Reviews: My Most Convincing & Most Confusing – Penny Grubb

Author, Penny Grubb, reacts to her most convincing and most confusing reviews.

In a conversation at a book event, a reader asked this:

“When did you live on Orchard Park?”
When Penny said she had never lived there, the reader was insistent:
“You must have, or very nearby. You couldn’t have got to know it, else.”

The reader was referring to Falling into Crime, a collection of the first three novels in Penny’s Annie Raymond, Private Investigator series, which features Orchard Park as a key location.

Buy Falling into Crime

Penny’s reaction?

“I had never lived on Orchard Park, which is an estate in Hull. In fact, I’ve never lived in Hull, although I worked there for many years. I let the reader assume that I’d lived nearby because I was delighted with this feedback. I did a lot of research to get the vibe right. Orchard Park was a key setting for some of the action in the early Annie books.

“It’s a complex area of Hull. To those who don’t know it well, it has a bad reputation. To those who live there, although they don’t deny its negative aspects, it has another face. As one of the characters in the book points out to Annie, you will find areas of Orchard Park where parents are happy to let their children play outside, secure in the knowledge that neighbours will keep an eye on them; something hard to find in more affluent areas.”

On the other end of the reviewing spectrum, Penny encountered her first 1-star Amazon review with Buried Deep, the fifth book in the Annie Raymond series. The review read:

“Really good story but the package was all torn when it arrived.”

Buy Buried Deep

This wasn’t the literary critique one might expect, but Penny took it in her stride:

“This was my first 1-star review. They hadn’t bought the book from me. I had no hand in packaging it. These things happen. I’m pleased they enjoyed reading it. I enjoyed writing it. The review was later taken down. I don’t know why. I didn’t object to it. People sometimes go to the 1-star reviews to see the worst of something before they make up their minds. As a 1-star review, I was happy with it.”

The Annie Raymond PI series currently includes seven novels, plus one “detour” novel following detectives introduced in Buried Deep. The most recent release was Boxed In, and a new instalment is in the works.

Read the opening chapters from Penny Grubb’s books.

Read more about Penny Grubb HERE. 

Extracts From The Writing Of Penny Grubb

Author Penny Grubb worked as an academic in science, engineering and healthcare but has now retired to a life of crime. She is the author of a private investigator series currently comprising eight books. She has also written a standalone crime novel, Death by Column Inches and two children’s fantasy novels, Horse of a Different Colour and Horse of the Same Colour. 

Below are some short extracts from the novels. 

Like False Money – book 1 (included in the trilogy Falling Into Crime)

The series opens with Annie Raymond, in desperate financial straits, arriving in Hull to take a temporary job with a private investigator. ‘I unexpectedly found the perfect setting for mystery stories when I placed this book in Holderness and on the banks of the Humber,' Penny says. ‘The landscape comes to play a key role in this and several later books.’ 

The opening scene from Like False Money

The film he shot the day before yesterday plays through Terry’s head. A dull, malodorous corridor thick with stale dust. A locked door. That awful close-up. Bile rushes the back of his throat. In the dark and the panic, he must have caught the zoom control. His clenched fists drive fingernails into palms. When he gets back he’ll edit that bit out.

Forget what it shows. Remember only that it’s worth big bucks. Terry peers through the windows of the killer’s house, but it still lies empty. He isn’t in control, can’t threaten someone he can’t find.

Read the full chapter on THIS LINK.

* * *

The Jawbone Gang – book 2 (included in the trilogy Falling Into Crime)

Annie Raymond has stayed in Hull but is getting seriously itchy feet. The book opens on a scene between two shady characters who will later ask Annie to work for them. Penny says, ‘This story explores the role of a PI in the aftermath of a criminal case when the official work is over but not everyone is satisfied that enough has been done. Later books in the series delve deeper into the sometimes blurred line between private and official investigation.’

The opening scene from The Jawbone Gang

Night-time mist lay over the vegetation at the sides of the lane, blurring the contours where the fields melted into darkness.

Peering into a murky landscape that had largely swallowed the light, the woman punctuated the silence with urgent whispers.  ‘There, Ronnie. What did I tell you?  Just look.  It’s her ... No, it’s him ... Is that a wheelbarrow...? What are they doing, Ron...? Can you see...?  Oh God! Keep down. They’re coming this way.’

Read the full scene on THIS LINK. 

