Crime Time FM

IMRAN MAHMOOD chats to Paul Burke about his new novel I KNOW WHAT I SAW, being a barrister and the state of British justice, his first novel YOU DON'T KNOW ME on TV and memory.

IMRAN MAHMOOD is a practicing barrister with almost 30 years' experience fighting cases in court. He hails from Liverpool but now lives in London with his wife and daughters. His debut novel You Don't Know Me was chosen by Simon Mayo as a BBC Radio 2 Book Club Choice for 2017 and longlisted for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and for the CWA Gold Dagger, and has been adapted for TV.

I KNOW WHAT I SAW: Xander Shute - once a wealthy banker, now living on the streets - shelters for the night in an empty Mayfair flat. When he hears the occupants returning home, he scrambles to hide. Trapped in his hiding place, he hears the couple argue, and he soon finds himself witnessing a vicious murder.
But who was the dead woman, who the police later tell him can't have been there? And why is the man Xander saw her with evading justice?
As Xander searches for answers, his memory of the crime comes under scrutiny, forcing him to confront his long-buried past and the stories he's told about himself.
How much he is willing to risk to understand the brutal truth?

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,  

JANE THYNNE (CJ CAREY) talks to Paul Burke about her new thriller WIDOWLAND, the personal inspiration behind the novel, Philip Kerr, feminism and editing history.

WIDOWLAND To control the past, they edited history. To control the future, they edited literature.
London, 1953, Coronation year - but not the Coronation of Elizabeth II. Thirteen years have passed since a Grand Alliance between Great Britain and Germany was formalized. George VI and his family have been murdered and Edward VIII rules as King. Yet, in practice, all power is vested in Alfred Rosenberg, Britain's Protector. The role and status of women is Rosenberg's particular interest.
Rose Ransom belongs to the elite caste of women and works at the Ministry of Culture, rewriting literature to correct the views of the past. But now she has been given a special task.
Outbreaks of insurgency have been seen across the country; graffiti daubed on public buildings. Disturbingly, the graffiti is made up of lines from forbidden works, subversive words from the voices of women. Suspicion has fallen on Widowland, the run-down slums where childless women over fifty have been banished. These women are known to be mutinous, for they have nothing to lose.
Before the Leader arrives for the Coronation ceremony of King Edward and Queen Wallis, Rose must infiltrate Widowland to find the source of this rebellion and ensure that it is quashed.

JANE THYNNE, aka. CJ Carey, is a novelist, journalist and broadcaster. She has worked at the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the BBC, among others and lives in London. Widowland is the first novel she has written as C. J. Carey.

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

JOE THOMAS, author of BRAZILIAN PSYCHO chats to DAVID PEACE about his new novel TOKYO REDUX, the final part of his Tokyo trilogy, also why David's fiction focuses on real events, how his writing has developed over the years, key influences such as Derek Raymond and Jean-Patrick Manchette, crime fiction as social critique and living in Tokyo.

TOKYO REDUX Tokyo, 1949, President Shimoyama, Head of the National Railways of Japan, goes missing just a day after serving notice of 30,000 job losses. In the midst of the US Occupation, against the backdrop of widespread social, political and economic reforms - as tensions and confusion reign - American Detective Harry Sweeney leads the missing person's investigation for General MacArthur's GHQ.
1964 - as the city prepares for the 1964 Olympics, Hideki Murota, a former policeman, now a private investigator, is given a case which forces him to go back to confront a time, a place and a crime he's been hiding from for the past fifteen years.
In the autumn and winter of 1988, as the Emperor Showa is dying, Donald Reichenbach, an aging American, eking out a living teaching and translating, sits drinking by the Shinobazu Pond in Ueno, knowing the final reckoning of the greatest mystery of the Showa Era is down to him.

DAVID PEACE was born and brought up in Yorkshire. He is the author of the Red Riding Quartet (Nineteen Seventy Four, Nineteen Seventy Seven, Nineteen Eighty and Nineteen Eighty Three) which has been adapted into a three part Channel 4 series, GB84 which was awarded the James Tait Black Memorial Award, and The Damned Utd, the film version of which was adapted by Peter Morgan and stars Michael Sheen). Tokyo Year Zero, the first part of his acclaimed Tokyo Trilogy, was published in 2007, the second part, Occupied City, in 2009, and TOKYO REDUX in 2021.

JOE THOMAS is the author of the São Paulo Quartet - Paradise City, Gringa, Playboy and Brazilian Psycho - and Bent, his first London novel.

Crime Time
This episode produced by Junkyard Dog
Music courtesy of Southgate and 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,  

LEE DURKEE chats to Paul Burke about his novel THE LAST TAXI DRIVER published in the UK by Oldcastle Books. In a brutally honest interview Lee talks about his fictional driver, Lou, and the life of a taxi driver in North Mississippi, the enemy - Uber, racism and Shakespeare.

