Welcome to the Crampton of the Chronicle Readers’ Group Newsdesk

THE MYSTERY OF THE TWO SUITCASES"We’ve got the evening all to ourselves." My girlfriend Shirley raised her glass of white wine. I hoisted my G&T. We clinked glasses and wished each other a happy Valentine’s Day. "It’s great to have a night off from the Chronicle,"...

WHY I’VE LAUNCHED THE DEADLINE MURDER SERIES There are two main reasons – creative and practical – for launching a new series of Crampton of the Chronicle adventures.   The Tango School Mystery was the ninth Crampton book I’ve written. The book has received...

HOW I GOT THE IDEA FOR THE TANGO SCHOOL MYSTERY I was 18 years old when I sold my first story to a UK national newspaper. I was working as a junior reporter on the Worthing Herald in my "gap year" - although we didn't use the term then - between school and university....

The Tango School Mystery Chapter 1 My Australian girlfriend Shirley looked at her porterhouse steak and said: "That's a real beaut, Colin."    The lump of meat which overlapped Shirl's huge dinner plate was the same shape as South America - broad at the top, narrowing...

The dying days of hanging The trouble with hanging as a punishment is always that it's irreversible when a miscarriage of justice is discovered. In Britain, there is a sad list of real people who paid the ultimate penalty even though they were subsequently found...

Front page murder It always started with the same ritual.   Percy Despart opened the drawer in the small desk by the side of his artist's easel and took out his Swiss penknife. He held it for a moment and enjoyed the solid weight as it rested in his hand.   Then he...

So let's talk about "funny money" Confused about pounds, shillings and pence? Help is at hand… I was sitting in a café with my girlfriend Shirley when she pointed at a bloke wearing some fancy gloves and said: "I bet they cost a few saucepan lids." Shirley's from...

How to be deadly serious about humerous crime fiction When you decide to write humorous crime fiction you have to think of a few more points than those writers who've decided to play it straight.   First, you need to start with a setting which provides plenty of...

How I found Colin Crampton on a dark night The scene is an ill-lit street in Worthing, a coastal town in West Sussex. The time: February 1966. A young reporter is walking back to his newspaper's office after covering the proceedings in the local magistrates' court....

The Morning, Noon & Night trilogy Three books, three murders... ONE MOTIVE! And you can read chapter 1 of the forst book here My Australian girlfriend Shirley took a luscious lick of her ice-cream and said: "Why is that man wearing gloves on the hottest day of the...

SPEAK UP! Journalist and crime author Peter Bartram wants a word about writing dialogue… "Damn! Blast! Hell!"   A frown wrinkled my brow. "Is this an inconvenient time to call?" I asked.   I was visiting an author to ask him for a few tips on handling dialogue.  The...

TOP TEN WOMEN SLEUTHS IN CRIME FICTION And here they are in random order   1. Jane Marple. The grandmother of all female sleuths has to be Jane Marple of St Mary Mead, who first appeared in Agatha Christie's The Murder at the Vicarage as long ago as 1930. On the...

COLIN CRAMPTON AND ME The makings of a cozy crime hero How does an author create the main character in what, in my case, I hope will be a long-running series of cozy crime mysteries?   When I first decided to write a series of crime books, my first thought was to...

THE MYSTERY AT THE ICE-CREAM PARLOUR A Crampton of the Chronicle mystery story When you’re the new reporter in town, it's a lonely place to be.   I remember it well. I'd just joined the Brighton Evening Chronicle from a weekly newspaper as crime correspondent. My news...

The mystery of the biro with no ink My girlfriend Shirley was already into her second glass of white wine by the time I arrived late at the Sussex Grill.   I hustled into the restaurant, hurried over to the table and sat down. I leaned over and kissed Shirley....

The scandalous story of what the butler saw One of the more dubious attractions on Brighton's Palace Pier back in the 1960s - the Swinging Sixties - was the row of What the Butler Saw machines in the amusement arcade. It's the theft of a film from a What the Butler...

10 top movies featuring journalists I've always loved movies which feature journalists as prominent characters. So here is my top 10 pick. But let me know what you think - especially if you feel I've left out a movie that ought to be in the top 10 of this category....

10 swinging sixties crime novels you may enjoy Here is my personal top ten selection of 1960s crime and thriller novels, listed - as judges sometimes say - in no particular order.   1. Victor Canning: Doubled in Diamonds. Canning was a star crime writer in the '60s...

The where and when of Colin Crampton Why Colin Crampton loves Brighton in the Swinging Sixties  Author Peter Bartram explains how he came to choose the town and the time for his mystery novels The most memorable fictional crime-solvers are creatures of their own...

When Colin met Shirley (or was it the other way around?) Shirley's Story: How I Met Colin Crampton   An Australian girl walked into a bar.   I know. It sounds like the start of a joke. Perhaps it is. But it didn’t feel like it at the time.   The Australian girl...

A walk in the country Visiting scenes from Colin's latest adventure Stop Press Murder Welcome to Piddinghoe… How a perfect village became the site for a (not so perfect) murder I was walking down an idyllic country lane. And thinking of murder.   I was in Piddinghoe,...

A trip to Brighton In the footsteps of Colin Crampton I started my trip around Brighton in the footsteps of Colin Crampton in the amusement arcade on Brighton Pier. In 1963, when Stop Press Murder is set, it was called Palace Pier. The book starts when a short film is...