Eerie photographs have inspired a collaborative Murder Squad crime anthology, reports Chris High
The original crime writing collective Murder Squad, comprising crime fiction heavyweights Margaret Murphy, Ann Cleeves, Cath Staincliffe, Chris Simms, Martin Edwards and Kate Ellis, has colluded with six other big names to publish The Starlings & Other Stories (Graffeg): twelve tales inspired by the work of West Wales photographer David Wilson.
‘David’s atmospheric photographs of the Pembrokeshire countryside carry, in his own words, “an eerie sense of foreboding”, and the staff at Graffeg – who had published a couple of anthologies of David’s work – thought they would make ideal images to accompany crime fiction,’ explains Chris Simms, author of the Jon Spicer series. ‘Following a chance meeting with Ann Cleeves, the idea was hatched to pair stories with images, rather than the other way round. It was a challenge everyone in Murder Squad was intrigued by – especially once we saw just how much drama was captured in each image.’