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Crime accounts for some 70% of fiction sales, so it’s a subject worthy of investigation. Phil Rickman talks to seasoned crime novelist Mark Billingham about his latest novel, Die of Shame – a locked-room mystery with a cast of recovering addicts. 

Whodunnits of a very different kind with some re-issues of some of the late Robert Barnard’s witty and urbane novels. With some attractive travel poster covers, will they attract a new generation of readers to these intelligent, and amusing classics?

Arthur Cole and Nigel Williams are former policemen who have teamed up to write a new series of gritty novels  that sound authentically Welsh, and reflect authentic police practice. Phil Rickman reviews the first of the series, Unethical Conduct, which is concerned with a corrupt police officer. The novel is self-published for charity, but could this pacey and darkly amusing story make it to the mainstream?

Don’t forget if you have written a novel and would  like a professional opinion, why not send us the first 25 pages plus a synopsis?  Send them to shelfstarters@bbc.co.uk .