Plus, it’s great to encounter a fellow Coca-Cola disciple! I’ll be keeping an eye out for your book to take on my own travels, later in the year.

Forgive the indulgence, but I also wanted to cross-post a little of the discussion that the review has generated over on Blogcritics, when another reader picked up on a few points I was pleased to have the opportunity to clarify:

“I don’t know that I would say that crime is a failing genre. Old, certainly, but if that were an offense I’d be guilty of it myself. My problem, if you want to frame it that way, is twofold: the ratio of gems to duds is – I think – decidedly unbalanced in favour of the latter, and despite the occasional standout, growing more so year on year. Again, though, in whatever medium and whatever genre you love, there’s inevitably a lake of mediocrity and out-and-out rubbish to wade through before you arrive at something genuinely worthwhile.

“My real issue with crime fiction is that the formula its authors employ time and again seem to me a crutch. I appreciate that the concept of a formula doesn’t in itself necessitate some drastic overhaul, but in my mind it’s long past time for that formula to be challenged rather than simply adapted. I don’t agree that it’s acceptable simply to be substitute the particulars, and so many of the writers who dominate the genre appear content to treat their narratives like an afternoon of Cluedo: crafting the same old stories but this time, stop the presses, Colonel Mustard with the candlestick in the conservatory was framed! I think we may have to agree to disagree that the genre has never been more vibrant. And that’s fine. A formula is only a problem when you’ve tired of it. For me, In The Woods reinvigorated the bullet points I’d grown wary of.

“Mostly, though, I wanted to pick up on the idea that I’ve any kind of problem with genre. When I wrote that ‘to dismiss [In The Woods] as mere genre fiction is to miss the point’, the last thing I meant was to suggest genre fiction should be dismissed – only that, too often, it is, simply for its genre. I’m unapologetic in my love for crime, horror, fantasy and sci-fi – all genres sublimated on the suspicion that they share a selection of themes which are considered, on some level, low-brow, or outright inferior. It honestly angers me that so many critics and readers alike habitually sideline such novels, with no regard for their individual merits.”