In The St Hilda's Spotlight - The Reverend Richard Coles

 Name:- Reverend Richard Coles

Job:- Author/Retired cleric/Broadcaster

Website:- Reverend Richard Coles | Official Website

Facebook: ReverendRichardColes

X: @RevRichardColes

Introduction

Reverend Richard Coles up until 2022 was a Church of England priest. Prior to this he was the instrumentalist half of the pop band The Communards. His first book in the Canon Clement series Murder Before Evensong was published in 2022 and was shortlisted for the 2023 British Book Awards Crime & Thriller Book of the Year. His most recent book is Murder at the Monastery.   He is also the co-host of the podcast The Rabbit Hole Detectives.

Current book (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

Hillbilly Elegy by J D Vance

Favourite book:

The Leopard by Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa.

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Josef Haydn and Nana Mouskouri. I think they’d get on and they had/have impeccable manners.

How do you relax?

Watching niche stuff on YouTube

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

Middlemarch by George Eliot.  Life in all its loveliness and awfulness and quite a lot in between.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Write every day. Doesn’t matter if it comes easily or stickily. Just write.

How would you describe your latest published book?

The winner of the 2025 Nobel Prize in Literature.

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

The Smiths (The Smiths)

Last Leaf (The Danish String Quartet)

The Ring of the Nibelungen (Wagner)

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?

I would have loved to have played in the Burt Bacharach Orchestra. The maestro.

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why?

Chaka Khan, NY 1987. Best I’ve ever heard, I think.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Gossip and drinking with other writers.

Murder at the Monastery by The Reverend Richard Coles (Orion Publishing)

Daniel Clement has suffered a secret humiliation and to recover, takes respite at the monastery where he was a novice. But the monastery doesn't allow Daniel a break, for there are tensions building there too, as the secret past of novice master Father Paul is emerging. Tension mounts and a murder ensues. Meanwhile back at Champton, Daniel is the subject of village gossip, his mother Audrey is up to something again, there's trouble at the dress shop, up at the big house, and the puppies are running riot. Can Daniel be reconciled with detective Neil and solve the mystery?

A Christmas Novella Murder Under The Mistletoe will be published in October.

Murder Under The Mistletoe by The Reverend Richard Coles (Orion Publishing) October 2024

It is Christmas Day and at Champton Rectory, Canon Daniel Clement and his mother Audrey are joined by the residents and guests of the big house to drink, eat and be merry. At the festive feast, peace and goodwill prevail. Until two meet under the mistletoe. One of them falls down dead. And Daniel suspects murder has returned to Champton... Can Daniel and Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo solve the crime and catch the Christmas killer?

Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. #HCFW24

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Harriet Evans

 Name: Harriet F Townson (Harriet Evans)

Job: Author

Website:- https://www.harriet-evans.com

Facebook: harrietevansbooks

X: @HarrietEvans

Instagram: @harrietevansauthor

Introduction

Harriet Evans is a former publisher and the author of 14 books. Her first book Going Home was published in 2005. She has since gone on to write a number of Richard and Judy book club selection picks and won the Good Housekeeping Book of the Year. Her debut crime novel D is for Death was published in June 2024.

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

A Pocket Full of Rye, by Agatha Christie. I have always had a terrible memory which is great for rereading crime. I never have any idea whodunnit. 

Favourite book: 

Gaudy Night by Dorothy L Sayers. It is everything a book should be. Strong female lead, past and present colliding, detection, romance, academic women, and a glorious setting. I reread it every other year and it always gives me something new. 

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Mozart, to see what genius is like, and Barbra Streisand. I have just read her autobiography and I’m obsessed with her. 

How do you relax?

I am never relaxed. I wish I was. I do however spend a lot of time writing in bed though which is obviously more relaxing than lots of jobs. 

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

Gaudy Night – see above. The Cazalet Chronicles, by Elizabeth Jane Howard, about a family before and after WW2. And A Murder is Announced, which is to my mind joint first best of Agatha Christie’s novels. (The other is Death on the Nile). 

How would you describe your latest published book?

