Martin's Writing

Crime Novels

Martin's latest novel, Waterloo Sunset, sees the return of Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin and has already received excellent reviews in both the UK and US. Martin's latest paperback, The Arsenic Labyrinth, is the third Lake District Mystery featuring DCI Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind; it was short-listed for Lakeland Book of the Year in 2008. Like the first two books in the series, The Coffin Trail (which was short-listed for the Theakston's prize for best crime novel of 2006), and The Cipher Garden, as well as Waterloo Sunset, it is published in the UK by Allison & Busby and in the US by Poisoned Pen Press. Martin earlier published seven novels set in Liverpool and featuring Harry Devlin. The first, All the Lonely People, was short-listed for the CWA John Creasey Memorial Dagger for the best first crime novel of the year. Take My Breath Away is a stand-alone novel of psychological suspense set in London. In addition he completed the The Lazarus Widow, the final novel by the late Bill Knox, featuring his Scottish detectives Thane and Moss.

Short Stories

Martin is an award-winning author of over 40 short crime stories, many of which are collected in Where Do You Find Your Ideas? and other stories, which has an introduction by Reginald Hill. 'Test Drive' was short-listed for the CWA Dagger for best short story of the year in 2005, and 'The Bookbinder's Apprentice' won the award in 2008.

Crime Anthologies

Martin has edited sixteen collections of crime fiction, including (since 1996) the CWA's annual collection. The series has yielded several Dagger winners and nominees. In 2003 he edited a special volume, Mysterious Pleasures, to celebrate the CWA'S Golden Jubilee. He has also edited Murder Squad, featuring members of the Murder Squad crime writers' collective, and with an introduction by Val McDermid.

Writing about Crime Fiction

Martin has written about and reviewed crime fiction for numerous books, magazines, websites and blogs. His essays appear in collections such as 100 Great Detectives (ed. Maxim Jakubowski), Twentieth Century Crime, & Mystery Writers (third ed. Lesley Henderson; fourth ed. as St. James Guide to Crime & Mystery Writers ed. Jay P. Pedersen) The Great Good Place? (ed. Peter Nover), Oxford Companion To Crime & Mystery Writing, (ed. Rosemary Herbert) and Oxford Good Fiction Guide (ed. Jane Rogers). Martin was recently commissioned to contribute various essays to the forthcoming Harcourt Encyclopaedia of British Crime Fiction (ed. Barry Forshaw) and there will be exclusive previews of them on this website.

True Crime

As well as occasional articles about true crime cases, he has written an illustrated book on how the police take a homicide case from crime scene to court. Its titles are: Catching Killers, Urge to Kill, and Motive to Murder, depending on whether you look at the UK, US or Australian editions!

Legal Writing

Martin has published seven legal books (two as co-author) as well as over 800 articles for newspapers and magazines as diverse as The Times, Good Housekeeping, Car Mechanics, International Management and Amateur Gardening. He has also contributed to a number of multiple-author textbooks, mainly on his specialist subject of employment law. 2007 saw the publication of the fourth edition of his Tottel's Equal Opportunities Handbook.

Reviews

Martin is a well-known reviewer of crime fiction and legal books. Many of his reviews appear on the Tangled Web UK site as well as on his blog 'Do you write under your own name?'

Blog

Martin's blog 'Do You Write Under Your Own Name?'(see the link on the sidebar) started in October 2008 and is updated almost every day.