Author of the Month | M. W. Craven

Hey Bookworms,

I'm incredibly excited to announce M. W. Craven (pictured) is my Author of the Month! His novels have unique plots, are dark & twisty in all the right places. The compelling characters that stay with you long after you've turned the last page.

Mike won a CWA Gold Dagger Award The Puppet Show, his first novel featuring Washington Poe & Tilly Bradshaw. It was also shortlisted for Amazon Publishing Readers' Awards: Best Crime Novel, the Goldsboro Glass Bell Award, and the Dead Good Reader Awards.

He lives in Carlisle with his wife Joanne. When he isn't out with his springer spaniel or talking nonsense in the pub, he can usually be found at punk gigs and writing festivals up and down the country.

His fifth book The Curator is out on Thursday (4th June) I've been lucky enough to read a copy already and it is every bit as incredible as the rest in the series!  

 Without further ado here is my Q&A with the fabulous man himself...

Were you surprised by the enormously positive reception Poe & Tilly got originally? Are you still now?

How the Poe and Tilly series has been received has blown me away, to be honest.  I thought I had something when I was forced to rewrite Tilly’s character as the innocent, naïve soul she is now, but I didn’t think it would take off the way it had. I’ve always been confident in my plotting, always happy that when I need inspiration, the well won’t be dry, but how characters will be received is not down to the author; it’s entirely up to the reader. 

How do you pick your book titles? Which is your favorite?

I spend a lot of time choosing my book titles then my agent and editor tell me I can’t have what I want. My agent has actually gone as far to say I’m “sh*t at titles”! The Puppet Show was originally called Welcome to the Puppet Show, and I had no idea what to call The Curator. When thinking about Poe 4, I went to see one of my all-time favourite punk bands, The Anti-Nowhere League, and they’d just released a new album. One of the new songs was called The Thirteen Rat Theory and I called Poe 4 this and worked the entire plot around what I thought was a cool title. When I submitted it, I was told no chance. I relented and changed it to The Thirteenth Rat. Still no chance. Supermarkets won’t take books with rat in the title. I then called it The Bad Beat, even wrote a paragraph explaining what this meant (which survived the edits so is staying in). Nope. Sounded too musical. So I bumped up Dead Ground, the title for the fully plotted Poe 6. 

My favourite title is Black Summer, simply because it all came together. The truffles, the impending storm, the surname of a key character, the word black was dominant throughout. It was also a bit of a bonus when Netflix decided to use the same name for a zombie series, as I know people have bought it thinking it was a tie-in . . . 

What is the most surprising thing you have discovered when writing your novels?

That people still want to buy my books and my publisher still wants to give me money to write said books. But really it’s how, what is essentially a British police procedural series, has captured the imagination of readers across the world. Not including English, the Poe series has now been translated into eighteen languages, including Russian, Japanese, Taiwanese, and Hebrew.

Can you tell us something about The Curator that isn't in the blurb?

Tilly thinks she’s seen a shark . . . Also, it might not seem it at first, but The Curator is the darkest book in the series. 

How do you create such a sense of place in your novels, Cumbria is almost an extra character?

See something, say something. I live here and I’ve always enjoyed getting out and about. Describing what I see, to get the real Cumbria out of my head and on to the page, is important to get a sense of place, to ground a series, but I try not to overdo it. I also try to avoid the honeypots and give a little information on some of the lesser-known places. 

Which authors do you admire the most in your genre?

Michael Connelly is my favourite crime writer, but I’m also a huge fan of Carl Hiaasen, Don Winslow, Dennis Lehane and Stephen King (both his crime and his horror novels and short stories); all American writers you’ll notice. My Favourite UK crime writers are Lee Child, Mick Herron, Chris Whitaker, Abir Mukherjee, Vaseem Khan, A.A. Dhand, and Amer Anwar. I read a lot of new authors and there are some incredibly talented fresh voices out there. Heleen Kist wrote a novel I thought was superb and Judith O’Reilly’s new thriller was astonishing.

My all-time favourite author is Terry Pratchett though.

Where is your favourite place to write?

I only ever write in my office.

What do you enjoy doing when you aren't writing?

The usual. Reading, watching some of the decent dramas that are on TV now. Going to the pub and gigs. My wife and I enjoy eating out a lot, although we both like cooking too. I’ve learned how to bake bread during lockdown.

Which book is currently on your bedside table?

It was my birthday recently and I was given If It Bleeds by Stephen King, Broken by Don Winslow, Fair Warning by Michael Connelly and The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes by Suzanne Collins. As soon as I’ve finished Isle of Joy by Don Winslow it’s hard not imagine me reaching for the new Michael Connelly from that pile . . .

What is coming next for you? I know there is more Poe & Tilly I just hope we don't have to wait too long!

I’ve been busy you’ll be pleased to hear. The Curator is obviously out very soon. After that, I have a short story collection out on September 3rd. It’s called Cut Short and it’s a linked trio, the middle story being ‘Why Don’t Sheep Shrink?’, which was released as a freebie recently. The other two stories, ‘The Killing Field’ and ‘Dead Man’s Fingers’ are brand new. I have a new short story coming out in an anthology, also being released in September. Can’t say what the anthology is yet, but the Poe story is called ‘A Permanent Solution.’ There is also another short story, ‘Once in a Red Moon’, being released at Christmas. Not sure where yet, but I’ll let everyone know when I do.

Next year’s Poe novel, Dead Ground, is written and I’m two-thirds of the way through Poe 5, The Botanist. Poe 6, The Third Light (what would have been Dead Ground), is fully plotted. I’ll also probably have a novella out between Poe 4 and 5. Just need to write it . . .

Thanks, Mike it was an absolute pleasure!

You guys can read my review of The Puppet Show here, my review of Black Summer here & check my review of The Curator here 😊