Oxford is often seen as a place of beauty, learning, and tradition. In crime fiction, that reputation can be misleading—not because it’s untrue, but because it’s incomplete. And that, for me, is exactly why the city is so compelling to write about. In that sense, the DI Joseph Stone novels sit firmly within the tradition of Oxford crime fiction, where place quietly shapes motive, behaviour, and consequence rather than dominating the story. In the DI Joseph Stone novels, Oxfor

I write British crime fiction that is grounded, character-led, and psychologically driven. The stories I’m drawn to are not built around spectacle or shock for its own sake. They are about people—how they think, what they conceal, and how pressure reveals character over time. Crime matters in these novels because of its human consequences, not because of its capacity to surprise. The DI Joseph Stone series sits firmly within the tradition of modern British police procedurals