best Biography. The final book in his memoir trilogy, THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD (2016), won the Parliamentary Book Award for Best Memoir.
Alan was a Labour MP for 20 years before retiring ahead of the 2017 general election. He served in five cabinet positions in the Governments of Tony Blair and Gordon Brown including Education Secretary, Health Secretary and Home Secretary.
He and his wife Carolyn live in East Yorkshire.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
Crime Time

Mentioned in this episode:
Margery Allingham - Tiger in the Smoke
Damon Galgut - The Good Doctor
Catherine Belton - Putin's People 
Chris Mullin - A Very British Coup
Georges Simenon - the Maigret novels/short stories 

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,  

AMBER MARKS chats with Paul Burke about BECOMING MR NICE: THE  HOWARD MARKS ARCHIVE. The man, the myth, the drugs smuggler, the campaigner, and an extraordinary collection of documents that shed light on his life.

BECOMING MR NICE: Welcome to the personal archives of Britain's biggest dope smuggler.
For 40 years Howard Marks traversed the globe: an international businessman who became an inmate in America's toughest penitentiary before standing for election in the United Kingdom.
Becoming Mr Nice reveals an extraordinary montage of previously unseen material from his roller-coaster life, interwoven with his daughter's incisively researched and deadpan commentary. It includes surveillance footage, intelligence reports, phone transcripts, the business cards and letterheads used as trading fronts, driving licences and passport applications in multiple identities, and cryptic faxes from the Far East. But more than that, it offers a vista onto his many and varied experiences and escapades, through notebooks, personal items and correspondence with the bizarre, wonderful, comic or downright suspicious characters who surrounded him it includes extracts from a lavishly detailed and hitherto unpublished account of Howard's years on the run (written in confidence for the benefit of his otherwise baffled defence team) together with transcripts from his trial at the Old Bailey, in which he successfully claimed that his involvement in the biggest ever importation of cannabis into the United Kingdom was on behalf of the secret services.
Peppered with comic observations from Howard's private letters, this book provides a uniquely personal insight into one of Britain's most remarkable characters. Becoming Mr Nice is the essential companion volume to Marks' million-copy-selling autobiography Mr Nice and a comprehensive, illustrated introduction to Howard Marks for a new generation.

AMBER MARKS: is a writer, researcher and barrister. She lectures on Law and Pharmacology, Criminal Law and Evidence at Queen Mary, University of London where she has authored several academic publications. Amber is a leading expert on drug law and advises governments, courts and NGOs in this capacity. She has performed stand-up comedy in a variety of venues and festivals and her book Headspace (a satirical account of her research into bio-surveillance) was described as 'astute', 'informal and engaging', 'wonderful' and 'funny' in the national press. Amber has written articles for the Guardian, Times, Wired and The Register.

Published by No Exit Press and available now.
Produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
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,  

HOLLY WATT chats with Paul Burke about THE HUNT AND THE KILL. Casey Benedict, don't give up the day job, darkness in fiction, the Arab Spring, #MeToo, prizes and why covid means Salman Rushdie won't be at your book launch.

THE HUNT AND THE KILL When acclaimed undercover journalist Casey Benedict is asked to interview a young woman with cystic fibrosis, the patient's doctor alerts her to the looming threat of antibiotic-resistant infections, tipping her off about a potential new wonder drug. If the rumours are true, this new antibiotic could save millions of lives, but no one wants to admit that the drug even exists.
As Casey investigates, she follows the trail from the Maldives to a game reserve in Zimbabwe, using her undercover skills to probe the truth and find out why the discovery of this new drug is being covered-up. When tragedy unexpectedly strikes, Casey suspects that someone is trying to silence her, but she is not prepared to let the story drop, no matter how much danger she - or those she loves most - are put in.

Holly Watt's first novel - To The Lions - won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller of the year in 2019. In 2020, her second book, The Dead Line, was named one of the Thrillers of the Year by The Times and the FT. The Casey Benedict series continues with The Hunt and The Kill, which will be published in July 2021. The Casey Benedict series has been optioned by the producer of The Night Manager and The Undoing, which starred Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant.
Before writing novels, Holly was a leading investigative journalist. She started her career at the Sunday Times, before moving to the Daily Telegraph. During six years at the Telegraph, she was the Whitehall Editor and jointly ran the investigations team. She then moved to work on the Guardian's investigations team.
Holly has been nominated for a wide range of journalism prizes, winning awards for her work on stories including MPs’ Expenses at the Telegraph and the Panama Papers at the Guardian.
She has reported from countries all around the globe, including Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Libya, Jordan and Lebanon. As well as flying around the world on everything from Lynx helicopters to Air Force One, Holly also worked as an undercover journalist.
She now spends most of her time in Devon.

