Brit Grit Alley features news and updates on what's happening down British crime fiction's booze and blood soaked alleyways.
This week down Brit Grit Alley, I have a guest column from Keith Nixon whose acclaimed debut crime novel The Fix has recently been published by Caffeine Nights.
Here Keith talks about some of his favourite Brit Grit crime writers.
Take it a away Keith:
'I’ll open with making an obvious statement – I was a reader
long before I became a writer… but show me someone who wasn’t? I read a lot and
I prefer the books I pick up to be tight, punchy and of the crime / thriller
variety.
Just after self-publishing my book The Fix (which is, erm… tight, punchy and of the crime variety) I
was looking for a method of gaining experience and exposure in the literary world.
I stumbled across a book review site – Al’s
Books & Pals and he kindly let me loose on his reading pile. Al focuses
entirely on self and indie published books of every genre and this really
struck a chord with me. In my day job (another common affliction of writers, we
don’t earn a lot) I spend my time being involved with changing industry norms –
and this is exactly what’s happening in publishing, as I’m sure you know.
The self-publishing phenomenon means anyone can put out
their work. But the old adage of ‘everyone had a book inside them’ to me needs
qualification. It’s probably true. However not all of these stories will be
compelling and of those that are, not everyone will be capable of communicating
them in an effective manner that engages the reader. So a key part of a
reviewer’s job is to trawl through the good, the bad and the downright ugly to
unearth the gems. And then tell people about them.
And this has been entirely the case in the indie books I’ve
read over the last year. I’ve suffered some absolute howlers, but discovered
some great new (to me) authors – and the good news is, I’ve barely scraped the
surface. Many of these authors, more than likely, would never have made it into
traditional print if it were not for this sea change in the publishing
industry. After writing my own book, being a reviewer is by far the next best
thing I do.
So, what are these gems? But first, as this article is for Brit Grit Alley I’ll apply a filter –
the authors must be British (and I’ll include Southern Ireland here too, not to
say the country is part of Britain, just to widen the net), gritty and indie or
self-published.
These days it seems that many of the best crime writers hail
from Scotland. The three big industries there are oil, whisky (malt of course)
and crime writing. The latter two are relatively easily obtainable and go
together very well (in my humble opinion). There are of course the obvious big
hitters – Ian Rankin and the sadly
recently departed Iain (M) Banks,
but in recent years a flurry of really high quality authors have emerged. I
hadn’t realised quite how many until I read Tony Black’s Hard Truths.
This is a fascinating collection of interviews with authors about the mechanics
of writing.
Which leads us to Tony Black himself, who absolutely falls
into the great and gritty category. In fact Tony has moved away from mainstream
(he has a contract with Random House UK) to independent publishing (Blasted Heath – another great Scottish
institution). He has recently released a plethora of work, and I haven’t come
across a bad piece yet. In fact all are excellent. I particularly enjoyed his
Gus Dury series, which concerns an ex-reporter with a seriously large
self-destruct button.
Two guys making recent entrances are Mark Wilson, who is now an independent publisher as well as a
writer (Naebody’s Hero and
hard-hitting Head Boy) and David Ross’ The Last Days of Disco, an excellent debut.
There are also many I’ve yet to read on my Kindle such as Ray Banks, Allan Guthrie and Michael J. Malone to name but a few.
Heading over the water an author I admire greatly is Gerard Brennan (another from the
Blasted Heath stable). The first of his stories I read was Fireproof, a tale about Mike Rocks who’s dead but is sent back by
the Devil to found a church in his name. Sounds madcap? It is, but very funny.
Gerard is particularly adept at the novella, The Point is another excellent read, but you wouldn’t be
disappointed with any of his stories.
Declan Burke is
an award winning author and only a recent discovery (for me) via Slaughter’s Hound and The Big O. Both are great books by a
very talented writer.
The Stanton Brothers are tough bastards, a sort of modern
day Robin Hood / Little John duo – but they keep the money for themselves. Martin Stanley is the author and he has
a tranche of novels and novellas worth reading.
Charlie Williams’
Mangel Series are also excellent. Royston
Blake, who narrates the stories, is one of the most unusual lead characters
you’ll ever come across. He also swears a lot.
Tales of the Longcroft
Estate are a collection of short stories by Darren Sant. They’re based on his childhood home, and he doesn’t
pull any punches.
Ryan Bracha
produces work that pushes the boundaries. His debut, with the excellent title Strangers Are Just Friends You Haven’t Killed
Yet, is a multi-perspective novel that’s unlike anything else I’ve ever
read. Don’t read any of Ryan’s work if you’re easily offended.
If you like your crime to be cerebral then pick up Richard Godwin. I recently reviewed his
latest release One Lost Summer.
Cleverly constructed, it’ll keep you guessing to the end.
Master of flash-fiction and the short story is Paul D. Brazill. Languid is probably
the phrase best applied to Paul’s writing. Incredibly descriptive his prose
rolls off the tongue.
Ian Ayris is an
author capable of making grown men cry. His novella A Day in the Life of Jason Dean is one of the finest pieces of
writing I’ve ever come across. Brilliant, clever and gut wrenching. His full
length novel, Abide With Me is also a
superb tale about a group of boys growing up.
Nick Quantrill’s
protagonist is private investigator Joe Geraghty, based in Hull. Nick is about
to publish his third novel Broken Dreams.
His stories are slow burn, intelligent and multi-faceted.
Last, but not least, is HJ
Hampson (more Blasted Heath!) whose debut novel, The Vanity Game, is a very apt story about a footballer who ends up
in the worst of situations.
A very brief splash of literary colour… '
Keith Nixon’s The Fix
is published by Caffeine Nights and
you can find it here.
There'll be more carryings on down Brit Grit Alley very soon, sorta kinda thing, like.
