The Woman In The Wood cover reveal…

It seems like forever since my last book The Bad Place came out, thanks to this darned pandemic, so I’m going to celebrate the end of lockdown by finally revealing to you the lush and evocative cover of the next Sasha Dawson thriller, The Woman In The Wood.

It’s about a former reality star who finds himself in a world of trouble when his mates get targeted by a vicious killer – what does it have to do with the disappearance of a young woman three years ago…? 

The Woman In The Wood is out on March 4th, and you can pre-order it right now from all the usual online places like Amazon.

My Three Book Thriller Deal…

I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve got a new three-book deal with Head Of Zeus. We’re talking a brand-new crime series featuring a fab new heroine and a creepy psychological thriller! Here’s how The Bookseller reported it…

I’m Outside Your House.

Hands up who’s ever found themselves staring into a stranger’s house late at night?

You’re strolling along the street, say, minding your own business – taking the dog for a walk, or on your way home – and your attention is caught by soft lamplight coming from inside a home. The curtains are open so you can see right inside, you see everything. You slow. The dog may helpfully stop to sniff something on the pavement, giving you the excuse to stop in front of the house.

Your eyes drink in all the details of someone else’s life. The flowers in a vase on the dining table, the photos on the mantelpiece of friends and family. The room is filled with knick-knacks accumulated over a lifetime. There may be a flickering fire and a comfortable armchair with a paperback laying open on the arm. You can’t help but wonder who lives there, and what it must be like to be them. You want to know how it feels to relax in that cosy armchair, feel its worn fabric beneath your fingertips, in front of that crackling fire.

If you’re unlucky, you might get busted. Someone will walk into the room, or appear suddenly behind the curtain, silhouetted in the light behind them, to glare at you for staring into their house. They’ll pull the curtains shut to hide their personal space from your prying eyes.

Have you ever done that, stood outside a stranger’s house staring in…

Oh. Only me, then.

It’s like that one time. I was house-hunting – this was years ago – and for some reason the only time I could view a particular property was late one winter’s night. I remember standing alone in a stranger’s bedroom, surrounded by all their personal things, their bedclothes folded neatly on the duvet, all their cosmetics neatly arranged on a dressing table, a full moon shining in the window, and I had a weird sense of dislocation. For a moment, I felt like I already lived there, that it was my room – in my home.

Oh dear. I’m not coming out of this very well, am I?

Point is, it’s those fleeting moments, those tantalising glimpses into the personal space of other people, that inspired my second novel, It Was Her.

I wanted to write about a cuckoo in the nest. Someone who slips into other people’s houses when they’re empty, like a modern-day Goldilocks. To take a bath, watch a bit of telly, eat the lovely food in the kitchen cupboards, curl up in bed. I wondered what would make them do such a thing? Perhaps they need to go into other people’s houses because their own happy home was once taken from them. And, of course, I wanted to discover how such a creepy obsession can lead to murder.

And the more I thought about it, the more it was obvious that it was exactly the kind of fucked-up investigation that my enigmatic detectives Ray Drake and Flick Crowley would get their teeth into. So that’s It Was Herin a nutshell.

But, anyway, if you ever see some guy staring in the front window of your house looking in, don’t worry, it’s probably just me taking the dog for a walk.

Except I don’t have a dog.

*It Was Her is available to buy here and at all good bookshops.*

 

 

 

 

 

‘His First Lie’ Is Out Now!

My acclaimed crime debut Two O’Clock Boy has been relaunched today – March 1st – with a new title, His First Lie, and a startling new cover, courtesy of my lovely publishers Sphere. And for a short while the ebook is on sale at only 99p. If you’ve stumbled across this post in 2027, I’m afraid that offer has almost certainly expired.

I’m thrilled about this relaunch, and the bonus is that at the end of the ebook you’ll get a tantalising taste of the next book in the Drake series, called It Was Her, which comes out in May. The ebook for that is only £1.99 in the run-up to launch, so I strongly suggest that you take advantage of that offer, too.

Both covers were designed by Bekki Guyatt, and as you can see, the ‘twins’ manage to be both colourful and sinister…

Crime Thriller Fella Bids You Goodbye…

I’ve got some good news and I’ve got some bad news.

