It's not all fiction...

Hello readers, old and new, and welcome to my author blog!

I'm Clare Blanchard, author of crime fiction books, and short stories on various themes.

I believe that the best crime fiction, like all the best drama in any genre, is character driven. The plot should be driven by the characters, not the other way round!

When it gets down to it, I have to admit that I value the quality of the writing over the genre as such.

I'm also an urban fantasy author.

The common thread in my work is a love of mystery - crime mysteries, fantasy mysteries and a strong element of the historical.

I love Nordic noir, sometimes called Scandi-noir. I'm especially fascinated by the way that the sense of time and place in a novel becomes almost another character in the plot. This is superbly the case in the brilliant Icelandic murder series, Trapped, where severe weather and the incredible landscape are real forces in the unfolding investigation.

This is what I've tried to do with my first crime novel, The Tainted Vintage, and with my two other published full-length novels, The Ring and Game of Genes.

In this blog, I'll be writing about the locations of my plots (hint: Prague and the wine-growing region near the Austrian border).

I'll also be writing about fiction, why it's important, the writing process, and what inspires me to write.

​Great to have you here!

​Kyjov Muzeum