* * *

The Doll Makers – book 3 – Winner of a CWA Crime Fiction Dagger (included in the trilogy Falling Into Crime)

In this novel, Annie, who left Hull for a prestigious job in London, is in big trouble. ‘I love this book for winning its Dagger and opening doors for me,’ Penny says, ‘but I also loved exploring Scotland in its pages, and hope to return sometime in another book.’

The opening scene from The Doll Makers 

The words changed on the long drive north. Annie’s determination did not.

In the Ladies at Leicester Forest East, where she stopped to top up – coffee for her, water for the car – she pulled a comb through her hair and practiced what she would say. Dad. I have bad news. It was the antithesis of the old coming-home fantasy, where her short-cropped hair would be a little longer, her five feet two inches would be clad in a smart business suit, and she’d smile as her father said, ‘I always knew you had it in you, Annie’. She’d failed his every expectation since she was eight years old, and now at twenty-eight she was about to turn his life upside down.

Read the full chapter on THIS LINK.

The first three books are available as a trilogy, Falling Into Crime. 

* * *

Where There’s Smoke – book 4

In Where There's Smoke, Annie unexpectedly comes face to face with an adversary from her early career. ‘Feedback from a reader about Like False Money put this idea in my head,’ Penny says, ‘but at the time I didn’t know how to write it. By book 4, I’d figured it out.’

The opening scene from Where There’s Smoke

Waves slapped against the low sides of the boat, saltwater splashing in the darkness, pinpricks on Vitoria’s skin. The night air cut across her, emphasizing her sense of isolation, but she felt no fear, just an exhilaration she held tight to herself. Too soon to celebrate.

Read the full chapter on THIS LINK.

* * *

Buried Deep – book 5

For the first time, one of Annie’s cases lands in the middle of an official police investigation. ‘It was fascinating to weave the reality of a police investigation into the PI’s world,’ Penny says. ‘It led to big trouble for everyone.’

The opening scenes from Buried Deep

Billy inched the tractor forward feeling a flutter in his chest as the giant offside wheel sank in the soft earth. Then it climbed, righting itself, and he blew out a tiny sigh. Razor-sharp judgement kept these beasts standing tall, and this close to the edge the minutest of errors would spell catastrophe.

Read the first two chapters on THIS LINK.

* * *

Tiger Blood – book 6 

Uniquely in the series, in Tiger Blood, Annie and her colleagues are minor characters. The action moves to York and focuses on the police team first introduced in Buried Deep. ‘I enjoyed the challenge of writing about a police investigation in Buried Deep and took things a step further in this one, making the police action the main event,’ Penny notes, but goes on to add, ‘After this, I returned to the world of private investigation.’

Read the start of Tiger Blood HERE, or get the book HERE. 

* * *

Syrup Trap City – book 7 

Annie returns both to a lead role and to Hull just as the city is preparing for its 2017 City of Culture year. ‘The most problematic part of this book to write,’ Penny says, ‘concerned Blade, a City of Culture art installation. I wrote about these problems in a postscript to the book.’

Read the first chapter on THIS LINK.   

* * *

Boxed In – book 8 

A character who hasn’t been seen in a lead role since The Doll Makers makes a comeback in this book, bringing a major push for change, but there are choppy waters to navigate along the way. Talking about the book’s setting, Penny notes, ‘It’s a difficult task to hide, lose, or steal a giant shipping container, especially in a country like England, but although the crimes are fictional, the things that happen to the shipping containers in this book are all based on fact.’

Read the first chapter on THIS LINK. 

* * *

Death By Column Inches

If you are a fan of something different in the crime genre, check out Death By Column Inches. This is an adult crime novel which follows the fortunes of a group of 11 year olds, in the early 1990s, who study a murder trial as part of a school project.

The book’s opening scenes can be read HERE. 

* * *

Pre-teen Fantasy Series

Penny, writing as Melodie Trudeaux, has also written two books of a pre-teen fantasy series. When asked if there are more to come, she says, ‘I was going to tell you that when I wrote the words “The End” on the second book, I felt that the adventure was done and had nowhere else to go. However, your question reminds me that I felt exactly the same after I finished the first book. It was about a year later that the sequel came to me, so I guess the real answer is that I don’t know.’

The opening chapters are available to read on these links:

• Horse of a Different Colour 
• Horse of the Same Colour   

Learn more about Penny and her writing HERE. 

Hornsea Writers At The Massive Autumn Book Launch Event: Penny Grubb

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Hornsea writer, Penny Grubb, launched her new novel, Death By Column Inches,  at Fantastic Books Publishing’s Massive Autumn Book Launch Event (MABLE).

