As we celebrate National Crime Reading Month, an annual initiative spearheaded and developed by the Crime Writers’ Association which runs throughout the month of June, we asked C. V. Chauhan, author of the Inspector Sharma Thrillers set in Leicester, to tell us what crime fiction means to him and how it has influenced his own writing.
“I was born and brought up in a small town in the Rift Valley in Kenya. Despite the breathtaking natural beauty of the location, my childhood was highly deprived. My local school had ninety-seven pupils, but no resources and no library. At home, my six siblings and I shared three books. I still remember them vividly, because they kickstarted my love affair with reading. Two featured European fairy tales: Hansel and Gretel, Cinderella and Rapunzel. The third book was about Greek myths and legends. They were probably given to my father, a cobbler, by an ex-pat British customer. I read and re-read those books by the light of a hurricane lamp in the evening, fascinated by the magical world of fairy tales and the adventures of Perseus and Medusa, Theseus and the Minotaur. This is where my fascination with heroes tussling with dark forces and sinister figures began.
“At the age of eleven I moved with my family to a Victorian terraced house in Leicester and joined a small secondary school without any playing fields. For all its faults, it did have a library, from which I borrowed copious books, and a good English teacher who introduced us to Shakespeare — I loved the themes of passion, greed, power and corruption in Macbeth, Hamlet and Julius Caesar. The battle between good and evil was a constant theme in many of the books I read.
“As an undergraduate at the University of York, my reading became turbocharged. I suddenly had access to thousands of books and met many like-minded people who were hungry for knowledge. In addition to reading the core textbooks for history and economics, I started reading more widely: Graham Greene, Agatha Christie, Aldous Huxley, James Baldwin, George Orwell. I was such a voracious reader that I often read three books simultaneously — a few chapters from one, a few from another, and so on until I went back to the first. My contemporaries thought I was mad, but I was happily lost in the many different worlds and characters created by these fabulous writers.
“Immersing myself properly in crime fiction came not long after. I trained to be a teacher and taught history in some challenging secondary schools in London and Birmingham. At one of these schools, I became good friends with an English teacher called Jim MacLachlan. He introduced me to a wonderful range of crime fiction authors, many of whom I wasn’t previously aware. I soon became embroiled in the lives of the characters in the 87th Precinct series of police procedural novels by Ed McBain, as well as the thrilling plots created by Elmore Leonard, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ngaio Marsh, Raymond Chandler, Lawrence Block, Donald E. Westlake, Patricia Cornwell and Joseph Hansen. Like Shakespeare, the genre delved into complex human behaviours, grappling with morality and justice whilst immersing the reader into danger from a safe distance. I was hooked.
“As a writer, I continue to read widely in all genres. Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and James M. Cain are perennial favourites, as are Lee Child, Stephen King, Jeffery Deaver and James Lee Burke. The Laidlaw books by the late William McIlvanney are fabulous. I also love historical fiction with a criminal element and, more recently, have discovered the many wonderful Japanese writers of crime fiction.
“I gave up full-time work a few years ago to focus on writing crime-fiction. My thrillers are set in Leicester and feature Inspector Rohan Sharma and his idiosyncratic African Grey parrot, Fernando. I have drawn upon my love of detective fiction and police procedurals to write about the city I live in, whilst exploring contemporary themes of diversity, organised crime and human trafficking.
“As we celebrate Crime Fiction Month this June, I often reflect on the fact that crime fiction is a wonderful vehicle through which to examine social and moral dilemmas. I try to bring that to the forefront in my writing and if a reader reflects on something they have read in one of my books, then I’m happy. It’s how I remember the books that have made an impression on me. Even today, I still remember the stories of Perseus and Medusa, Theseus and the Minotaur.”
Visit C. V. Chauhan’s website for all his latest news.
For more information on National Crime Reading Month, visit: https://crimereading.com/
Congratulations to Michael Fowler, whose fast-paced thriller, House of Death, is published today!
House of Death is the third crime novel in the Dr Hamlet Mottrell Investigations series: dark, gritty murder cases investigated by a forensic psychologist.
Forensic psychologist turned detective Dr Hamlet Mottrell and his crime-fighting partner Detective Sergeant Alix Rainbow have found themselves in hot water.
The serial murderer, The Wedding Killer, who they put in custody is pleading his innocence, alleging he has been framed by the two detectives.
And a series of letters, claiming to be from the real killer, back up his accusation.
Under the spotlight for mishandling the investigation, Hamlet and Alix are sent home on gardening leave while another force conducts a scrutiny of their investigation.
The pair are told not to interfere. But that is one order they must disobey.
Determined to discover the truth, they go against the rules, secretly embarking on a behind-the-scenes enquiry to discover who the Wedding Killer is, and they soon discover the disappearance of two women who might be linked.
The quest to discover who is behind their vanishing quickly becomes a dangerous exercise, putting not only Hamlet and Alix’s careers in jeopardy but also their lives…
Did they put the right killer behind bars? Can they clear their names?
Or will the two detectives end up as victims…?
Congratulations to Simon Michael, whose page-turning gangland thriller, Nothing But The Truth, is published today! Nothing But The Truth is the eighth book in the Charles Holborne Legal Thrillers series.
London, 1967
The psychopathic Kray twins rule London’s underworld, aided by their government connections, corrupt police and extreme violence.
Finally, Detective Superintendent “Nipper” Read’s taskforce has a chance to take them down.
The catch: Read needs barrister Charles Holborne to testify against them, while the Krays have evidence against him which would end his career and send him to prison.
Caught in the middle, and with his pregnant partner’s life and his career at stake, this time Charles has no choices left.
Can Charles put his past behind him once and for all? Will the Krays twins’ criminal hold over London finally be put to an end?
Or will everything come crashing down for Charles Holborne…?
Congratulations to C V Chauhan, whose page-turning serial killer thriller, The Dance of Death, is out now!
The Dance of Death is the first book in the Inspector Sharma Thriller series.
When a young Asian woman is found murdered in a particularly brutal fashion, the Leicestershire police force are put on high alert to find the killer.
The body was positioned in the shape of swastika and instantly points to racist motivations.
Newly promoted homicide detective Rohan Sharma is given the case – a surprise both to Sharma himself and his more experienced colleagues.
Desperate to prove himself, Sharma works around the clock – and soon discovers connections to the death of a young Somali woman that occurred the previous year.
But with his resentful colleagues working against him and his private life falling apart, Sharma struggles to keep his head in the game.
And when he starts to receive strange anonymous messages, he realises the killer may now be tracking his every move…
Can Detective Sharma stop the killer before he strikes again?
Or will he find himself trapped in a vicious dance of death…?
