Don’t Drink the Kool-Aid When you hear the word ‘cult’, what do you think about? Is it the crazy, power-hungry leader? A religious splinter? Mass orgies? Mass murder? Mass suicide?...

When did I first want to be a writer? I’m not sure I am one now! It might have been Maurice Leitch coming to speak to my class at school....

It began with three unrelated ideas and one street sign. The first idea: the only female detective in Edwardian London (there was such a woman in what is laughably known...

How did Agatha Christie, an otherwise unremarkable woman, with no formal education, and no family background in writing produce the biggest-selling books in history? How was this self-effacing woman able...

A car stuck in city traffic. A tired father at the wheel. His young son in the back seat playing a game, naming the makes of cars that pass by....

In 1985, while I was in the Royal Australian Air Force, my soon-to-be wife and I hiked to a cave in central New South Wales where two bushrangers had engaged...

I’m walking around the Northwood demesne in Santry, Dublin. It’s lunchtime and everyone in the area is making the best of the mid-September warmth. Strollers, joggers or office workers escaping...

My first novel, I Will Make You Pay, is a police procedural set in York featuring detective DI Ellen McClure. It was published in June by Joffe Publishers in London...

Once I’d told myself this, I knew it was only a matter of time and persistence. When you’re a writer trying to get published, it’s easy to think that everyone...

Writing the fifth book in an ongoing series was more complicated than I expected. I had so many existing characters to choose from, and so many paths for their stories...