Bitter Blue

I've just read Bitter Blue quickly - because I was scarcely able to put it down. Private Investigator, Sally Kilkenny, is a single mother and many readers will identify with her contemporary struggle to juggle work around childcare.

It's got everything you'd expect from a crime fiction thriller: pace, increasing drama, location (Manchester), tensions within the PI's personal life and carefully placed clues to keep readers just ahead of the PI at strategic points. She also had be chuckling at her ever-so-timely flashes of wit.

As a writer, I'm also interested in the cross-genre skills. Cath Staincliffe's script writing skills are also apparent here especially in her plot structure. Almost ready made for screen adaptation.

Do you agree that writers can benefit by regularly writing in more than one genre because it enables them to sharpen transferable skills?