Welcome to the free newsletter of David (D. V.) Bishop, author of the Cesare Aldo historical thrillers set in Renaissance Italy. This time: news, reviews and an anagram contest!
But first, news…
My fifth Cesare Aldo historical thriller Carnival of Lies came out last Thursday (June 26th) in hardback, audiobook and ebook in the UK. This week I got the wonderful news that it has been longlisted for the 2025 McIlvanney Prize, alongside books by Sir Ian Rankin, Denise Mina, Ambrose Parry and nine others.
It’s an honour to see my novel in such company, with numerous award-winners and bestsellers among the chosen 13. This is the third time an Aldo book has made the longlist, something of which I’m very proud. Last year A Divine Fury went on to be a finalist; I’d love Carnival of Lies to emulate that, but this competition is very tough!
This week I’m going to London for the Crime Writers’ Association Dagger Awards. A Divine Fury is shortlisted for two prizes, the Historical Dagger (which The Darkest Sin won in 2023) and the prestigious Gold Dagger. I have zero expectations of winning either prize, but it should be a fun night and a lovely reward for lots of hard work.
In other news, a first draft of next year’s Aldo novel is now complete! Having raced to the end, I cut and polished the final act. This draft is about 91,000 words long, making it the shortest Aldo yet, but there’s work to be done. I want to read the whole thing, especially looking at the character arcs and what aspects need further finessing.
Once that’s done, I can submit the novel to Pan Macmillan. There will be plenty of editorial notes and feedback to come, but it’s a joyous feeling to know I have a complete manuscript. Publication is currently scheduled for June 11th next year, all things being equal, and I might even see a draft design for the front cover soon!
Let’s talk reviews
Moving on to this week’s headline topic: how do authors respond to reviews? First, let’s state the obvious: reviews are for readers, not for writers. They are a way to share thoughts about a novel, whether that reviewer is a paid professional critic or an enthusiastic reader eager to share their experience of a new narrative.
Photo by Clay Banks on Unsplash
Before the internet, most reviews were by professional critics or in reader letters sent to relevant publications. My first novels were Judge Dredd tie-ins, which rarely got noticed. I don’t think I saw one of my books reviewed until Doctor Who Magazine had one for Who Killed Kennedy, my first Doctor Who novel (nearly 30 years – yikes!).
The internet gave almost everyone a platform to review, effectively crowd-sourcing what had once been the preserve of professional critics. At the same time, newspapers and magazines drastically cut the space they devoted to reviews. This has changed the critical landscape, meaning you can almost always find a review for almost any novel.
(An aside: a bestselling author once told me about a professional critic who doesn’t actually read what they review. Instead, they craft a short plot summary followed by a single, anodyne sentence that offers a few generic adjectives about the novel! I’ve no idea whether that’s true, but it certainly shocked me at the time…)
A few websites now dominate via review volume. Netgalley offers readers early access to a novel in exchange for a review, and often gives a fair overall assessment. Amazon has the highest number of reviews among online retailers, while Goodreads tends to be the largest review site by volume, but it also has some significant issues.
Should you look?
When authors are interviewed, some say they never read reviews. They prefer to write the best book they can, fully engaging with feedback from their editor(s) before letting go of that story. Some readers may love the resulting novel, some may hate it, but the book will remain the same regardless of whatever consensus emerges over time.
I wish my willpower was strong enough to resist reading reviews. I do stop looking a week or two after publication, once I have a sense of how readers are responding. It would be better if I didn’t look at all, as a single barbed comment will stay with me far longer than a dozen positive reviews; alas, I only remember the negative ones.
It’s worth remembering a review is one person’s response. Their thoughts and feelings often reveal more about the person than the thing they’re review. A fan of violent thrillers might review a cosy crime badly because it does not do what they want or expect. That doesn’t make the novel bad, it’s just not the right book for them.
Some reviews frustrate as the criticism is about things beyond an author’s control. For example, giving a novel 2 out of 5 because the packaging was bad or delivery late is a problem with the retailer’s service, but the novel takes the hit. Similarly, slamming a book for being the latest in a series rather than the first is not always helpful.
Most critiques of my historical thrillers are very generous. Some aspects of the books vex certain reviewers, such as the use of Italian words, but that isn’t going to change – scusi! Nor am I going to ignore my characters’ sexuality, no matter how strident a few people get about such things. But feel free to hate read my novels, if you want.
Aldo book 6 anagram challenge
Now I have a fun challenge for you. The following phrase – Dams of Hades Snow – is an anagram of the proposed title for Aldo book six. I want to see if you can rearrange the letters in Dams of Hades Snow to find the actual title. Everyone who guesses right gets entered in a draw to have their name in the novel’s Acknowledgements.
But there’s a second opportunity to have your name in the Acknowledgements for Aldo book six. I invite you to devise the funniest anagram from the letters in Dams of Hades Snow. All of those efforts will go into a separate draw for the chance to be mentioned in the Acknowledgements of my sixth Cesare Aldo novel.
How to enter? You can post your anagram on social media platform Bluesky, making sure to include the hashtag #DamsOfHadesSnow. Alternatively, email your entry to this address: damsofhadesshadow@gmail.com. Only entries received before 15 July 2025 will be considered, and only one entry per person per draw is allowed.
Guessing the proposed title seems fairly easy, but I’ve known what that is for months so it is obvious to me. I’m really looking forward to seeing the daft comedy anagrams you suggest for it. I can probably guarantee none of those will make it on the front of the book, but I might feature my favourite entries in a future newsletter. Onwards!
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Sat down last night with Carnival of lies 🥳 and I could smell the Venetian sea air excited to be immersed again in Aldo’s world.