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Malcolm Richards

Goodreads Author

Born

in Cornwall, The United Kingdom

Website

https://www.malcolmrichardsauthor.com

Genre

Crime, Thriller, Mystery

Member Since

March 2012

URL

https://www.goodreads.com/malcolmrichardsauthor

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Malcolm Richards crafts stories to keep you guessing from the edge of your seat. He is the author of several crime thrillers and mystery novels, including the PI Blake Hollow series, the award-nominated Devil’s Cove trilogy, and the Emily Swanson series. Many of his books are set in Cornwall, where he was born and raised.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Malcolm worked for many years in the special education sector, teaching and supporting children with complex needs. After living in London for two decades, he has now settled in the Somerset countryside with his partner and a cat named Sukey.

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Popular Answered Questions

Where did you get the idea for your most recent book?

Malcolm Richards The ideas behind The Hiding House came from a few different places. The setting is very much from my childhood. I grew up in Cornwall and spent almost…moreThe ideas behind The Hiding House came from a few different places. The setting is very much from my childhood. I grew up in Cornwall and spent almost every weekend at my grandmother's farm, which was pretty much in the middle of nowhere. She lived quite an isolated life in that respect, and I think there's a lot of that in the book.

I'd also been teaching children with complex emotional and behavioural needs at the time, and some of the experiences that they'd lived through were just shocking. They were tough these kids, they'd learned to cope with terrible circumstances. I have the utmost respect for them. I wanted to put that resilience in the book - kids are much more resourceful than we give them credit for.

Finally, I'd grown up with an obsession with Grimms fairy tales. I love the darkness to them - the original versions are essentially horror stories for kids! It seemed fitting, giving the settng of the story, a bit of a fairy tale twist - which is why you'll find several analogies and references in The Hiding House.(less)

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How do you deal with writer’s block?

Malcolm Richards Writer's block can be a real nightmare for me, but I've learned a few tools to combat it.

1. Get up and move away from your laptop. There's no point g…moreWriter's block can be a real nightmare for me, but I've learned a few tools to combat it.

1. Get up and move away from your laptop. There's no point getting angry with yourself while staring at a blank page.

2. Go do the laundry, clean the house, go for a walk - I find monotonous, repetitive actions help to free up my brain.

3. I learned this trick from someone else - if you find you're procrastinating when you should be writing, get up and go stand in a corner of the room until you're geared up to write again. It may sound like I'm sending you to the naughty corner, but it's a good trick to take your mind off Buzzfeed and refocus it on your writing.

4. Even if you think that what you're writing sucks, remind yourself that you can always redraft it later. I've got stuck on this so many times, freezing up on a first draft because I'm spending too much time focusing on how well I'm writing, instead of just writing. For me, the first draft is about getting words onto a page, getting the story out. The second draft is where you make sense of the story, and the third is where you can go to town on making your prose shine.

5. Write every day. Even if it's for five minutes. Even if you write just a paragraph. A sentence. A word. As long as you show up and write something - even if you think it's crap (see number 4), you'll find yourself chipping away at that block little by little.(less)

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Combine Editions
Malcolm Richards’s books

Average rating: 4.05 · 9,416 ratings · 657 reviews · 36 distinct works • Similar authors

	Next to Disappear (Emily Swanson Thrillers #1) 3.94 avg rating — 5,424 ratings — published 2015 — 20 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Cove (The Devil's Cove Trilogy, #1) by Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author) 4.15 avg rating — 1,876 ratings — published 2017 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Desperation Point (The Devil's Cove Trilogy, #2) 4.37 avg rating — 450 ratings — published 2018 — 6 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Devil's Gate (The Devil's Cove Trilogy, #3) 4.32 avg rating — 313 ratings — published 2019 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Mind For Murder (The Emily Swanson Series, #2) 4.22 avg rating — 287 ratings — published 2016 — 16 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Bad Blood (Emily Swanson #0) 3.90 avg rating — 173 ratings — published 2017 — 11 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Hiding House 3.85 avg rating — 175 ratings — published 2011 — 7 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Trail of Poison (The Emily Swanson Series, #3) 4.41 avg rating — 142 ratings — published 2016 — 17 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Circle Of Bones (PI Blake Hollow, #1) 4.31 avg rating — 133 ratings — published 2021 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Watch You Sleep (The Emily Swanson Series, #4) 4.52 avg rating — 92 ratings — published 2019 — 10 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Malcolm Richards…

Series by Malcolm Richards

Emily Swanson Thrillers (5 books)
by

Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author)

3.98 avg rating — 6,216 ratings

The Devil's Cove Trilogy (3 books)
by

Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author)

4.21 avg rating — 2,682 ratings

P.I. Blake Hollow (4 books)
by

Malcolm Richards (Goodreads Author)

4.42 avg rating — 213 ratings

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Malcolm’s Recent Updates

Malcolm Richards made a comment in the group Goodreads Librarians Group — Add Books to Series topic " Hi, could someone please add the books Down in the Blood (book 2), The Dark Below (book 3), and The Devil's Hand (book 4) to my PI Blake Hollow series ...more "
Nov 25, 2024 05:19AM
Malcolm Richards is now friends with Shannon Johnson
Nov 25, 2024 04:48AM · like

More of Malcolm's books…

Quotes by Malcolm Richards (?)

“hiding”
― Malcolm Richards, Next to Disappear

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“scream,”
― Malcolm Richards, Next to Disappear

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“Someone’s there. They’re watching you. They know what you’ve been doing.”
― Malcolm Richards, Next to Disappear

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Topics Mentioning This Author

topics	posts	views	last activity
Goodreads Malaysia: 100 Lagi Tahun Ini, Haira Amri	17	72	Jan 02, 2022 07:06AM
Cozy Mysteries : Mystery ABCs game, Round 7	5181	411	Feb 24, 2022 08:47AM

Malcolm’s Quotes

“See, if you hate, you don’t just hate one group. If you hate Jews, you probably also hate blacks, Gypsies, whomever. The problem is you, not them. You’re the one with the hate.”
― Anatol Chari, From Ghetto to Death Camp: A Memoir Of Privilege and Luck

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“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
― Maya Angelou

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