The Hobcast Book Show

How's this for an introduction: "If I were a woman, I'd be Zoe Sharp. If Jack Reacher were a woman, he'd be Zoe Sharp's main character,  Charlie Fox."  No small compliment for our guest this week, paid to her by Lee Child himself. In our fascinating interview with Zoe Sharp , we learn about her unconventional start in life, her rise through journalism into full-time writer, and the development of...

We have a busy week ahead of us at Hobeck Books with the launch of two new titles. Alongside the release of A J Aberford's second George Zammit thriller,  Bullets in the Sand ,  we're delighted to be publishing  Her Deadly Friend   by bestselling author Rae Sargeant . Rachel has been hugely successful with her psychological thrillers for Harper Collins, but her first novel for Hobeck is a departur...

The sales figures bear this out: historical crime fiction is on the rise. This week we speak to one of the modern masters of the art, Mark Ellis , author of the superb Frank Merlin series set in World War Two. Originally from Swansea, Mark studied at Cambridge, became a barrister, then moved into banking before becoming a computing entrepreneur. The sale of his company has allowed him to follow hi...

The Hobcast Book Show team have been on their travels over the past week, first to Wales and then to Devon for a family holiday. Inspired by their experiences, they were determined to feature an author connected with one of those areas, so this week's guest is the brilliant Malcolm Pryce , author  Louie Knight Mystery  series of novels set in the coastal town of Aberystwyth in Mid-Wales. As Malcol...

'It's more than speculation, it's a prediction.' That, famously, was the tagline for  The Swarm - the 1978 disaster movie starring Michael Caine that depicted the impact that a swarm of 'African Killer Bees' would have on the United States. It's a sad reflection that the opposite is now true, and bees and other pollinators are under threat. That's the starting point for  Hive   - the award-nominat...

It's the big one! This week The Hobcast Book Show comes from the world's biggest crime writing festival, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival set in the grounds of the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate. Back to full capacity for 2022, the event was a huge success, attracting some of the biggest names in global crime fiction. As you'll hear in this special show, Adrian and Rebecca caught up with so...

It's that time of year again. The Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival begins this week in Harrogate, bringing together the great and good from the UK and international crime writing scene. It's like Glyndebourne for the morbid, or Henley for those whose rivers run with blood. One of the highlights of the four day event is the announcement of the Theakstons award for Crime Novel of the Year. In...

We're delighted to be launching a new series of wonderful thrillers this week - the Inspector George Zammit series by A J Aberford. Set in Malta, George is an unlikely hero. He's not ambitious, carries too much weight, and enjoys the quiet life, but events conspire to place our hero at the centre of a series of complex international conspiracies. As author Tony Gartland, (writing as A J Aberford),...

One half of the Hobcast presentation team has spent half his life in journalism, and Adrian has lost count of the number of times he's sworn at the TV over the depiction of his former trade. But do journalists get a bad rap in fiction? Isn't it fair enough that writers use their creative licence to depict journalists in a way that suits their own stories? Or should writers work harder to get the d...

One half of Hobeck, (Adrian), put on their glad rags this week to head to the prestigious CWA Daggers Gala Dinner in London. Our very own Mark Wightman was nominated for the John Creasey New Blood Dagger for Waking the Tiger.  Sadly, Mark wasn't successful, the award going to Janice Hallett's  The Appeal.  As you'll hear in this special show, the night was a celebration of the UK's most popular fi...

We're constantly drawing inspiration from history here on  The Hobcast Book Show,  and the same is true for our guest this week, U.S author Mary Kendall. As Mary explains, it was whilst delving into her own family history that she discovered the real life events that inspired her debut novel, the  The Spinster's Fortune.  Set in Washington D.C, Mary draws on her experiences growing up in the city...

The Hobcast Book Show has been on its travels again, this time to the charming Suffolk coastal town of Southwold for its annual crime-writing festival,  Slaughter in Southwold.  It brought together a host of crime fiction fans and heard from eight leading writers, including our own Hobeck author Lin Le Versha, whose Steph Grant mystery series is largely set in the town. As we hear in this special...