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have noticed a pseudonym. Penny says, “This book was first conceived before any of my private investigator series had seen the light of day. It’s very different and I was advised not to use the same name.”

The story of the book and its long journey from initial idea to launch is outlined in its launch video.

Penny Grubb – a multi-layered career but always a writer

Author Penny Grubb says the only consistent part of her varied career has been as a writer; when it wasn’t part of her job, it was something she pursued in her own time.

‘I wrote my first novel when I was four,’ she says. ‘It was written in pencil in a small lined notebook. I didn’t need the whole notebook as it barely ran to half a page, but it felt more like a proper book that way. I can remember three things about it; it starred a cat on a mat, I asked for help to spell its only two-syllable word, and it gave me a tremendous sense of achievement. I think that was the moment I decided to be a novelist.’

Almost half a century would elapse from then to Penny’s first published novel, although she published non-fiction as part of her various day jobs. The first three books in her Annie Raymond mystery series have recently been rereleased as a trilogy, Falling into Crime, one of them having won an international CWA Dagger in 2004.

Penny’s career laid the foundation for her becoming a crime novelist. She worked in hospital pathology labs, an early job giving her access to renowned Home Office pathologist Dr Alan Usher who regularly entertained and educated the medical school staff with lectures about his work. ‘I learnt a lot about sudden and suspicious death. It was information I used when I began my PI series.’

Even after she moved on from Pathology, Penny’s brushes with the world of serious crime continued. In a career switch, and after graduating with a degree in Maths and Computer Science, she spent some time working as a software engineer helping to build a system, the forensic analysis of which later contributed to the conviction by the UK’s most prolific serial killer. She talks about this in an article published in Kings River Life magazine.

Penny later moved into medical computing, founding one of Europe’s first Medical Informatics research groups. ‘It was a very busy decade,’ she recalls. ‘But all the travelling around Europe gave me a wealth of settings for stories and novels. I wrote a lot during that time; including many draft novels that weren’t very good and never saw the light of day.’ The publications that came out under Penny’s name were technical reports, academic papers and textbooks.

When the research field took a different turn, Penny changed career again, and was seconded from her academic post to become Chair of the Authors’Licensing and Collecting Society, the largest authors’ society in the world. During this time, she wrote several of the books in her crime series.

Where There’s Smoke

 

 

Penny teamed up with fellow crime novelist, Danuta Reah, to run creative writing workshops. Together they wrote How to be a Fantastic Writer.

 

In 2013, Penny stepped down from the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society and returned to academia, specialising in nurturing fragile learners to go on into Higher Education.

 

After leaving academia, Penny continued her Annie Raymond mystery series, her 8th book coming out a year into her retirement. She says she expects to be writing Annie books ‘until Annie is too old and decrepit to climb the office stairs or until I get fed up and push her off a cliff.’

 

So you want to write a crime novel: Part 1 - Considerations.

 It's 2021 and thank heavens we have left 2020 behind. I will begin by wishing you all a healthy, happy and safe New Year.

New Year - it's the "new" bit that had me thinking. We all make new decisions at the beginning of a new year. And, at the beginning of this one, I have decided to write a series of posts on the different aspects of crime writing.

J is for January. It is also for "Jumping-off Point", so this series begins with an overview of what constitutes a crime novel, what differentiates each type and what they have in common. Crime is a specific genre, but within it there is a lot of room for manoeuvre. What is different when you write a crime novel? What must you take into account? 

Over the next 12 months, I will cover research, characters, settings, seeding clues and red herrings, suspense and conflict, different ways to write the book, pulling a scene together and cliffhangers. 

What do you do if your character suddenly goes off on a tangent? (Mine always do). I will also include a post of how to focus if you are feeling lost and how you can get back on track.

I'm game if you are. You can read my first post HERE:

You can read more about April Taylor here:

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The slash and burn stage of editing

I’ve written enough over the years that even when a novel is just an embryo idea, I know how long the finished book will be.

My idea for Boxed In, due out later in the year, was always a book of under 100,000 words, so when the first draft came in at 140,000, the serious editing hat had to come out.

The editing journey was a slash-and-burn fest – CLICK HERE for some more detail on nuances, twists and the ghost of a children’s book.

The end result of the initial charge through all 140k words, wielding the newly sharpened editing pen, was an uncannily accurate match to my original prediction – a book of exactly 99,999 words.

Boxed In is the latest book in Penny Grubb's Annie Raymond series, following on from Falling into Crime, Where There’s Smoke, Buried Deep and Syrup Trap City.