My Life of Crime: The very lovely and multi-talented Noelle Holten, author of Dead Inside and Social Media Manager at Bookouture publishers.

Welcome to Noelle Holten and her life of crime...
Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and was a regular reviewer on the Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast. Noelle worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of cases including those involving serious domestic abuse. She has three Hons BA's - Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice - and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle's hobbies include reading, author-stalking and sharing the booklove via her blog.
Dead Inside is her debut novel with One More Chapter/Harper Collins UK and the start of a new series featuring DC Maggie Jamieson.

My Life of Crime: by Noelle Holten

Two books that influenced me.

My first is going to be a bit of a cheat as it is a series rather than a book that influenced me. Mel Sherratt’s Estate series. I loved the authenticity of that series and how it looks at crime from different agency angles. Having been in the Probation Serivce and working in multi agency teams, I know that it is not just the police that get involved when a crime is committed. They do the investigation but there is input from a lot of other agencies and this is what I wanted to do with my series.

Mel's Amazon Page

Available here

My second choice has to be one of my all time favourite reads: Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoyevski. The whole ‘what if’ and conflict when one questions ethics/ morality theme works in this classic novel and gets the reader thinking. I’ve read this book so many times and find new things in each read.

Two Songs that influenced me.

Wheat Kings by Tragically Hip

One of my all time favourite bands but this song tells the story of a man who has been wrongly convicted and then released after 23 years following DNA evidence. True story. The emotion behind this song is what I want to bring out in my writing and listening to it, brings me into that zone of feeling, of injustice, of seeking justice. It’s a powerful song and I just love it!

Mr Brightside by The Killers

I know this song is about an affair but I love how it makes me feel - free, happy, reminds me of friends, and always puts a smile on my face. When you write about things that are not so nice, you need something that brings you back to your happy place.

Two Films/TV Dramas, documentaries or similar that influenced me.

I rarely watchTV and haven’t been out to see a film in years, but I do binge watch police series, I love The Silence of the Lambs and lots of crime documentaries - like Mindhunter and Making of a Murderer. Although I watched them well after writing Dead Inside, I guess similar documentaries/dramas has influenced me and still do. I know I haven’t chosen two specific shows, but there are just so many out there to name!

Angela's Amazon page

Two People that influenced me.

Angela Marsons - she is just an exceptional individual. Despite years of rejections, she kept going and DI Kim Stone storms the charts now. One of the nicest people you could meet, she was very supportive of my writing and encouraged me every step of the way.

Graham's author page

Graham Smith - a fantastic friend and huge support in terms of his Crime & Publishment writers weekend and the whole C&P gang. Graham was the first reader of Dead Inside and gave me incredible feedback to strengthen the novel. He is always available for his C&P gang to bounce ideas off, offer good advice and motivate us all to get our bum in the seats to write. He works FT and manages to focus on writing while dealing with everything else around him.

Noelle is the author of the DC Maggie Jamieson series. The first of which, Dead Inside, is available here

Here's what its about.

Dead Inside Blurb

Available here

The killer is just getting started…

When three wife beaters are themselves found beaten to death, DC Maggie Jamieson knows she is facing her toughest case yet.

The police suspect that Probation Officer Lucy Sherwood – who is connected to all three victims – is hiding a dark secret. Then a fourth domestic abuser is brutally murdered.

And he is Lucy’s husband.

Now the police are running out of time, but can Maggie really believe her friend Lucy is a cold-blooded killer?