100 million copies sold. Two Tom Cruise movies and a wildly successful Amazon Prime TV series. Jack Reacher is one of those fictional characters that everyone has heard about. So what's it like to take responsibility for the future of the character? Our guest this week Andrew Child has done just that, taking over from his brother Lee to write Reacher's 26th adventure,  Better Off Dead.  The brothe...

When it comes to cultural significance, the city of Kingston upon Hull is often overlooked in favour of the likes of London, Edinburgh, Liverpool or Manchester. But that's unfair for a city that was the home of poet Phillip Larkin, David Bowie's most famous backing band The Spiders from Mars, and the setting for Ted Lewis's seminal crime novel Jack's Return Home  which was adapted to become  Get C...

There's very little more satisfying in publishing than bringing a great new talent and their debut crime novel to print. We loved Jonathan Peace's submission to Hobeck Books, and we're delighted to be releasing  Dirty Little Secret   this week. Set in 1987, it's set in Jonathan's home town of Ossett in West Yorkshire, and features WDC Louise Miller, who not only faces a tough investigation into th...

What do readers want? That's the question we ask ourselves every day at Hobeck Books. The truth is, that changes all the time, but there's no doubt that if a writer can connect emotionally with a reader, you're going to find plenty of readers. Our guest this week, Caron McKinlay published her first novel  The Storytellers   this week, and already the feedback has been overwhelming, with many reade...

Who doesn't enjoy a good festival? The UK crime season is in full swing, and we took The Hobcast Bookshow to Bristol this week for Crimefest '22 - back for the first time in three years following the pandemic. In this special edition of the podcast, we bring you some of the highlights of the event, including an in depth interview with one of the UK's most successful crime writers, Ann Cleeves, bes...

Some members of the indie publishing community might treat it as a dirty word, but "selling" is all part of the job. Nicola Cook , writing fiction as Isabella Wiles , is one of the most sought after motivational speakers in the UK on the subject of selling and developing great sales teams. She's also the author of two worldwide non-fiction bestsellers, so she felt her next challenge was writing fi...

The 2022 UK literary festival season is upon us, and The Hobcast Book Show will be bringing you highlights from all the key crime focused events like Harrogate, Crime Fest and Bloody Scotland. But this week we hit the road to take the stage with actor and Hobeck author Robert Daws at the inaugural Royal Tunbridge Wells Literary Festival in Kent. This week we bring you the Q + A with Bob, chaired b...

Is there anything more mysterious in publishing than the world of the literary agent? There can't be many aspiring authors who haven't asked themselves - 'how do I get an agent?' There are copious 'how to' guides out there offering advice on how to secure representation, but how relevant is that advice? Euan Thorneycroft is a senior agent with A M Heath, a London-based agency established for more...

There's a healthy debate within publishing about the impact of blog tours. They're designed of course to support book releases and raise awareness of the authors. But just how effective are they? Our guest this week on  The Hobcast Book Show  is Zoe-Lee O'Farrell who is both a book blogger and a blog tour organiser. What does she see as their key value? We also discuss her first novel  Ouija   and...

We made it! It's been an epic few days at the London Book Fair at Olympia, and in our concluding special  Hobcast Book Show  we speak to two of the key figures in the growth of indie publishing, Mark Dawson and Mark Stay. Mark Dawson is the multi-million selling author of three series including the John Milton series, but he's also the creator of the Self Publishing Formula courses which have help...

Never underestimate how huge the London Book Fair is. Hundreds of exhibitors, acres of show space and thousands of delegates - it can feel bewildering! In the second of our special shows from the London Book Fair 2022, we're joined by our very own Robert Daws. We also speak to a range of people and ask them what LBF means to them. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The Hobcast Book Show  is at the London Book Fair! In this first in a series of special podcasts, we speak to one of the most successful indie crime authors in the UK today, Barry Hutchison, who under the pen name J D Kirk has built a huge following for his DCI Jack Logan series. Originally a traditionally published author, Barry was quick to recognise the potential of the Amazon KDP platform and...

The relationship between music and literature is long established. For Dorset based author Guy Gardner , his love of one inspires the other. A gifted jazz musician, Guy published his first novel, The Mirror Game  earlier this year. It's a historical thriller set in the 1920s. So how much work does it take to recreate such a complex decade accurately? Also this week, Adrian and Rebecca discuss thei...