Author Archives: Author Peter May

At the beginning of 2023, A Winter Grave was published. It went to number 3 in the list of UK hardback bestsellers and number 1 in audiobooks!  I keep insisting that I am going to retire from writing books in … Continue reading →

The biggest surprise this year is that I wrote a book. I know that doesn’t seem like big news, but I had refused a new contract from the publishers, in order to take some time out. I wasn’t prepared for … Continue reading →

2021 – a strange year I wrote no new book in 2021. Instead, I took time out to write music and make use of a new studio I created above my garage. Here we are in the studio listening to … Continue reading →

I attended the strangest of award ceremonies last week. From the isolation of my study in my home in France, I was part of a Zoom conference for the UK Crime Writers’ Association’s Dagger Awards. Several hundred people from around … Continue reading →

In a sleepy French village, the body of a man shot through the head is disinterred by the roots of a fallen tree.A week later a famous art critic is viciously murdered in a nearby house.The deaths occurred more than … Continue reading →

After a successful career creating and writing top-rated drama for British television, and with 8 novels published in the UK and USA, I hit a period around fifteen years ago when I could not find a publisher for anything I … Continue reading →

click here to order now from Amazon.co.uk BEHIND THE SCENES A Silent Death will be published in January 2020, and before its publication, I thought I would share some of the research and development that went into the writing of … Continue reading →

Click here to pre-order A Silent Death from Amazon.co.uk My latest book, A Silent Death, a brand new thriller set in the South of Spain near Gibraltar will be coming out in January in the UK and March in the … Continue reading →

Happy New Year! And I’m happy to announce the publication of The Man With No Face.  This book was originally written and published in 1981, it’s a fast-moving political thriller is set in 1979 but is contemporary in its themes, … Continue reading →

I’ll Keep You Safe reached #2 in the UK hardback charts and has just been published in the USA and Canada. The good news is that publication dates are bringing North America closer with the UK, Australia and New Zealand. … Continue reading →

A few months ago I came across a Kickstarter project called Nae Pasaran.  I was intrigued to read that a Chilean documentary-maker working in Scotland had completed filming the story of Rolls Royce workers at East Kilbride, near Glasgow, who … Continue reading →

It is with great sadness that I write, belatedly, in tribute to my friend and adviser on all things scientific, Professor Joe Cummins, who died just over two years ago after a lengthy battle with cancer. I didn’t know of … Continue reading →

Festival Events I will be speaking at festival events this summer across the UK… HARROGATE Crime Writing Festival: Saturday 22nd July 8.30pm (click here for details and tickets) EDINBURGH International Book Festival: Tuesday 15 August (tickets go on sale Tuesday … Continue reading →

Those of you who have read my thriller, “Coffin Road”, will know that some of the action takes place on one of a group of tiny islands twenty miles off the west coast of Lewis and Harris in the Outer … Continue reading →

After almost twenty years of writing a book every year, 2016 was going to be a year where I wasn’t writing a book – a year off. I wrote Cast Iron, the final book in the Enzo Macleod series at … Continue reading →

I’m delighted that Quercus’ new imprint riverrun is bringing my series of six China thrillers back into print. The books were first published between 1999 and 2004 and the background to the books charts the extraordinary changes that took place … Continue reading →

Now that the dust has settled on my three week trip to the Antipodes to promote my latest book, “Coffin Road”, I find myself looking back on my time in Oz with a certain wistful fondness.   I suppose most Brits … Continue reading →

Dates and venues have just been confirmed for my tour of Australia and New Zealand… Perth, Australia Friday 19th February 11.30am – 12.30pm Perth Writers’ Festival Murdoch Theatre CRIMINALLY MINDED Three masters of the crime genre, Peter May, Alan Carter … Continue reading →

It is with great sadness today that I have to record the passing of my friend and mentor Dr. Richard Ward. Dick was one of the most remarkable men I ever met.  After serving as a US Marine, he began … Continue reading →

As I look back on the year, it’s been quite a ride. 57,000 kilometres, 61 hotels, 35 flights, 9 countries and 2 major writing awards. January to June It began with a tour of the UK for the launch of … Continue reading →

I am not often moved to blog about things I read in the tabloid press, but I was incensed by this ignorant, poorly researched piece of trash “journalism” perpetrated by a pompous columnist called Richard Godwin in a rag called the … Continue reading →

I’d like to wish you all a wonderful festive season, and a very happy, healthy and prosperous 2014! My sincere thanks to all of you who have supported my books over the years and who have contributed to the recent … Continue reading →

With my new novel, Entry Island, due out on Kindle tomorrow, I thought I would share the story behind it with my readers. My decision to write Entry Island stemmed from my interest in the Highland Clearances. Like many of … Continue reading →

When I was 18 years old I made my first serious attempt to write a novel.  I had written stories throughout most of my teenage years, including a teenage fantasy about the group I played in called “The Aristokrats”.  The … Continue reading →

During my 2005 US book tour to promote “The Firemaker”, I visited 15 independent mystery bookstores.  This year just 6 of them are still in business. The latest to fall by the wayside is Partners & Crime in New York … Continue reading →

Well, while awaiting the release of The Chess Men, the final book in The Lewis Trilogy – in September in France and next January in the UK, I was keeping my head down and getting to work on a new … Continue reading →

It’s been a helluva year! Most of you who follow my blogs will know something of the publication history of “The Blackhouse” – how it was rejected by all the major publishing houses in the UK before being snapped up … Continue reading →

I leave tomorrow morning on a seven-day trip to the north-west of France, which may determine the future of my career. My book “The Blackhouse”, published in French as “L’île des chasseurs d’oiseaux” (The Island of the Bird Hunters), has … Continue reading →

I make my living by licensing publishers to print and make available to the public my coyrighted material.  In return, I get a percentage of the retail price of the book – eight or ten percent.  It’s called a royalty … Continue reading →

I thought it might be interesting to publish a selection of excerpts from the emails that have come flooding into my website since the publication of “The Blackhouse”.  So here goes… My partner has just read The Blackhouse – she … Continue reading →

Life for a writer living in France is very different from the UK or the US. Here, every small, medium and large town has its own annual book festival.  Writers from all over the country are invited to come and … Continue reading →

How often is it that everything in life comes full circle? Just three weeks ago, I returned for the first time to the city which was home to my first serious love.  Her name was Maria Nurita, and I was … Continue reading →

Most writers will be able to look back over their lives and remember the moment when they realised that writing was what they wanted to do. That moment for me came, perhaps, earlier than most. I wrote my first book … Continue reading →

I have to confess to a certain nervous anticipation about the forthcoming publication of my book, “The Blackhouse”. This is the first of my books in several years to get a proper launch.  While seven of them have been published … Continue reading →

The world of writing and publishing is full of horror stories about books turned down by major publishers which then went on to become bestsellers – J. K. Rowling and the first of the Harry Potter books being one of … Continue reading →

I live in a country where streets and squares are named after famous writers, inventors, soldiers and politicians.  But I think I have found a new slant on this – and one which has a very personal connection to me … Continue reading →

Ce n’est pas le blog que je projetais d’écrire. Mais j’ai besoin de partager cette histoire – pour en atténuer la tristesse. Je n’avais que quatre ans quand je suis entré à l’école. C’était en 1956. Je me souviens parfaitement … Continue reading →

This isn’t the blog I planned to write.  But it’s a story I need to share, a kind of spreading of the pain. I was just four years old when I started school in 1956.  I remember that first day … Continue reading →