A Kill of Crime Writers?

So what is the collective noun for a group of crime-writers? A Kill of Crime Writers? A Murder of Mystery Writers? A Torture of Thriller Writers?

I had these things going through my head as I got to enjoy a cuppa and Danishes at the home of Christchurch crime writer Paul Cleave. We also had the company of Hubby, Paul's partner, and our Webmaster. As you can imagine, given the company, talk couldn't help but steer towards murder most foul. We also played a fun game of what to do with reviewers who give us crap reviews (please note the distinction here, we weren't referring to reviewers who don't like our books, but still give a balanced and constructive review - we like them, they are quite safe from our scheming, we're talking about the ones who trash the book and make stupid, stupid, hurtful, comments.) Our favourite was torture by a thousand paper cuts, followed by a dip in a tub of salt.

We had a good discussion about Paul's latest novel Blood Men, which I can't wait to read. It was intriguing timing with Paul's novels set in a Christchurch with a seedy underbelly, and a crime capital, and then to see this week's Listener with the front cover head line "Why are so many Christchurch women brutally murdered?" I think Paul taps into that darkness very, very well.

It was a great way to spend a morning, and Paul is good company. He's like me. Sure, we might spend our days imagining up ways to kill people and where to dump the bodies, but underneath it all we're really quite normalish, and despite what you might think, it is safe to dine at our houses without running risk of, er, terminal gastric complaints afterward. We're not like method actors, after all.