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William Shaw

Goodreads Author


Born
in The United Kingdom
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August 2008


I'm a crime writer and write the Eden Driscoll series set in South Devon, the Alex Cupidi series set in Dungeness, Kent and the Breen & Tozer series set in London in 1968-9.

My most recent book is The Red Shore, the first I the Eden Driscoll series, set in Teignmouth, Devon.

My non-fiction books include Westsiders , an account of several young would-be rappers struggling to establish themselves against a backdrop of poverty and violence in South Central Los Angeles, Superhero For Hire , a compilation and of the Small Ads columns I wrote for the Observer Magazine, and Spying In Guru Land , in which I joined several British religious cults to write about them.

A Song From Dead Lips was the first in a trilogy of books set in London
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William Shaw He's absent for Salt Lane but he returns for the next book - as yet untitled. Cupidi has the challenge of helping him return to the community after be…moreHe's absent for Salt Lane but he returns for the next book - as yet untitled. Cupidi has the challenge of helping him return to the community after being incarcerated for murder. Writing it now. Thanks for the very kind words.(less)
Average rating: 4.09 · 20,444 ratings · 2,485 reviews · 21 distinct worksSimilar authors
The Birdwatcher (DS Alexand...

4.03 avg rating — 4,660 ratings — published 2016 — 20 editions
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Salt Lane (DS Alexandra Cup...

4.01 avg rating — 3,657 ratings — published 2018 — 13 editions
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Deadland (DS Alexandra Cupi...

4.25 avg rating — 2,016 ratings — published 2019 — 7 editions
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Grave's End (DS Alexandra C...

4.27 avg rating — 1,632 ratings — published 2020 — 9 editions
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The Trawlerman (DS Alexandr...

4.26 avg rating — 1,506 ratings — published 2021 — 5 editions
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A Song From Dead Lips (Bree...

3.78 avg rating — 1,619 ratings — published 2013 — 30 editions
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The Red Shore

4.24 avg rating — 1,067 ratings — published 2025 — 4 editions
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The Wild Swimmers (DS Alexa...

4.22 avg rating — 1,017 ratings — published 2024 — 3 editions
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A House of Knives (Breen an...

3.97 avg rating — 1,039 ratings — published 2014 — 20 editions
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A Book of Scars (Breen and ...

4.07 avg rating — 831 ratings — published 2015 — 14 editions
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More books by William Shaw…

The Red Shore, July 3rd

On July 3 2025 I'm launching a new series with a book called The Red Shore: The gripping new Devon-set crime thriller mystery featuring detective Eden Driscoll. It's set in Devon, on a coastline I know very well, and it's really about a man struggling to cope with his responsibilities after he finds himself carer for his nine-year-old nephew. Plus murder, obviously! Read more of this blog post »
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Published on March 20, 2025 01:47 Tags: crime, crimefiction, devon
The Birdwatcher Salt Lane Deadland Grave's End The Trawlerman The Wild Swimmers
(6 books)
by
4.12 avg rating — 14,616 ratings

A Song From Dead Lips A House of Knives A Book of Scars Sympathy for the Devil
(4 books)
by
3.95 avg rating — 4,352 ratings

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The Quickening by Claire McGowan
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The Burning Tide by William  Shaw
"Excellent as ever. Such a relief to read good crime writing again. Shaw is such a brilliant writer. His stories are always convincing but he writes about landscape, people and relationships so well. Hurry up and write another. "
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Quotes by William Shaw  (?)
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“They are usually asking quite ordinary questions, like why am I here, why are some people rich and others poor, what happens when I die, why doesn’t anybody like me, and so on. The real question is, how come they’re coming up with such weird answers?”
William Shaw, Spying in Guru Land: A Journey into the Strange World of Religious Cults

“Later the FBI would talk of ‘bunkers’ built under the compound.”
William Shaw, Spying in Guru Land: A Journey into the Strange World of Religious Cults

“In the Hare Krishna movement, everything Indian acquires a holiness. Many disciples not only adopt the clothes, but adopt a sort of odd body language too. Spurning the plastic spoons offered, they scoop up their prasadam with their fingers, and thank the servers with palms pressed together. Some even acquire twitchy pseudo-Indian neck movements.”
William Shaw, Spying in Guru Land: A Journey into the Strange World of Religious Cults

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“Adams grew up in the sixties, and the Beatles “planted a seed in my head that made it explode. Every nine months there’d be a new album which would be an earth-shattering development from where they were before. We were so obsessed by them that when ‘Penny Lane’ came out and we hadn’t heard it on the radio, we beat up this boy who had heard it until he hummed the tune to us. People now ask if Oasis are as good as the Beatles. I don’t think they are as good as the Rutles.”
Douglas Adams, The Salmon of Doubt

“It was one of those times when the unsatisfactory complexity of the world fades far enough into the distance for the moment to become a thing in itself.”
William Shaw

148434 Devon Book Club — 611 members — last activity Aug 18, 2026 12:49AM
For book lovers of all kinds who live in, work in or just love Devon and want to be part of this community.
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message 3: by Susan

Susan Good luck with the book release today!


William Shaw Has it? News to me! Can I get you a copy then, Susan?


message 1: by Susan

Susan I see a new book has appeared on NetGalley - very exciting!


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