Crime Time FM

Howard Linskey chats to Paul about is new novel Muse Of Fire, love of Shakespeare, Heydrich, the SOE, the Globe, London - population 200,000! Picking up a theatre and moving it across the river. 
Muse of Fire: William Shakespeare is moving up in the world, his name respected both at court and the theatre. Accepted by Queen Elizabeth, he is trusted to write plays for her, so long as she likes them...
When one of the queen's ladies-in-waiting is found dead, almost everyone suspects murder. But who stood to gain? And are the rumours that she was with child true?
Sir Robert Cecil, Elizabeth's spymaster, senses an opportunity to finally rid himself of his bitter rival, the Earl of Essex, who was seen with the girl before she died, and tasks Will to uncover the truth.
But Shakespeare knows that the Earl of Southampton, his patron, is allied to the Earl of Essex. Will is caught between powerful foes. But this time, he must choose a side if he is to survive.
The Bard turns sleuth once more in this fascinating second instalment in the investigations of William Shakespeare.
Howard Linskey is a former journalist whose works include crime series and standalones set in the north-east, including the DC Ian Bradshaw series published by Penguin, and two espionage novels. He also writes historical fiction and non-fiction. His books have been published in nine countries. Originally from County Durham, he lives in Herts with his wife and daughter.
Recommended: Stan Barstow. Trevor Wood,, Mari Hannah, Robert Scragg, The Chrysalids John Wymdham.
Paul Burke is the editor of Crime Time FM and Aspects of Crime, his first book Eyes Only: Spy Films from Silent to Streaming will be published in September, 2026.
Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

Tracy Sierra chats to Paul Burke about her new Psychological thriller Warning Signs, true crime, tragedy through a lens, Nightwatching, place, James Joyce, danger least expected.
Warning Signs: There’s something out there in the darkness.
By morning, bones lie in the snow, picked clean.
Zach knows the moods of the mountains – his mother taught him before she was gone. His father and the other men on the ski weekend think they know better though.
Drinking and boasting, they laugh in the face of the icy conditions.
But Zach understands what danger looks like. Can he survive the wilderness, and all the monsters within it?

Tracy Sierra was born and raised in the Colorado mountains. She is an attorney who currently lives in New England in an antique colonial-era home complete with its own secret room. When not writing, she spends time with her husband and two children. Nightwatching is her debut novel.
Recommended: In a Lonely Place Dorothy B Hughes, The Dead James Joyce, Night of the Hunter (Film), 
Dead Weight Hildur Knútsdóttir trans. Mary Robinette Kowal (pub. August 2026).
Paul Burke is the editor of CTFM and Aspects of Crime. 
Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

Louise Welsh chats to Paul about her new novel The CUT UP, Rilke, Glasgow, Scottish PEN, The Cutting Pen, academia and being decent people.
THE CUT UP: It's hard to be good when living is expensive. And times are tough on the streets these days. Luckily for Rilke at Bowery Auctions the demand for no-questions-asked cash is at an all-time high, and business is booming.
When Rilke hears his old acquaintance Les is fresh out of prison, his inclination is to stay well out of his way. Letting sleeping dogs lie is one thing - but when one of Bowery's customers winds up dead on their tarmac, Rilke needs a bit of help from his friends to tidy things up. If only his friends didn't have such a habit of making things worse.
Louise Welsh is an award-winning author of ten novels. The Cutting Room, her debut novel, won the Crime Writers' Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award and the Saltire First Book of The Year Award. In 2018, she was named the Most Inspiring Saltire First Book Award winner by public vote. She is Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow. In 2022 she published The Second Cut, which was shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland McIlvanney Prize for Crime Book of the Year and named by The Times as their Crime Book of the Year.
@louisewelsh00
Recommendations Kate Summerscale The Peepshow, Denise Mina The Long Drop, Merlin Holland After Oscar, Neil M Gunn Blood Hunt, Pat Barker.

Paul Burke is editor of Aspects of Crime and Crime Time FM, CWA Gold Dagger Judge.
Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

SIMON BECKETT chats to Paul Burke about his new Dr. David Hunter novel THE BONE GARDEN, writing series fiction as standalones, the psychological, gothic thriller, The Chemistry of Death on TV and anniversaries - good or a bad thing?
THE BONE GARDEN: Driving through the mountains in a fierce winter storm, David Hunter is forced to seek shelter at a remote village. But a one-night stop-over at the dilapidated Hillside House becomes deadly after a gruesome discovery in the depths of the surrounding forest.
With communications down and the only road washed out by the storm, Hunter is unsure who - if anyone - he can trust. And as long-buried secrets of a feud amongst the locals begin to emerge, he knows that whatever dark past the isolated community might be hiding, there's no one he can call on for help.
This time he's on his own.
Simon Beckett is the No.1 International Bestselling author of the David Hunter series. His books have been translated into 29 languages, appeared in the Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller lists and sold over 10 million copies worldwide. A former freelance journalist who has written for The Times, The Daily Telegraph, The Independent on Sunday and The Observer, the inspiration for the first David Hunter novel came after a visit to the world-renowned Body Farm in Tennessee introduced him to the work of forensic anthropologists. As well as co-winning the Ripper Award in 2018/19, the largest European crime prize, Simon has won the Raymond Chandler Society’s ‘Marlowe’ Award and been short-listed for the CWA Gold Dagger, CWA Dagger in the Library and Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year. In addition to the six David Hunter titles, the most recent of which is The Scent of Death, he has written five standalone novels, one of which, Where There’s Smoke, was adapted into a major ITV two-part drama.
Recommended: William Boyd Predicament, Mick Herron Slow Horses, Tom Rob Smith Cold People
Paul Burke is the editor of Crime Time FM podcast, CWA Gold Dagger judge, contributor to Crime Time and editor of Aspects of Crime.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

MALCOLM KEMPT chats to Paul Burke about A GIFT BEFORE DYING, the Arctic, Inuit culture, reading outside your genre and handing out guns to prisoners.
A GIFT BEFORE DYING
AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD, CAN JUSTICE STILL BE FOUND?
After a botched high-profile murder investigation, Sergeant Elderick Cole is exiled to the remote, rugged landscape of Nunavut, a vast territory in the Arctic Circle known for its untamed beauty, frigid temperatures, and endless winter nights.
His bleak existence takes a sinister turn when he discovers the hanging body of Pitseolala, a troubled Inuit girl whom he had sworn to protect. Her death dredges up demons he thought he'd buried along with the scars of a fractured marriage and the aching divide between himself and his estranged daughter.
As Cole's life unravels - and with it, the fragile thread of his investigation - he turns to Pitseolala's younger brother, Maliktu, a fellow outsider. It's then that Cole uncovers what binds them: a singular mission to find her killer.
Against fierce backlash, Cole's overriding desire to redeem just one aspect of his otherwise failed life becomes an obsession - and he's willing to break every rule in his unyielding pursuit of justice and the smallest shred of redemption.
Malcolm Kempt worked as a criminal lawyer in the remote Arctic for seventeen years before leaving to write full time. He now lives on the island of Newfoundland. A Gift Before Dying is his debut novel.
Recommended: Ilaria Tuti Flowers Over the Inferno (also Italian TV series on Walter Presents Channel 4 UK), British Library Classics, True Detective (TV) 
Paul Burke is the editor of Crime Time FM, Aspects of Crime and is a CWA Dagger judge. His first book,a spy film anthology, will be published in September, '26.
Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,