THE LAST TAXI DRIVER is a darkly comic novel about a day in the life of an exhausted, middle-aged cabbie about to lose his job to Uber, his girlfriend to lethargy, and his ability to stand upright to chronic back spasms. Lou - a lapsed novelist and UFO enthusiast who has returned to his home state of Mississippi after decades away - drives for a ramshackle taxi company that operates on the outskirts of a college town among the trailer parks and housing projects. With Lou s way of life fast vanishing, an ex-dispatcher resurfaces in town on the lam, triggering a bedlam shift which will test Lou's sanity and perhaps cost him his life. Against this backdrop, Lou has to keep driving, and driving - even if that means aiding and abetting the host of criminal misfits haunting the back seat of his Town Car. Written by a former cabbie, The Last Taxi Driver careens through the highways and backroads of North Mississippi as Lou becomes increasingly somnambulant and his fares increasingly eccentric. Equal parts Bukowski and Portis, Durkee's novel is an homage to a dying American industry.

Lee Durkee is the author of the novel Rides of the Midway (W. W. Norton). His stories and essays have appeared in Harper’s Magazine, the Sun, Best of the Oxford American, Zoetrope: All Story, Tin House, New England Review, and Mississippi Noir. In 2021 Scribner will publish his memoir Stalking Shakespeare, which chronicles his decade-long obsession with trying to find lost portraits of William Shakespeare. A former cab driver, he lives in North Mississippi. The Last Taxi Driver is his first novel in twenty years.  

Music courtesy of Southgate and Leigh
Produced by Junkyard Dog
For news, features and reviews check out:
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,  

On the Sofa with Victoria: Sarah Pinborough & Alex North

Episode : ANYTHING CAN HAPPEN- Sarah Pinborough (BEHIND HER EYES) & Alex North (THE WHISPER MAN) discuss supernatural crime crossovers, Scooby Doo and ‘that’ ending. Victoria keeps calling Alex ‘Steve’.

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 Jem & Son and Paul Burke
Don't Wait courtesy of Southgate and 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,  

James Wolff talks about his new novel HOW TO BETRAY YOUR COUNTRY, growing up in the Middle East, spy fiction and the meaning of treachery.

HOW TO BETRAY YOUR COUNTRY: Things are looking bad for disgraced spy August Drummond. In emotional free fall after the death of his wife, fired for a series of security breaches... and now his neighbour on the flight to Istanbul won't stop talking. The only thing keeping August sane is the hunch that there's something not quite right about the nervous young man several rows ahead - a hunch confirmed when August watches him throw away directions to a European cemetery seconds before being detained by Turkish police. A reckless August decides to go to the cemetery, where he meets a mysterious figure from the dark heart of the Islamic State and quickly finds himself drawn into a shadowy plot to murder an Iranian scientist in Istanbul. But nothing is what it seems, and before long August realises he has gone too far to turn back. As he struggles to break free from the clutches of Islamic State and play off British intelligence against their Turkish counterparts, he will find his resourcefulness, ingenuity and courage tested to the very limit of what he can endure.

JAMES WOLFF lives in London. He worked for the British government for fifteen years. HOW TO BETRAY YOUR COUNTRY is his second novel in a trilogy about anti-terror espionage in the Middle East. The first was the highly acclaimed “Beside the Syrian Sea.”

Produced by Jem&Son and Paul Burke, Don't Wait courtesy of Southgate and Leigh

Both books published by BITTER LEMON PRESS

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,  

SAIMA MIR author of THE KHAN talks to Paul Burke about her debut novel, her unforgettable characters Jia and Akbar Khan, being a journalist, Bradford, family, sexism, racism and how to navigate the world.

THE KHAN: Successful London lawyer Jia Khan is a long way from the grubby Northern streets she knew as a child, where her father, Akbar Khan, led the Pakistani community and ran the local organised crime syndicate. Often his Jirga rule - the old way - was violent and bloody, but it was always justice of a kind.
Now, with her father murdered, Jia must return to take his place. The police have always relied on the Khan to maintain the fragile order of the streets. But a bloody power struggle has broken out among warring communities and nobody is safe.
Justice needs to be restored, and Jia is about to discover that justice always comes at a cost.

Saima Mir has written for The Times, Guardian and Independent. Her essay for It's Not About The Burqa (Picador) appeared in Guardian Weekend and received over 250,000 hits online in two days. She has also contributed to the anthology The Best, Most Awful Job: Twenty Mothers Talk Honestly About Motherhood. Saima grew up in Bradford and now lives in London.