 D is for Death is my first crime novel. It is set in 1935, and introduces the detective Dora Wildwood, who is escaping a terrible fiancé and runs away from her tiny Somerset village, jumping on a train to Paddington and arriving at dawn. From there she ends up in the London Library, and almost immediately discovers a dead body. It’s about her attempts to solve the murder and to work out what she is going to do next. I would describe it as Cold Comfort Farm meets Fleabag meets Miss Marple. 

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are your three favourite albums?

The Marriage of Figaro (1982 Decca recording Solti te Kanawa & Allen)

Fleetwood Mac - Rumours

Ella Fitzgerald sings the Gershwin Songbook 

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why? 

ABBA, because to sing that music all day every day would be incredible. You’d never get tired of it. Plus, it would be your job to sing Voulez-Vous. What a job. 

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why?

Not a concert but an opera: Tosca at the ROH in 2011 conducted by Pappano with Angela Gheorghiu, Bryn Terfel and Jonas Kauffman. It was honestly one of the most full throttle beautiful experiences of my life. 

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Atmosphere and inspiration. I’m so thrilled to be asked and I can’t wait to be there and immerse myself in the whole experience, everything from the location itself to the different speakers and the ideas and content to be discussed. Writing is such a strange job to have, to be able to listen and absorb other writers’ thoughts and processes is a huge privilege. I am so looking forward to it. 

D is for Death by Harriet F. Townson (Harriet Evans) Hodder and Stoughton

Meet Dora Wildwood: runaway bride, book lover, and aspiring detective. Likes: solving crimes, peppermint creams, trousers and her own independence. Dislikes: cracked book spines, tyrannical behaviour, beetroot. 1935. Dora's on the first train to London, having smuggled herself out of the house in the middle of the night to escape her impending marriage. But unluckily for her, Dora's fiance is more persistent than most and follows. As Dora alights at Paddington station, she is immediately forced to run from the loathsome Charles Silk-Butters. She ducks into the London Library to hide and it is there, surrounded by books, where she should feel most safe, that Dora Wildwood stumbles across her first dead body. Having been thrown into the middle of a murder scene, it's now impossible to walk away. Indeed, Dora's certain she will prove an invaluable help to the gruff Detective Inspector Fox who swiftly arrives on the scene. For as everyone knows, it's the woman in the room who always sees more than anyone else: and no one more so than Dora herself..

More information about St Hilda's and booking can be found here.

Bringing Shrouded to life by Sólveig Pálsdóttir,

I’ll admit that I don’t push myself hard to start something new and normally take a break between books. I like to see a book find its feet before starting the next one. I’m convinced that the imagination needs nourishment so it can work, and I need to take a deep breath of what society is doing around me – because I have to have something to say and I’m not interested in repeating myself. Otherwise I don’t see the point in writing.

Shrouded, which was originally published in Iceland as Miðillinn in 2023, is the seventh in the series featuring Guðgeir, and when I sat down to write, I wasn’t even sure that this was going to be a crime story. I had a mental image of an elderly lady sitting at her kitchen table, reading a newspaper ad asking for geniuses, as she mutters to herself, polishes her glasses and sips her milky coffee.

To me this woman seemed to be a loner with an intriguing back story. I knew she lived in a house with red steel cladding in the old town in the western part of Reykjavík, that she had a disabled daughter and I saw her walking through the Hólavellir cemetery that’s close to the centre of the city. I wrote every day as the weeks passed. The story began to take shape but something seemed to be missing.

The deadline was looming for the book my publishers wanted, when I heard that the French Embassy in Iceland and the Writers’ Union of Iceland were offering the opportunity of a month-long writing residency in La Rochelle. I applied, and was chosen. In the spring I set off for France, looking forward to being able to write in peace and quiet. If I had known what was to come, I wouldn’t have gone. But now I’m thankful for what ensued, as the experience added the emotional edge that was missing from the manuscript, and I started making changes.

I stayed in a pretty little house located in a large and beautiful public park that was dark and deserted at night. Also supposed to be staying in this house was a French lady who was a playwright. To cut a long story short, I only saw the playwright when she came to collect her belongings, as she couldn’t bear to be there any longer after having spent two days and nights alone in the house. The reason was a seriously ill woman who lurked around the house, slept on the verandah and peered in through the windows during the day, chattering and calling out to people only she could see. I had only been told about this person as I arrived, with the instruction to absolutely not let her in, as a resident had done this during the winter when it had been very cold and the outcome had been a ‘BIG PROBLEM.’