The bad news is that Crime Thriller Fella is finally shutting up shop. It’s been a hell of a ride, I think you’ll agree. We’ve had some fun, we’ve made some poor jokes — but importantly we’ve discovered and learned a hell of a lot about crime fiction, and it’s —

Wait — where are you going? I’ve not given you the good news yet! Stick around for another minute, or so, jeez.

The good news is, I’ve got a brand new website called markhillauthor.com

There’ll still be interviews and book news, but it’ll include news about MY book, the Two O’Clock Boy, which is coming out in ebook next week and in paperback on April 6, 2017. There’ll be a blog — everything you can find here will be there, the whole lot has been moved over, lock stock  — and information about my coppers Drake and Crowley. Events, images, videos, offers, and an opportunity to sign up to my mailing list.

So, basically, it’s going to just like this place, only better.

So click on the link, online chums. That’s it, do it now. Now. Do it now. And come and say hello to markhillauthor.com

The Two O’Clock Boy is coming…

If there’s one thing we’ve learned this week, ladies and gentlemen, it’s that change is inevitable.

Thing is, Crime Thriller Fella has got a few more things up his sleeve, but between you and me the long-term prognosis is, frankly, not very encouraging. He’s reviewed a few books, he’s done a few intel interviews, spoke about himself in the third person in a highly-affected way and filled his site with as much filler as is decent.

Yonks ago he mentioned he had a book deal, and then it all went silent — because there was work to do. But there’s a cover now, and it’s a cracker. You can see it in the wonderful gif below. The Two O’Clock Boy, the first of a series featuring North London coppers DI Ray Drake and DS Flick Crowley, is coming on November 17, 2016, published by Sphere Books.

At some point, Crime Thriller Fella will cease to be. He will an ex-blogger. There will be a website markhillauthor.com – you can find a better shot of the cover and a synopsis of the book there already, should you want to do the business with the mouse – and you’ll find all the content here over there, and more. There’ll be a bit of a blogging aspect on occasion, yes, but you’ll also find news and events and covers and stuff about Drake and Crowley. You know, it’ll be a proper author site, sort of thing.

So I’m giving you fair warning. Crime Thriller Fella is not long for this world.

But, don’t worry, you’re in safe hands, you’ll have me instead.

My name is Mark Hill, and I’m an author. Pleased to meet you.

Crime News… About Me.

Following tense discussions with the other Fellas on the Board, I’ve been given permission to devote a whole post solely about a matter of grave importance.

Me.

Big Vin took me aside after the Board Meeting and muttered darkly that I shouldn’t make a habit of it. Big Vin is as wide as he is tall, with a temperament that even his former colleagues in the Mexican Death Squads considered questionable, and is not a man to be crossed. I was quick to assure him that I would be succinct.

But speak about me, I shall. After all, it’s why we’re all here. It’s why I’m here, at least – you may have other reasons. All those fantastic reviews, all those great Intel interviews, all that filler stuff about telly and movies, it’s all been leading to this point in time, to this post.

Because the fact is, it looks like I’ve got me a book deal. I can announce that I’m going to be published – we’re talking Autumn, 2016 – at Sphere.

I mean, christ, Sphere, the imprint of Little, Brown.

It’s been announced in The Bookseller, so it must be true, right?

I remember many, many years ago when I was a nipper, curled up on the sofa, devouring in one sitting the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back, which was published even before the film – or, at least, before I got to see it. That was a Sphere book. I never forgot that, and now I know why.

This is all wildly exciting – for me. Perhaps for you… not so much. But I appreciate your politely asking what genre it is.

Behave.

It’s a crime novel. And I can assure you, if you’re worried, that there are very few jokes in it. No funny ones, certainly. The prose, like my gums, is raw and slippery.

So that leaves us with a few decisions to make. You may have noticed that the number of posts on this site has declined over the last two or three weeks, and that will continue for the time being.

I’d very much like to continue doing the odd intel interview and suchlike, but I need to think very carefully about what to do next here. I could always pimp my book with a merciless machine-like efficiency, but we’d both get a bit bored of that pretty quickly.

However, it’s true to say I like what we’ve done with the place, me and you together, and I’m not willing to let it go without a fight. So let’s take a big breath, let’s practice our yoga mudras, and we’ll meet back here very soon.

Oh, and here’s that announcement in The Bookseller. I’ve got my own tag and everything.