SHOTSMAG CONFIDENTIAL: The Penguin Crime & Thriller Party 2019

Again, we find ourselves at the Michael Joseph / Penguin Crime Party, an important imprint within the PenguinRandomHouse publishing conglomerate, to see what lay in store for the British Crime and Thriller Fiction reader.

The venue was the Crypt in the basement of St Martins-in-the-Field, adjacent to Trafalgar Square, as it had been last year; a far cry from when Publisher Rowland White would perch on a rickety chair in the Union Club in Soho, a venue that Penguin outgrew several years ago, due to the strength of their Crime and Thriller list.

Previous years have been equally eclectic, and we have archived reports from 2018 Here, 2017 Here and 2016 Here

Many writer / critics / journalists assembled, so it was good to compare notes with Chris Simmons, Maxim Jakubowski, Mike Carlson, Ayo Onatade, John Williams, Jon Coates, Richard Reynolds, Marcel Berlins, David Stuart Davies and Mike Ripley among the gathering. There were booksellers also present mingling with Penguin Editorial and Publicity staff, who steered the assembled to what was new and what was hot from their 2019 publishing schedule.

Penguin were in celebratory mode, as Gregg Hurwitz was in town, and with publisher Rowland White they organised some Gin to Toast Greg’s latest in his Orphan X thriller series, Out of the Dark which just hit the UK top ten hardcovers on the first week of release – a highly prescient political thriller, and one gaining significant traction.

Out of the Dark, is a truly engaging thriller, one that Mike Stotter and I read last year, when we joined Gregg for high tea at Betty’s Tea Rooms during Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, in Harrogate.

So, after mingling with the Penguin team and their authors it was time to listen to Joel Richardson take the microphone and formally welcome the guests to the party, which we have recorded below, and is available from THIS LINK