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"Writing is considered a profession, and I don’t think it is a profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer, who thinks he can do something else, ought to do something else. Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don’t think an artist can ever be happy. Because, first, I think that if a man has the urge to be an artist, it is because he needs to find himself. Every writer tries to find himself through his characters, through all his writing.Writing is considered a profession, and I don’t think it is a profession. I think that everyone who does not need to be a writer, who thinks he can do something else, ought to do something else. Writing is not a profession but a vocation of unhappiness. I don’t think an artist can ever be happy. Because, first, I think that if a man has the urge to be an artist, it is because he needs to find himself. Every writer tries to find himself through his characters, through all his writing." More About Georges Simenon Maigret and the Hundred Gibbets, Maigret and The Enigmatic Lett, Maigret at the Crossroads, Maigret and the Apparition (Harvest/HBJ Book), Maigret and the Hotel Magestic, Maigret's Christmas, Nine Stories, Maigret and the Wine Merchant, Maigret and the Killer, Maigret in Vichy, Maigret and the Madwoman, Maigret and the Bum, Maigret Sets a Trap, Maigret and the Wine Merchant, Lock No. 1, Madame Maigret's Own Case, Maigret in New York's Underworld, Inspector Maigret Omnibus I, A Maigret Trio, The Clockmaker, The Blue Room

"I have to say here that I didn’t choose it (detective fiction), it almost chose me. I wrote many novels before my first novel was accepted. I had never submitted one of them to a publisher and the first novel I ever did submit to a publisher was a sort of drawing room comedy, which is a very hard difficult genre for a young writer to try and deal with. This was kept for a long time and then returned to me and I was told that they would accept it if I would completely rewrite it. I wasn’t prepared to do this and they asked if I had done anything else. I had written a detective story just for my own entertainment or fun, and that was my first published novel, which is called From Doon with Death. It was quite successful for a first novel, and I was caught up really because of this success within the genre. Having now established for myself a means of livelihood, I was constrained to work within the detective genre and doing so I found that I preferred to deal with the psychological, emotional aspects of human nature rather than the puzzle, forensics, whatever most seem to come within the ambience of the detective novel." Ruth Rendell - has the following books at our site  Sins of the Fathers (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries, No. 2), The Monster in the Box (Inspector Wexford, Book 22), The Best Man to Die: A Chief Inspector Wexford Mystery The Best Man to Die, A Sleeping Life, Wolf to the Slaughter: An Inspector Wexford Mystery, A Guilty Thing Surprised (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries), Veiled One, Kissing the Gunners Daughter, Simisola, Road Rage, Murder Being Once Done, Some Lie and Some Die (An Inspector Wexford Mystery), Harm Done: An Inspector Wexford Mystery, The Babes in the Wood, Speaker of Mandarin (A New Inspector Wexford Mystery), End in Tears: A Wexford Novel (Chief Inspector Wexford Mysteries), Death Notes (Inspector Wexford), From Doon with Death: The First Inspector Wexford Mystery, An Unkindness of Ravens, Not in the Flesh: A Wexford Novel (Inspector Wexford Book 21), No More Dying Then, The Vault, Shake Hands Forever, No Man's Nightengale, The Face of Trespass, Master of the Moor, 13 Steps Down, About Ruth Rendell

“In Baltimore, I was walking with a friend who was playing at a pub he kept referring to as the Horse. But when I saw the sign 'The Horse You Came In On' - I thought, 'My God.' I had no intention of ever setting a Jury novel in the U.S., but when I saw that, I thought, 'That's it.' The names are very important.” “There are people who read Tolstoy or Dostoevski who do not insist that their endings be happy or pleasant or, at least, not be depressing. But if you're writing mysteries - oh, no, you can't have an ending like that. It must be tidy.” “I do read P.D. James because she pays much more attention to character, to a particular atmosphere or setting. But most mystery writers, I think, are controlled by the plot.”   More and more about Martha Grimes    The Man with a Load of Mischief, The Old Fox Deceiv'D, The Old Contemptibles, Dust: A Richard Jury Mystery, The Horse You Came In On, Rainbow's End, Hotel Paradise, The Case Has Altered (Richard Jury Mysteries), The Stargazey, Vertigo 42: A Richard Jury Mystery (Richard Jury Mysteries Book 23), Help the Poor Struggler, Biting the Moon, The Deer Leap, The Lamorna Wink (A Richard Jury Mystery), The Five Bells and Bladebone, The Blue Last: A Richard Jury Mystery, I am Only the Running Footman, The Grave Maurice, The Old Silent, Foul Matter, The Dirty Duck, The Winds Of Change: A Richard Jury Mystery, Jerusalem Inn, The Old Wine Shades, The Anodyne Necklace, The Black Cat: A Richard Jury Mystery (Richard Jury Mysteries), The Knowledge, The Old Success

“I do read P.D. James because she pays much more attention to character, to a particular atmosphere or setting. But most mystery writers, I think, are controlled by the plot.” “I think that you've got to be prepared to write a load of nonsense to start with and then you can tart it up. The business of getting going, getting started, is enormously important, and this can be physical. Solvitur Ambulando as the Romans used to say, which means the solution comes through walking.” “I always drink at lunchtime. It helps my imagination.” “For me, it's always been the initial business - just getting a word down, any words down, on a blank piece of paper. Once I've done that, I'm away. Beginning is one half of the deed.” “Morse stared morosely at the blotting paper. "It's just not my sort of case, Lewis. I know it's not a very nice thing to say, but I just get on better when we've got a body - a body that died from unnatural causes. That's all I ask. And we haven't got a body”  More about Colin Dexter The Silent World of Nicholas Quinn, The Riddle of the Third Mile, The Secret of Annexe 3: An Inspector Morse Mystery, Last Seen Wearing, The Wench is Dead, The Jewel That Was Ours, The Way Through the Woods (Inspector Morse), Service of All the Dead, The Daughters of Cain, Last Bus to Woodstock, Dead of Jericho (Inspector Morse Mysteries), Death Is Now My Neighbor (Inspector Morse), The Remorseful Day (Inspector Morse Mysteries),  

Russia Stuart M. Kaminsky - has the following books at our site  A Cold Red Sunrise (An Inspector Porfiry Rostnikov Mystery), Red Chameleon, Death of a Russian Priest, Hard Currency, Blood and Rubles, The Dog Who Bit a Policeman (Inspector Rostnikov Mysteries), Murder on the Trans-Siberian Express: A Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov Novel, A Fine Red Rain, Death of a Dissident, Black Knight in Red Square, "Research. I read books, read Pravda, interviewed lots of Russians, went to university professors who were specialists in Soviet Russia, looked at maps and timetables. What do people do when they write historical novels? Research. Basic to all such books is the belief that human nature remains constant, that people change because of their circumstances and location, in addition to their time in history. The trick is to get the background right, create the characters and understand what they are doing in the context of their environment." More About Stuart Kaminsky

“A good book is like a good friend. It will stay with you for the rest of your life. When you first get to know it, it will give you excitement and adventure, and years later it will provide you with comfort and familiarity. And best of all, you can share it with your children or your grandchildren or anyone you love enough to let into its secrets.” “A literary mystery, a damsel in distress, and his rival deposed. If that doesn’t get him here then he’s not much of a knight in shining armor.” The Lost Book of the Grail, The Bookman's Tale, First Impressions,   More About Charlie Lovett