Nicholas Litchfield

Nicholas Litchfield is the founding editor of the literary magazine Lowestoft Chronicle, author of the suspense novels When The Actor Inspired Chaos and Bloodshed and Swampjack Virus, and editor of twelve literary anthologies. His stories, essays, and book reviews appear in many magazines and newspapers, including BULL, Colorado Review, Daily Press, Pennsylvania Literary Journal, Shotgun Honey, The Adroit Journal, The MacGuffin, The Virginian-Pilot, and Washington Square Review. He has also contributed introductions to numerous books, including twenty-two Stark House Press reprints of long-forgotten noir and mystery novels. Formerly a book critic for the Lancashire Post, syndicated to twenty-five newspapers across the U.K., he now writes for Publishers Weekly. You can find him online at nicholaslitchfield.com.

Cover image of Timberline by Matthew P Mayo

Litchfield Reviews Matthew P. Mayo’s Timberline for the Lancashire Post

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Nicholas Litchfield Reviews Matthew P. Mayo’s Timberline for the Lancashire Post: A train journey through northern Oregon turns deadly when thieves blow a safe and set fire to the train, leaving passengers fighting for survival in blizzard conditions. Exciting new western Timberline, the third instalment of Matthew P. Mayo’s action-packed Roamer series, finds his hapless, nomadic protagonist in high danger once more, this time while travelling by railroad to meet his long-time friend and mentor, ‘crusty old mountain man’ Maple Jack.

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Litchfield Reviews Petites Suites by Robert Wexelblatt for the Colorado Review

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“Thought-provoking, entertaining, and eloquent, like so many of his stories in Petites Suites, you can’t help but marvel at Wexelblatt’s ability to move and enchant in just a few concise pages. This inspired and truly original story collection is an exquisite joy, offering the equivalent beauty and charm a fine symphony might accomplish.” Published today in

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Lancashire Post Review of Floyd Mahannah’s ‘The Broken Angel and Backfire and Other Stories’ by Lowestoft Chronicle Editor

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Floyd Mahannah was a talented but overlooked 1950s writer of hardboiled tales. Although his novels received strong critical reviews and he managed to place his shorter work in numerous popular magazines, Mahannah didn’t achieve the success he was striving for and his writing career fizzled out early. This week, Stark House Press publishes a collection

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Lancashire Post Review of Invigorating Passages: A Lowestoft Chronicle Anthology

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Invigorating Passages: A Lowestoft Chronicle Anthology “Invigorating Passages is a rare and dynamic literary collection which grabs readers firmly and sweeps them away to strange and exhilarating places, presenting intriguing situations, colourful characters, and making us yearn to strap on the backpack and go exploring.” —Pam Norfolk, Lancashire Post The latest volume in the Lowestoft

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Litchfield Reviews Flight to Darkness and 77 Rue Paradis by Gil Brewer

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Two more welcome suspense novels from Gil Brewer: “In two turbulent, mesmerizing tales from the 1950s, a Korean War veteran gets involved with a troublesome beauty and finds himself caught up in immense family strife and murder, and a disgraced former aircraft manufacturer is blackmailed into treason. Flight to Darkness and 77 Rue Paradis are two

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Cover image of The Men from the Boys by Ed Lacy

Litchfield Reviews Ed Lacy’s ‘The Men from the Boys’

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Nicholas Litchfield Reviews Ed Lacy’s ‘The Men from the Boys’ for the Lancashire Post: In a hardboiled 1950s tale of robbery, murder, and retribution, a retired cop turned hotel detective uses his sleuthing skills to track down the gangster responsible for assaulting his stepson. The Men from the Boys, first published by Harper in 1956, is a tough and fast-paced crime novel by Ed Lacy, the pseudonym of Edgar Award-winning American novelist Len Zinberg who died in 1968.

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Cover of The Body Looks Familiar and The Late Mrs. Five by Richard Wormser

Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of Richard Wormser’s ‘The Body Looks Familiar’ / ‘The Late Mrs. Five’

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Nicholas Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of Richard Wormser’s ‘The Body Looks Familiar’ and ‘The Late Mrs. Five’: In two thrilling, out-of-the-ordinary crime stories, an assistant district attorney attempts to frame the city’s police chief for the murder of his mistress, and a travelling company vice president finds himself accused of the murder of his ex-wife. The Body Looks Familiar and The Late Mrs. Five are both impressive novels by the late Richard Wormser, a prolific American writer of some 300 short stories, 200 novelettes, and numerous crime and detective novels, movie and TV novelisations, screenplays and Westerns.

Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of Richard Wormser’s ‘The Body Looks Familiar’ / ‘The Late Mrs. Five’ Read More »

Island of Point Nemo by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès

Litchfield Reviews Island of Point Nemo by Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès for Colorado Review

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Colorado Review book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Absurd, thrilling, and wickedly funny, Jean-Marie Blas de Roblès’s rollicking Island of Point Nemo is a wildly inventive novel that crosses continents and oceans and literary styles and genres, attempting to find a narrow path between two entertaining though disparate storylines.

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The Bridge Troll Murders by Sheldon Russell

Litchfield’s Lancashire Post Review of The Bridge Troll Murders by Sheldon Russell

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Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: In the gripping fifth book in Sheldon Russell’s critically acclaimed historical mystery series, one-armed railroad detective Hook Runyon goes undercover as a hobo to hunt down a formidable serial killer who is murdering and mutilating vagrants. Set shortly after the Second World War, The Bridge Troll Murders marks the welcome return of Russell’s tough, book-loving Yard Dog, last seen in the top-notch 2013 novel The Hanging of Samuel Ash.

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Book review: Never Say No to a Killer by Clifton Adams

Litchfield Reviews Never Say No to a Killer by Clifton Adams for the Lancashire Post

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Lancashire Post book review by Nicholas Litchfield: Never Say No to a Killer is a fast, lean, effective tale by a writer who was very proficient at penning marketable men’s adventure fiction. Although not as complex and stimulating as some of his Westerns, Adams’ tough crime novel has sufficient action and plot twists to make for a swift, entertaining read.

Litchfield Reviews Never Say No to a Killer by Clifton Adams for the Lancashire Post Read More »

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