It’s been very busy of late with myself blogging at Shots Confidential and Ali at The Rap Sheet, so it was decided to kick back with a few beers with one of our favourite thriller writers, Mike Marshall [Smith] at the launch party for his latest left of field work THE INTRUDERS.

It was a held at a secret basement bistro and its dark lighting made it perfect as a setting for Mike Marshall as his work is Noir!

The bar was excellent with an abundance of finger nibbles following throughout the night. Gathered to celebrate with Mike Marshall were the whole HarperCollins crew, editors, publishers all lead by HarperCollins’ energetic Publicity and PR Manager, Fiona McIntosh.

We had a long chat with Michael beforehand and were amused to learn that he has another pen-name for a book he plans to release in 2008 under the name M.M. Smith, so there you go!

Joining him were authors, Paul McAuley, Maxim Jakubowski, Laura Wilson, Kim Newman, Stephen Jones, and Natasha Cooper. It was also good chatting to Malcolm Edwards and Jon Wood of Orion, who was very excited about the new James Lee Burke he had been reading in manuscript, as well as Lucy Ramsey of Quercus, Barry Forshaw of Crime Time, and Paul Blezard of Oneword Radio.

Maxim was happy to talk about the forthcoming Crime Scene Festival being held in the UK this September and the possibility of having Al Pacino as main Guest of Honour. It will also feature a panel entitled, MY EAST END with Martina Cole and Bob Hoskins. The funding for the event has increased being associated again with TCM and also The Times newspaper who will be giving away a free paperback to coincide.

After thanking Michael Marshall and Fiona McIntosh for their hospitality, it was time to retreat to a local Italian restaurant for a meal and catch-up.

More information on Mike Marshall’s THE INTRUDERS :-

http://archive.shotsmag.co.uk/interviews/2007/m_marshall/m_marshall

Enjoy the slide show of the evening