Writing Crime? Ask the Experts!
Join bestselling author Sam Blake (@SamBlakeBooks) as she quizzes Graham Bartlett, Kate Bendelow and Dr Emma Donnelly on their roles, the three top mistakes they see in relation to their jobs in fiction, and puts your questions to them!
Graham Bartlett was a UK police officer in Sussex for thirty years, rising to become a police commander. On the way he was a homicide senior investigating officer and led on managing dangerous offenders, sexual offences, domestic violence, child protection and hate crime. He was a qualified strategic firearms and public order commander, leading the policing of many armed operations, large scale protests and sporting events.
Since retiring, he has become a police procedural and crime advisor helping scores of authors and TV writers (including Peter James Mark Billingham Elly Griffiths and Dorothy Koomson) achieve authenticity alongside their drama. He works with authors at all stages of their writing career and adopts an ethos of ‘creativity with credibility.’ Graham runs a series of hugely popular online courses and workshops under the banner of ‘Crime Writing: Making it Real. He is also a best-selling crime writer, with two non-fiction books – Death Comes Knocking and Babes in the Wood – to his name and a crime novel in the pipeline.
Kate Bendelow is a serving Crime Scene Investigator with 18 years of experience. She has worked on thousands of crime scenes including rapes, robberies and murders. Kate can provide you with an insight into what really goes on behind the crime scene tape. A writer and the author of The Real CSI: A Forensic Handbook for Crime Writers, Kate has a novel scheduled for May 2021.
Dr Emma Donnelly lives in Dublin and works as a Chartered Senior Clinical Forensic Psychologist. She has two decades of clinical and academic experience in the field and has worked predominantly with victims and perpetrators of crime. Emma has lectured in colleges and universities in Ireland and England as well as having guest lectured to police students in John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York. Emma has worked in a number of prisons in Ireland and the UK where she has specialised in the assessment of sexual offenders, violent offenders, and killers as well as working with prolific and problematic offenders. Emma is an experienced consultant, working with systems, interagency and multidisciplinary teams, including An Garda Síochána, the Child & Family Agency (Tusla), and the Health Service Executive (HSE) as well as consulting to best-selling authors and writers. Emma is a trained investigator in forensic interviewing. Prior to life as a psychologist, Emma worked in the radio and film industries.