I was told that this woman had many times been offered help, and always refused. She had long stopped taking her medication and had developed an obsession with the pretty little house in the park.

Despite feeling uncomfortable in this place, I wrote and wrote. I veered between fear of this sick woman and sympathy for her. I was often scared, especially at night, because the woman was angry with me for using the house’s rubbish bin – unaware that this was where she kept her things during the day, her mattress, blanket, pillow and sleeping bag. That night she was louder and angrier than usual.

I would lie awake far into the night, starkly conscious of the difference in our circusmtances. Despite the discomfort she caused me, I was in a clean bed inside, while she lay on an old mattress outside, and it was as well that the weather was fine. During the day I wanted to speak to her and understand her life, but she spoke just French, of which I only understand a few words. Every evening I shut myself in at six o’clock, locking the doors and windows as soon as the shadows began to lengthen and people stopped coming into the park, leaving me alone with this troubled woman.

During the day I wrote, and in the evenings, and through many sleepless nights. The manuscript changed a great deal. The sick woman didn’t become part of the story, but the uncanny feel of those days and nights found its way into what I was writing as Shrouded took shape.

La Rochelle is a very popular destination for tourists, so finding another place to stay wasn’t easy, but I eventually managed to find somewhere and spent the last few days in the city centre. There was a lot of noise late into the night, but I felt much more at ease here among people than alone with the sick woman in the park. The day before I travelled home to Iceland, by complete coincidence I was given a deeper insight into her life and background. This affected me deeply, but this isn’t a story to be told here...

Shrouded by Sólveig Pálsdóttir, translated by Quentin Bates (Corylus Books) £9.99 Out Now

A retired, reclusive woman is found on a bitter winter morning, clubbed to death in Reykjavik's old graveyard. Detectives Guðgeir and Elsa Guðrún face one of their toughest cases yet, as they try to piece together the details of Arnhildur's austere life in her Red House in the oldest part of the city.Why was this solitary, private woman attending séances, and why was she determined to keep her severe financial difficulties so secret? Could the truth be buried deep in her past and a long history of family enmity, or could there be something more? Now a stranger keeps a watchful eye on the graveyard and Arnhildur's house. With the detectives running out of leads, could the Medium, blessed and cursed with uncanny abilities, shed any light on Arnhildur’s lonely death?

Sólveig Pálsdóttir can be found on “X” at Solveigpals. She can also be followed on Facebook.

Sólveig Pálsdóttir trained as an actor and has a background in the theatre, television and radio. In a second career she studied for degrees in literature and education, and has taught literature and linguistics, drama and public speaking, and has produced both radio programmes and managed cultural events. Her first novel appeared in Iceland in 2012 and went straight to the country’s bestseller list. Her memoir Klettaborgin was a 2020 hit in Iceland. Sólveig Pálsdóttir has written seven novels featuring Reykjavík detectives Guðgeir Fransson and Elsa Guðrún in the series called Ice and Crime. Silenced received the 2020 Drop of Blood award for the best Icelandic novel of the year and was Iceland’s nomination for the 2021 Glass key award for the best Nordic crime novel of the year. Shrouded is the series’ fourth book to appear in English. Sólveig lives in Reykjavík.

Quentin Bates has personal and professional roots in Iceland that go very deep. He is an author of series of nine crime novels and novellas featuring the Reykjavik detective Gunnhildur (Gunna) Gísladóttir. In addition to his own fiction, he has translated many works of Iceland’s coolest writers into English, including books by Lilja Sigurðardóttir, Guðlaugur Arason, Einar Kárason, Óskar Guðmundsson, Sólveig Pálsdóttir, Jónína Leosdottir, Ragnar Jónasson and elusive Stella Blomkvist. Quentin was instrumental in launching Iceland Noir in 2013, the crime fiction festival in Reykjavik.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Erin Kelly

Name:- Erin Kelly

Job:- Author/ Freelance Writer

Website:-www.erinkelly.co.uk

Facebook: erinkellyauthor

X: @mserinkelly

Instagram: @erinjelly

Introduction:

Erin Kelly is an award-winning novelist. Her debut novel The Poison Tree was a Richard and Judy book club pick and was subsequently turned into a major TV drama. Both her sixth novel He Said/She Said and Stone Mothers (We Know You Know) were also Richard and Judy Book Club pick. Her 2014 novelisation of the Bafta award winning programme Broadchurch is an international best seller. Her latest novel House of Mirrors is a sequel to her debut novel The Poison Tree. 

