9. New Northern Ireland crime fiction (part 1): Simon Maltman, James Murphy & David Torrans of No Alibis

New Northern Ireland crime fiction (part 1) with authors Simon Maltman & James Murphy, & bookseller & publisher David Torrans: They discuss with We’d Like A Word presenters Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan, financial support for authors, whether publisher (& reader) appetite for Northern Ireland crime fiction has dried up (Paul hopes not!), and keeping a bookshop and publisher going during Covid. Simon Maltman's latest novel is Witness. He's also the author of The Mark, Sidewinder, Bongo Fury & more. He plays guitar, he's from Bangor and leads crime fiction tours of Belfast. James Murphy, from Belfast, is a former headteacher and author of the Terror trilogy - The Rise of Terror, The Terror Within & Dark Light (yes, we tease James for that third title). James also teaches crime writing, is an organiser of the Northern Ireland Festival of Writing, and presents the podcast, A Life of Crime (Writing) with James Murphy. The legendary David Torrans owns the legendary No Alibi's crime and mystery bookshop on Belfast's Botanic Avenue. He also runs the No Alibis Press publisher, (Emma Warnock is the editor). He's been a magnet and hub for local and international authors, and is one of the organisers of Noireland, the Northern Ireland International Crime Fiction Festival. And David and his shop have been immortalised in fiction (Mystery Man by Colin Bateman) - an uncannily accurate depiction of the real man. (David denies it. But just look at him and draw your own conclusions.)

We also have a love in for the Northern Ireland Arts Council and author Gerard Brennan, whose latest book is called Shot. We hear about the next book coming from No Alibis Press - it's called Seed, by Joanna Walsh. And we talk about authors Val McDermid, Adrian McKinty, Colin Bateman, Steve Cavanagh, Kelly Creighton, Sharon Dempsey, Stuart Neville, Maurice Leitch, Brian McGilloway, Vigdis Hjorth & Emily St John Mandell. Liam Neeson and James Nesbitt pop in the conversation. Paul threatens to replace Stevyn as co-presenter with You Tube countryside guru Dick Leviathan. There's a lot of chuckling and quite a bit of giggling.

This episode was supported by the We'd Like A Word advisory panel: Gerry Lockdown, Barry Murderer, Trevor Torture, Maurice Fear & Seamus Panic. Thanks guys.

We'd Like A Word is a podcast and radio show from authors Paul Waters and Stevyn Colgan. We talk with writers, readers, editors, agents, celebrities, talkers, poets, publishers, booksellers, audiobook creators about books - fiction and non-fiction. We go out on various radio and podcast platforms. Our website is www.wedlikeaword.com - which is where you'll find information about Paul and Steve and our guests. We're also on Twitter @wedlikeaword and Facebook @wedlikeaword and our email is wedlikeaword@gmail.com - and yes, we are slightly embarrassed by the missing apostrophes. We like to hear from you - your questions, thoughts, ideas, guest or book suggestions. Perhaps you'd like to come on We'd Like A Word in person, to chat, review, meet writers or read out passages from books. . .