Death by Fiction

Adam Colclough lives and works in the West Midlands, he writes regularly for a number of websites, one day he will get round to writing a book for someone else to review.

This devilishly clever murder mystery depicts the pandemonium that breaks out when a crime publisher is due to give a talk to the Manchester Mystery writer’s circle. Not only does he end up dead (presented on the table with a clean shot to the head) but the five aspiring crime writers must try to work out whodunit. One of them is guilty, but which one?  

The multiple narrative (told from the point of view of a policeman, gangster, pensioner, psychopath and a femme fatale) presents very different perspectives and there’re plenty of twists in the tale. Lister’s skill is to present a tongue-in-cheek expose of the publishing industry and the lengths that aspiring writers will go to land a publishing contract. There’s sardonic discussion of such matters as a killer plot, back story and writer’s block and the irony that the only writer who lands the coveted book deal is the one who hasn’t actually written a crime novel.  

.