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

I’m just finishing my eleventh novel – working title The Night Stairs – which is about a mass vertigo epidemic in a girls’ boarding school.

Favourite book:

Unfair question and you know it.

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Lin-Manuel Miranda and Kate Bush. They’re very different writers, both geniuses in their own ways. He’s so prolific and open and geeky about his song-writing, her output is sporadic and she’s an enigma, but I’d love to hear them both break down their creative processes.

How do you relax?

Yoga.

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

The Gruffalo. A juggernaut picture book is like a Christmas number one, it keeps spitting out gold coins. Financial freedom would mean I could slow down and enjoy my career a bit more. It often feels like I’m in the eye of a storm.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

Hating your manuscript isn’t a sign you should quit; it’s part of the process and you will never abandon a book.

How would you describe your latest published book?

The House of Mirrors is a book about families, clothes and true-crime podcasts.

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

Another unfair question!

Hounds of Love by Kate Bush

I’m Your Man by Leonard Cohen

Liege and Lief by Fairport Convention

If you were given the ability to join a band which would it be and why?

Right now, The Last Dinner Party, because they look like they’re really enjoying themselves.

If you were to re-attend a concert which would it be and why

I saw pre-megastar Amy Winehouse play an early version of Black to Black with only a guitarist for accompaniment in a basement bar in Camden. There can’t have been more than forty people in attendance. It was such a small gig, Amy got ready in the toilets, and I helped her with her eyeliner.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

Learning something new from authors I already know well.

The House of Mirrors by Erin Kelly (Hodder & Stoughton)

One of them has killed before. One of them will kill again. In the sweltering summer of 1997, straight-laced, straight-A student Karen met Biba - a bohemian and impossibly glamorous aspiring actress. A few months later, two people were dead and another had been sent to prison. Having stood by Rex as he served his sentence, Karen is now married to him with a daughter, Alice, who runs a vintage clothing company in London. They're a normal family, as long as they don't talk about the past, never mention the name Biba, and ignore Alice's flashes of dark, dangerous fury. Karen has kept what really happened that summer of '97 hidden deep inside her. Alice is keeping secrets of her own. But when anonymous notes begin to arrive at Alice's shop, it seems the past is about to catch up with them all.

More information about 2024 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book online can be found here.

Extracts from Chapter 2 and Chapter 23 of The Trap by Ava Glass

 Chapter 2

As the two men shook hands, Emma stood stiffly; her mouth had gone dry. The man talking to Ripley was the most important person in British Intelligence. His real name was Giles Templeton-Ward but to everyone in the country he was known, as all heads of MI6 always had been known, simply as ‘C’.

‘Glad you could get here so quickly. The situation is developing.’ C spoke quietly. His accent was nearly identical to Ripley’s, making him a product of Eton or Harrow and then Oxford, undoubtedly. 

C glanced at Emma with enquiry, and Ripley said, ‘This is Emma Makepeace. The one I told you about.’

‘Ah, of course.’ In C’s cold gaze Emma saw that he already knew everything about her. He knew about her Russian parents, the languages she spoke, her time in the army, and everything she’d done right and wrong in her three years at the Agency. He would have a list of all her weaknesses.

‘Good to have you.’ Dismissing her with that short comment, he turned back to Ripley. ‘The Prime Minister is demanding answers about our plans for securing the G7. He would like those answers yesterday.’ Lowering his voice further he added, ‘He’s under pressure on this from the Cousins. They’re threatening to withdraw if they don’t have assurances our security is on track.’

