Though it may not be necessary to make an introduction of Martin Edwards in this blog, it is timely to show here a brief overview of his profile, taken from his website.
Martin Edwards was born at Knutsford, Cheshire and educated in Northwich and at Balliol College, Oxford University, taking a first class honours degree in law. He trained as a solicitor in Leeds and moved to Liverpool on qualifying. He published his first legal article at the age of 25 and his first book, about legal aspects of buying a business computer at 27, before a career as an equity partner of a law firm, where he is now a consultant. He is married to Helena with two children (Jonathan and Catherine) and lives in Lymm. A member of the Murder Squad, collective of crime writers, Martin is Vice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and in 2015 he was elected eighth President of the Detection Club. He is also Archivist of the CWA and of the Detection Club.
Martin Edwards first novel, All the Lonely People, introduced Liverpool lawyer Harry Devlin and was published in 1991, earning a nomination for the John Creasey Memorial Dagger for best first crime novel of the year. To date, Edwards has written eight novels about Devlin; the most recent is Waterloo Sunset (2008). The Coffin Trail (2004) was the first of seven books set in the Lake District (The Lake District Mysteries) featuring Detective Chief Inspector Hannah Scarlett and historian Daniel Kind; it was short-listed for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Award for best crime novel of 2006. The Arsenic Labyrinth (2007) was short-listed for the Lakeland Book of the Year Award in 2008. The Hanging Wood (2011) was long-listed for both the Audible Sounds of Crime Award and the Ebook Award at Crimefest 2012. Edwards has also written a stand-alone novel of psychological suspense, Take My Breath Away (2002), and completed The Lazarus Widow by the late Bill Knox. 2008 also saw the publication of his first historical novel, Dancing for the Hangman, a fictional account of the life and misadventures of Hawley Harvey Crippen. (Source: Wikipedia). Follow his blog: Do You Write Under Your Own Name? Find him on Twitter: @medwardsbooks Author’s Website: http://www.martinedwardsbooks.com/index.htm
I’m recalling all this because I’m looking forward to meeting Martin Edwards in Madrid during the course of this week. He will be giving the inaugural lecture at an International Congress on detective novel, entitled Why is the Golden Age fashionable again? I’m confident I will be able to attend and I hope to be able to greet him personally.
Fortunately I have just received my copy of The Golden Age of Murder (Harper Collins, 2016, paperback edition), that I have started to read right now. For this reason I’m taking a break on my reading schedule and I’m reading as well The Serpent Pool, The Lake District Mysteries #4 (Allison & Busby, 2010). Stay tuned.
About The Golden Age of Murder: Winner of the 2016 EDGAR, AGATHA, MACAVITY and H.R.F.KEATING crime writing awards, this real-life detective story investigates how Agatha Christie and colleagues in a mysterious literary club transformed crime fiction. Detective stories of the Twenties and Thirties have long been stereotyped as cosily conventional. Nothing could be further from the truth. The Golden Age of Murder tells for the first time the extraordinary story of British detective fiction between the two World Wars. A gripping real-life detective story, it investigates how Dorothy L. Sayers, Anthony Berkeley, Agatha Christie and their colleagues in the mysterious Detection Club transformed crime fiction. Their work cast new light on unsolved murders whilst hiding clues to their authors’ darkest secrets, and their complex and sometimes bizarre private lives. (HarperCollinsPublishers publicity page)
About The Serpent Pool: DCI Hannah Scarlett is determined to uncover the truth behind Emily Friend’s mysterious drowning in the Serpent’s Pool. Though the evidence at the time did not rule out suicide, why would Emily, so afraid of water, choose drowning to end it all? Hannah has to face distraction though with a new sergeant with a troublesome reputation, a new house, and new cause to doubt her partner, Marc Amos. Historian Daniel Kind has just returned from America and is hard at work on a new book. Meeting with Hannah again, they can’t help but make connections between Emily’s death and two recent murders which struck close to home. (Allison & Busby publicity page)
A Crime is Afoot 