SteveDunne

Congrats to Sharon B on winning signed copies of two of my books and commiserations to those who missed out. My entire oeuvre is available on kindle for just over a tenner if people are minded and thanks again to those who promised to check me out. Hope you're not disappointed.

My fifth DI Brook thriller, A Killing Moon, is nearly finished and should be in the shops later this year. That will be followed by a day in bed and a week of walking around the Peak District trying to forget what 4 walls look like. It's always a weird time. Such relief giving way to the nagging voice in your head that says, "What's next?"

Hi Michelle Signatures completed at my end. Thanks again everyone.

As the month is drawing to a close, I'd just like to thank Michelle for inviting me to guest and all the readers who have taken the trouble to ask questions and read our answers. Thanks also to all those members who might be tempted to try my work. I hope you enjoy it. If any further questions (or comments or reviews of my books) beyond this month, members can email me from the link on my website www.stevendunne.co.uk Thanks again everyone and, as I am now a member, I will drop in from time to time, work permitting. It's been very enjoyable.

I agree with the Patterson comment. I know he's very successful but the books read like extended film treatments, not novels, though I'm happy to watch a Patterson-sourced film for the same reason.

That's always a tricky one. I don't so much mind characters acting in a way inconsistent with their personalities because what we show to the world is often a façade masking murky waters beneath. And let's face it, Agatha Christie built her career on criminals not being what they seemed. My big bugbear is the way coincidence moves a plot forward. It always smacks of desperation and a way of joining a plot together that wouldn't otherwise work. I don't wholly dismiss such coincidences but they have to be handled very smartly for me to accept them. Kate Atkinson is very good at such conceits though sometimes stretches the bounds of credibility, if with great skill and entertainment.

Literary Fiction, no doubt. Something pretentious with no plot demands that just fizzles out and I can take 5 years between books.

Good luck everyone.

Hi bobblybear. It's an odd thing and people are always surprised but it's true. Publishers have dedicated artwork depts. or design companies they use for this and we get little say other than to ask for approval. And even disapproval may not see the cover changed. I originally self-published my first novel Reaper with a black and red cover and a scalpel (Don't ask!) When Harper Collins picked up the rights they changed the title to The Reaper (not massive I know) and provided a different cover the relevance to the actual book I still struggle to understand. They also dumped the wonderful strapline I came up with (Well I think so - Coming soon to a family near you!) If you go to my Amazon page you can still see both. No amount of protests would get them to budge an inch. Basically they're the experts and they're taking the financial risk so I guess it's fair enough.

Start with The Boss. Thomas Harris. Red Dragon or Silence of the Lambs then move onto Michael Connolly.

I hate to say this Athena but you are the perfect reader for what I do. Everything you like in a crime thriller we share. I hope you enjoy The Reaper.

I agree with Sam on this. Thrillers tend to be in the present and involve current troubles for the protagonist, usually involving some kind of race against time. Lee Child and Simon Kernick for instance. Crime novels are usually a puzzle to solve involving events that have already happened. It is crime novels, more often than not, that will often involve flashbacks to bring the past into the present like The Stone Cutter by Camilla Lackberg or a cold case novel like my own The Unquiet Grave which has to lay out past crimes to give the reader a fair chance to solve the puzzle. (Don't mean to keep blowing my own trumpet but it's quicker to reference than trying to come up with other examples)

Athena the covers are so important and as an author, although we don't have enormous control over what is suggested, after four novels, I'm beginning to get the hang of what's required. My third novel, DEITY, is about the vulnerability of teenagers and explores the ease with which a so-minded individual can push them towards self-harm or suicide. I quite liked the cover when shown to me, it was moody and mysterious, but I've since realised that it did not shout "Crime Thriller" at customers. With The Unquiet Grave, I was able to mention this and was rewarded with a cover that corrected that omission as well as intriguing the reader. I know the blurb is important, though I personally don't read more than two lines. I am now in a position to write my own blurbs thankfully but at my previous publisher I didn't have that power. Having strived for a year or more to conjure up half a dozen seriously good shocks I found it galling to have three of them given away on the back cover. Probably why I don't read them.

I'll read anything that takes my fancy but have an abiding interest in American literature. In my own novels, my detective DI Damen Brook is usually fending off some level of existential crisis, not unnaturally given the job he does and the things he's seen. There are no bigger questions for me than why are we here and what should we do with our brief lives and novels like Catch 22 by Joseph Heller, The Corrections by Jonathan Franzen and Bonfire of the Vanities by Tom Wolfe tackle these conundrums head on. These are big sweeping novels tackling the big themes that I love. I also have a tendency to veer towards foreign writers as a form of armchair tourism having not travelled nearly enough in my own life. America is a fascinating melting pot of contrasts and I never tire of reading about it. In crime, the writers I like best are ones that take me to their country and show me round. Connelly, Mankell, Larsson and the daddy of them all, Thomas Harris to name but a few.

Thanks Alexi, Michelle and everyone buying or checking out my work. I'm confident you won't be disappointed but either way you can send comments and a review to www.stevendunne.co.uk I'll put up all feedback, positive or negative, if spoiler-free.