The Opening Gambit

To date I’ve been cautious about starting a blog due to the dedication needed to write regular posts when I’m already committed to several other writing projects. The time has come though, I feel, to give it a go and see how I get on. Given I am a great fan of crime fiction my intention is that most of the posts will be short reviews of the novels I’ve been reading. I read widely across the genre from police procedurals to tart noir, legal and political thrillers to comic crime capers, and by authors from around the world. This will be complemented by reviews of books from other genres and might even include reviews of academic papers or commentaries on newspaper stories if I think they’re worth sharing. I also intend to publish at least one short story a month, or an extract of something I’ve been writing, and I’ll possibly write about the day job every now and then. I realize that there are several excellent blogs about crime fiction and I subscribe to a number of them – Detectives without Borders; International Noir; Crime Scraps; Crime Always Pays; Eurocrime; Petrona; Crime Scene NI – The View from the Blue House will hopefully complement them in some small way. Well, that’s the plan. I don’t want to be over ambitious and then find I’m struggling to post material so my target, at least initially, is to post once or twice a week. Hopefully the posts will have some value, providing an honest and useful assessment of the pieces I’ve been reading and some interesting musings on the world. I’m sure this is what every blog writer hopes for, so fingers crossed and on to the next post!