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
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,  

Women in Translation Month Special
SIMONE BUCHHOLZ chats to Paul Burke about HOTEL CARTAGENA, Chastity Riley,

HOTEL CARTAGENA: Twenty floors above the shimmering lights of the Hamburg docks, Public Prosecutor Chastity Riley is celebrating a birthday with friends in a hotel bar when twelve heavily armed men pull out guns, and take everyone hostage. Among the hostages is Konrad Hoogsmart, the hotel owner, who is being targeted by a young man whose life and family have been destroyed by Hoogsmart's actions.
With the police looking on from outside their colleagues' lives at stake and Chastity on the inside, increasingly ill from an unexpected case of sepsis, the stage is set for a dramatic confrontation and a devastating outcome for the team all live streamed in a terrifying bid for revenge.
Crackling with energy and populated by a cast of unforgettable characters, Hotel Cartagena is a searing, relevant thriller that will leave you breathless.

Simone Buchholz was born in Hanau in 1972. At university, she studied Philosophy and Literature, worked as a waitress and a columnist, and trained to be a journalist at the prestigious Henri-Nannen-School in Hamburg. In 2016, Simone Buchholz was awarded the Crime Cologne Award as well as runner-up in the German Crime Fiction Prize for Blue Night, which was number one on the KrimiZEIT Best of Crime List for months. She lives in Sankt Pauli, in the heart of Hamburg, with her husband and son.

Thanks to Contributors:
Rachel Ward translator http://www.forwardtranslations.co.uk/contact.php
Greame McCrea Burnet author of His Bloody Project

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
Crime Time

Paul Burke writes for NB magazine, Crime Fiction Lover, Crime Time and the European Literature Network. He also edits and presents the Crime Time FM podcast and is a book collector and lover of crime fiction. 

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,  

HEADS TOGETHER is the monthly magazine show on CRIME TIME FM. PAUL, VICTORIA and BARRY discuss the Crime Time FM WATCHLIST, The film version of The Dry, Victoria and Barry's upcoming books, Bloody Scotland, the latest podcasts, Sherlock on film, the Da Vinci Code and why we all deserve a Blue Peter Badge for services to...

PAUL BURKE writes about crime fiction for Crime Fiction Lover, NB Magazine, Crime Time and the European Literature Network.

VICTORIA SELMAN is the bestselling author of the Ziba MacKenzie series killer thrillers. Her new thriller Truly, Darkly, Deeply will be published in 2022.

BARRY FORSHAW is the editor of Crime Time, author of several books on film and crime fiction and the FT Crime Fiction Critic.

The Watchlist
Ayo Onatade & Laura Wilson: The Turnout by Megan Abbott
Barry Forshaw: 1979 Val McDermid
Victoria Selman:  Samantha Downing
Maxim Jakubowski & Paul Burke: The Devil's Advocate Steve Cavanagh
Sonja Van Der Westhuizen: Chasing the Boogeyman Richard Chizmar
Erin Britton: A Line to Kill Anthony Horowitz

BLOODY SCOTLAND - HYBRID FESTIVAL 17-19 SEPTEMBER 2021. Featuring huge names including (ONLINE) Stephen King, Kathy Reichs, Karin Slaughter, Lee Child, Linwood Barclay. (IN PERSON at Sterling) Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Chris Brookmyre, Marisa Haetzman, Lin Anderson, Abir Mukherjee, Craig Robertson, Alan Parks and Stuart MacBride. Plus some big names from outside Scotland: Paula Hawkins, Luca Veste, Mark Billingham, Mick Herron, S J Watson, Lisa Jewell, Stuart Neville, Kia Abdullah, E S Thomson and Louise Candlish. Full information:
www.bloodyscotland.com queries info@bloodyscotland.
TICKETS FOR ONLINE &  in person at STERLING EVENTS AVAILABLE NOW!
EPISODE UPDATED TO INCLUDE MCILVANNEY PRIZE SHORTLIST

Crime Time
produced by Junkyard Dog
music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh - Don't Wait

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 latest Blu-ray and DVD releases from BARRY FORSHAW, including Murder By Decree, the silent version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, Hatchet For The Honeymoon and Private Hell 36.
Also an interview with JONATHAN RIGBY, actor, writer, and film and DVD commentator. They discuss Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Hammer Horror, Richard Pascoe (horror by day, Shakespeare by night), and how to commentate on less successful movies.
Jonathan Rigby's books include:
American Gothic: Sixty Years Of Horror Cinema
English Gothic: A Century Of Horror Cinema
Christopher Lee: The Authorised Screen History
Euro Gothic: Classics Of Continental  Horror Cinema.

BARRY FORSHAW is fiction critic for the Financial Times and provides extras for Blu-rays. Books include Crime Fiction: A Reader’s Guide, the Keating Award-winning Brit Noir, British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia (also a Keating winner), British Gothic Cinema, Italian Cinema: Arthouse to Exploitation, Sex and Film and BFI Classics: War of the Worlds. He edits Crime Time.

Check out Barry in conversation with Ace Atkins about his new Spenser novel SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME. Available now.

Buy Barry's latest book Crime Fiction: A Reader's Guide

Produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
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,