When living in the Lake District can be murder

His Cumbrian-set crime novels have inspired everything from a Carlisle coffee blend to tourist trips to the stone circles of his plots. Ahead of the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, as M W Craven's brilliant new series is snapped up by TV, he admits life has been one mostly happy fluke after another...

- Matt Nixson

MIKE CRAVEN wanted to mark the M moment his bestselling books about murder and mayhem in the Lake District had done well enough for him not to need to go back to work in the Probation Service. But rather than cracking open a bottle of Champagne, or looking for a new car, he added to his eclectic collection of tattoos.

Sitting down to discuss his blistering new thriller, Fearless, of which more shortly, he shows me his inked fingers, seven of which bear intricate symbols, each relating to one of his books including one he hasn't even started writing yet.

"I got to a point about 18 months ago, when I thought, 'Even if I don't sell another book, I've made enough money and I'm close to my pension now," he explains.

"Getting finger tattoos was my way of saying, "That's it, I'm a professional writer'. Even if my publisher doesn't want book seven, they're getting it because now I've got the tattoo!" Frankly it seems highly unlikely any publisher would turn him down.

With his shaved head, muscular physique and tattooed arms and hands, the former soldier turned chief probation officer for Cumbria who writes as M W Craven admits he makes an unlikely literary superstar. But he is one, nonetheless.

His award-winning novels featuring one of the unlikeliest pairings in thrillerdom - misanthropic detective Washington Poe and high-functioning civilian crime analyst Tilly Bradshaw have won legions of fans, inspiring everything from a blend of coffee to five-day holiday excursions to his Lake District locations for foreign tourists. The 55-year-old memorably describes his books, now published in 26 countries, as "locked-room mysteries with added sarcasm".