We are delighted to welcome author Richard Godwin to Omnimystery News today.
Richard's new crime novel is Wrong Crowd (Down & Out Books; October 2015 trade paperback and ebook formats) and we recently had a chance to spend some time talking about it with him.
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Omnimystery News: Why do you choose to write stand-alones over novels with recurring characters?
Photo provided courtesy of
Richard Godwin
Richard Godwin: I believe that the series novel, while represented by many fine authors, falls into the cookie cutter too easily, the reader always knows the protagonist will survive.
It is a case of realism versus soap opera.
OMN: How true are you to the settings in your books?
RG: I am always true to location. Setting is the key to so much drama and plot.
OMN: How did Wrong Crowd come to be titled?
RG: I chose it and it relates sharply. Wrong Crowd is about an art thief who meets a beautiful mysterious woman on holiday and literally falls into the wrong crowd, and he will do anything to hold onto Maxine, even if that means going back to his bad old ways.
OMN: Have any specific authors influenced how and what you write today?
RG: Influences are hard to determine, I'll list some favorites. Dickens, Dostoyevsky, Greene, Burke, among others.
OMN: When selecting a book today to read for pleasure, what do you look for?
RG: Style.
OMN: Create a Top 5 list for us on any topic.
RG: Top 5 favorite books:
• King Lear;
• Crime and Punishment;
• Great Expectations;
• Brighton Rock; and
• No Country For Old Men.
OMN: What's next for you?
RG: My novel Disembodied is about a publisher who is disillusioned with the digital revolution, and whose wife is suffering from body dysmorphia, is out next year. Also my sequel to Apostle Rising is being published, in which we see the serial killer who crucifies politicians, taking on his enemies, and causing havoc in the political world.
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Richard Godwin is a published poet and a produced playwright. His stories have been published in numerous magazines and in over 34 anthologies. His novels have sold numerous foreign rights. Richard Godwin was born in London and obtained a BA and MA in English and American Literature from King's College London, where he also lectured.
For more information about the author, please visit his website at RichardGodwin.net and his author page on Goodreads.
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Wrong Crowd by Richard Godwin
A Crime Novel
Publisher: Down & Out Books
A sultry novel in which an art thief finds himself out of his depth in a criminal maelstrom when he meets a beautiful woman with no past.
When Claude meets Maxine in the Caribbean he falls for her. He does not expect he will start an affair with her back in London, then again he does not expect to have to call on the help of his old mate Spike, nor that will they become embroiled with Russian gangsters Vladimir and Grigory.
But then Claude will do anything to hold onto Maxine.
Peopled with thieves, hustlers, gangsters, gun runners and pimps, Wrong Crowd is a slick and action-packed ride into London's low-life. East End villains and the Russian Mafia collide in a fast-paced novel of deceit and criminal obsession that sparkles as it speeds towards its astonishing conclusion.
— Wrong Crowd by Richard Godwin
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