Celtic Skeletons

Everything old becomes new again in the book marketing world

Dressing up old books in new covers seems to be a growing ploy of publishers’ marketing departments. Authors’ names are emblazoned in bold type – more prominent than that used for the actual title – on redesigned covers enclosing novels written decades ago. It is an eye-catching trick that can bamboozle avid readers into thinking…

Love-lorn PM’s steamy backseat affair makes intriguing wartime tale

Imagine any prime minister of recent times having regular trysts with a woman many years their junior and expecting no one to breathe a word. Or a love-lorn prime minister taking his paramour for regular cosy drives in the official limousine, with its blacked out windows, without a hint of a whisper beyond their inner…

Because I have a mobile phone it doesn’t mean I want to talk to you

Since when did it become compulsory to have a mobile phone? Why is it almost universally assumed that I am the owner of such an annoying and unwanted device? Without warning or reason it has become almost mandatory that I not only possess this accursed accessory but that I carry it with me at all…

Sentenced to lengthy spells when coping with action-filled thriller

Shorter sentences are all the rage among the judiciary and the anti-jail do-gooders. They are also something long recommended (and widely practiced) among most forms of writing. After all, brevity is the path to comprehension. But there are always the recidivists and mavericks. The pseudononymous Elly Conway, alleged creator of the excessively hyped Argylle, is…

Reader dismay follows fantasy switch by fave crime author

To see the name of crime fiction favourite Jo Nesbo shouting at us from a book’s cover is generally enough to persuade us to cough up the required cover price. No waiting for the cheaper paperback edition or shopping around but an immediate done deal. Instant gratification is guaranteed. But not on this occasion. Instead, the…

Baby-snatch thriller adds riddle of which author wrote which part

Two puzzles for the price of one As if one superbly twisted plot was not enough, two top crime writers have united to leave readers puzzling over who wrote what. Author credits for The Wrong Child are highlighted on the cover as MJ Arlidge and Julia Crouch. Both have long been famed as being among…

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