Crime Time
Point Blank Books
Produced by Jem&Son and Paul Burke.
Don't Wait courtesy of Southgate and 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,  

In a spectacularly wide ranging discussion TOM BRADBY talks to Paul Burke about his new novel TRIPLE CROSS, his character Kate Henderson, what makes a great modern spy novel and the relationship between Western democracies and Russia & China that underpin his writing. He also tells us about his friend and mentor Gerald Seymour, screenwriting, chronic insomnia and mental well-being.

TOM BRADBY is a novelist, screenwriter and journalist. As a broadcaster, he is best known as the current Anchor of ITV’s News at Ten. Tom has been with ITN for almost thirty years and was successively Ireland Correspondent, Political Correspondent, Asia Correspondent (during which time he was shot and seriously injured whilst covering a riot in Jakarta), Royal Correspondent, UK Editor and Political Editor before being made the Anchor of News at Ten in 2015.
Three of his novels have been shortlisted for CWA Dagger Awards. He adapted his first novel, Shadow Dancer, into a memorable film directed by Oscar winner James Marsh and starring Clive Owen, Gillian Anderson and Andrea Riseborough. His script for the film was nominated for Screenplay of the Year in the Evening Standard Film Awards. His new novel Triple Cross is the final part of a spy trilogy.

TRIPLE CROSS Attempting to rebuild her shattered life in the South of France, former MI6 operative Kate Henderson receives an unexpected and most unwelcome visit from an old adversary: the UK Prime Minister. He has an extraordinary story to tell - and he needs her help.
A Russian agent has come forward with news that the PM has been the victim of the greatest misinformation play in the history of MI6. It's run out of a special KGB unit that exists for one purpose alone: to process the intelligence from 'Agent Dante', a mole right at the heart of MI6 in London.
Against her better judgement, Kate is forced back into the fray in a top-secret, deeply flawed and dangerous investigation. But now she's damaged goods. Her one-time allies no longer trust her. And neither do her enemies.
With the stakes this high, can the truth ever come out? Or is the cost of uncovering it a price that no one, least of all Kate, can afford to pay?

Produced by Jem & Son and Paul Burke
Thanks to Southgate and Leigh for allowing us to use their Song Don't Wait for this podcast

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,  

Barry’s Blu-rays the second episode in our regular feature for CrimeTimeFM.

BARRY FORSHAW on the best of crime film and TV on DVD and Blu-ray.
Barry gives us his insights into the world of crime drama based on the commentaries and sleeve notes he writes for new releases and reissues. This episode features Arrow's 4 Noir Classic - The Dark Mirror, Secret Beyond The Door, Force Of Evil & The Big Combo, Colombia Noir No.3 Johnny O'Clock, The Dark Past, Convicted, Between Midnight and Dawn, Sniper & City of Fear, The Spy Who Came In From The Cold, Battle Royale I &II and Irreversible.

 Barry Forshaw is the crime 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 CTFM#9. Available now.

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

Produced by Jem& Son and Paul Burke
Thanks to Southgate and Leigh for allowing us to sample their song Don't Wait.

For news, features and reviews check out 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,  

Irish novelist and screenwriter JO SPAIN talks to Paul Burke about her new novel THE PERFECT LIE, her most intricate and exciting stand alone thriller to date. Jo also tells us about her TV series Harry Wild and, a host of projects in the pipeline and the writers who inspires her, not to mention the art of the psychological thriller and Lapland.

Jo Spain is the author of the bestselling Tom Reynolds detective series and several No.1 bestselling standalone thrillers.  Jo is a full-time screenwriter. Her first show, critically-acclaimed crime series 'Taken Down', aired in 2018. In 2021, she co-wrote Harry Wild, starring Jane Seymour, with its creator, Emmy-award winning David Logan (to air 2022). She is currently working on several international productions, including adaptations of her own novels. A graduate of Trinity College, Jo lives in Dublin with her husband and four children.

THE PERFECT LIE: Five years ago, Erin Kennedy moved to New York following a family tragedy. She now lives happily with her detective husband in the scenic seaside town of Newport, Long Island. When Erin answers the door to Danny's police colleagues one morning, it's the start of an ordinary day. But behind her, Danny walks to the window of their fourth-floor apartment and jumps to his death.
Eighteen months later, Erin is in court, charged with her husband's murder. Over that year and a half, Erin has learned things about Danny she could never have imagined. She thought he was perfect. She thought their life was perfect.
But it was all built on The Perfect Lie.

Thanks to:
Jem&Son and Paul Burke for editing this episode and to Southgate and Leigh for allowing us to sample their song Don't Wait.

For articles, features and reviews don't forget to check out Crime Time

Paul Burke twitter @paulodaburka

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,