Leeds local Professor writes cosy crime with a twist

Blending hard-boiled noir, cosy crime and comedy, Graham and the Flitchcombe Murders offers a fresh, playful take that will appeal to fans of both styles.

When macho thriller writer Graham Tomlinson is rebranded by his agent as “Tamara Wilde, Mistress of Cosy Crime”, he swaps Yorkshire noir for the picture-postcard Cotswolds — only to find the village of Flitchcombe-on-the-Water is far from cosy.

With its eccentric locals, simmering feuds and a book group bristling with dark secrets, he is surrounded by irresistible material for his new novel.

But when the man he has chosen as the victim in his fictional plot turns up dead, fiction and reality collide spectacularly.

From drugged hunting dogs to clandestine rites on Gallows Hill, Graham is dragged into a tangle of ancient scandals and modern crime.

His life depends on him embracing both sides of himself, the tough Tom Stone and intuitive Tamara Wilde, and uncovering the truth before it is too late…

David Fairer is a lover of all kinds of crime fiction, especially comic crime, he is the author of Chocolate House Treason, The Devil’s Cathedral, and Captain Hazard’s Game, murder mysteries set in Queen Anne’s London. He also loves cooking, but unlike many current novelists he does not have a lifestyle or a dog…

David explained: “Cosy crime is inordinately popular right now, on film and TV also. Richard Osman especially has given it vast publicity.

"I love cosy crime but deplore how the genre is treated as something lightweight and escapist. It needn’t be.

"Cosy crime can tackle major themes with humour and be of the highest literary value. I’ve aimed to do both and write a classic of the genre while being amused by its conventions.”

Graham and the Flitchcombe Murders will be published on the June 28 by The Book Guild. It will be available via Amazon, Waterstones and all good book retailers.