A Thursday night, a full house in The Bookery with three Crime authors and the only incident to report being an abundance of laughter! Perhaps not be the plot design for a typical police procedural, but we had a fabulous evening with Orlando Murrin, Diane Jeffrey and Tina Orr Munro who each provided us with a crime fiction masterclass.

Kicking off the evening Diane Jeffrey explained to us the key principles typically found in psychological thrillers that are dominated by ‘Twists, Turns, and Tension’. Psychological thrillers dive deep into the minds of their characters, exploring motives, manipulation, and moral dilemmas. We learnt from Diane to expect unreliable narrators, unexpected twists, and a dark atmosphere heavy with suspense where the crime itself often serves as a backdrop to the intense psychological interplay. Diane explained that she spends a lot of time developing the psyche of her characters before starting to write a book, and that she knows how important it is that she delivers a plot line that keeps the reader guessing, playing with their mind but that it must also be authentic.

Switching style, Orlando Murrin quickly had us all laughing as he described what has rather patronisingly become known as ‘Cosy Crime’. He was quick to thank Richard Osman for boosting the success of Cosy Crime made famous by Miss Marple and convincing editors that there was a commercial future for the genre. Orlando took us through some of the ‘rules’ that constitute cosy crime where the sleuth is not a police officer which in his books is a chef. He explained that although a murder while regrettable authors don’t glory in the details but instead focus on the joy of piecing together clues. With a sense of humour at its heart cosy crime delivers a delightful balance of intrigue and comfort with each of the characters having a reason to commit the murder that encourages the reader keen to try to join the detective work. Just as important as what it does cover is the topics such as sex, swearing, magic, supernatural or identical twins that cosy crime avoids. Orlando led us to believe that cosy crime authors try to leave the world in a better place having provided their readers with just enough clues to solve the crime but not making it to easy.

Following on from Orlando, Tina Orr Munro brought us back down to earth explaining the gritty fundamentals of police procedurals that must be authentic that follow law enforcement professionals through every step of their investigations, from gathering evidence to navigating the complexities of the justice system. Tina explained that in a crowded market it was important for characters to stand out and have a reason for readers to identify with lead character. For those taking notes through the evening (as budding crime writers ?!) Tina provided three key rules that are critical to police procedurals – Process, Basics and Language. So much of policing is the detailed following of a ‘process’ that makes it essential to ensure that the hard graft of searching through paperwork, checking details and other elements that make up the ABC of investigating murder are correctly researched and captured. Authenticity is critical so it is vital to ensure the basics of rank structure, custody rules, use of gloves, masks and all other details are accurately portrayed. Language needs to be ‘real’, using for example well informed police slang that can be dripped into the dialogue.

During the second stage of the evening our three wonderful authors explored various topics with each other. From which we learnt that Orlando’s motto is to ensure his readers “Smile, shiver and shed a tear” and how for research he had lunch on a super yacht and watched lots of YouTube videos – sounds like a tough job! From Tina we heard how challenging the development of technology has made the writing of police procedurals with CCTV, Dash Cams, Phones, Doorbell cameras capturing so much evidence. After a round of questions from the audience, Tina selected the lucky raffle ticket winner of the £20 Bookery Voucher that Tina, Diane and Orlando had so generously provided.

At the close of the evening our crime-writing trio signed books for our customers and for us. We have signed copies of Murder Below Decks and Knife Skills for Beginners by Orlando Murrin, Liars Island by Tina Orr Munro and The Other Couple by Diane Jeffrey available HERE or from visiting the bookshop.

We thank all our customers who joined us for such an interesting fun and varied evening of crime writing expertise and to Tina, Orlando and Diane for providing such a fast paced, dynamic and memorable evening.