‘The Cousins’ was intelligence code for the Americans.

‘Yes. I can’t say I’m surprised,’ Ripley said, dryly.

‘Indeed. Thinking hats will be needed.’ C glanced at his watch. ‘We’d better go in. They’re waiting.’

As she followed the two men through the door, Emma exhaled quietly and forced herself to relax. But she was beginning to wonder what she was doing here. Ripley had done all the talking on the way here, leaving her little time to wonder why he’d wanted her to come along. Only now did she consider whether that might have been intentional.

Inside was a small antechamber and another door, this one made of thick metal. It reminded her of a bank vault. Ripley and C walked through it without pausing.Squaring her shoulders, Emma followed them into a small, crowded space, more an oversized cupboard than a boardroom.

Although she’d never seen one before, Emma recognised it instantly. The Americans called them ‘Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities’, because of course they would. In Britain they were known simply as ‘Secure Chambers’. The steel-walled rooms would be bug-proof and safe from prying eyes, built in secret locations for situations like this one. 

Three people already sat at the table. The first was Patricia Allan, the head of MI5, barely five feet tall and recognisable by her short steel-grey hair, which gave her a pleasingly androgynous look. Next to her was Dominic Larch, the Home Secretary. Not yet forty, he’d only been in the job three months. Everyone thought he was too much of lightweight to handle being in charge of police, security, and counter-terrorism.

Emma suspected they were right.

Beside him sat a confident, tall woman with shoulder-length blonde hair in a charcoal-grey suit. Emma recognised her from news reports as Lauren Cavendish, the Prime Minister’s special advisor.She and Ripley took the two empty seats on the far side of the table, squeezing past in the confined space. 

As she sat in a black leather chair, it struck Emma that there were no computers in the room. No phones. Not even a notebook. No records would be kept. When it was over, to all intents and purposes, this meeting would never have happened. But decisions would be made here.

The heavy metal door swung shut slowly. She heard a faint electronic buzz as it sealed until that sound faded disconcertingly to silence. Nobody spoke, but the tension was so palpable she could almost see it. Out of the corner of her eye she noticed that the Home Secretary’s right foot had begun to jiggle unconsciously.

Sitting at the head of the table, C looked at them with weary solemnity.

‘Let’s begin.’

Chapter 23

‘Is he dead?’

Nick Orlov stood in the doorway, staring at unconscious, blood-covered man on the floor of his hotel room. The hand covering his mouth trembled as Emma strode over to him, pulling him inside and closing the door.

Reaching past his shoulder, she switched on the lights. The subtle glow illuminated a spacious room, walls covered in taupe silk wallpaper that caught the light and glimmered. The king-sized bed had been turned down invitingly, the curtains pulled across the tall windows. 

Every item in the room had been skilfully chosen and beautifully arranged. The only thing out of place item was the bloody body on the floor.

Crouching next to Fridman, Emma set the gun down and picked up his thin wrist. His skin felt warm. She put a hand over his mouth and noted the steady passage of his breath. 

‘He’s alive.’ She remained beside the unconscious man for a few seconds more, thinking through their situation.

When she stood up, she picked up the gun and ejected the bullet cartridge, checking it with a quick professional glance. Fridman had fired three times. There were thirteen bullets left.

Lucky thirteen.

Extracted from chapter 2 and chapter 23 of The Trap by Ava Glass

The Trap by Ava Glass (Penguin in Paperback) Out Now £9.99)

How far would you go to catch a killer? This is the question UK agent Emma Makepeace must ask herself when she is sent to Edinburgh for the upcoming global G7 Summit. The Russians are in town and Emma and her team know a high-profile assassination is being planned. But who is their target? There is only one way to find out. Emma must set a trap using herself as bait. As the most powerful leaders in the world arrive and the city becomes gridlocked, Emma knows the clock is ticking.

More information about Ava Glass can found on her website. You can also find her on Twitter @AvaGlassBooks and on Instagram @avaglassbooks

Steph McGovern’s debut crime novel announced

 

            

Steph McGovern’s debut crime novel to Pan Macmillan announced at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival

Pan Macmillan have acquired the debut crime novel, Deadline, from award winning broadcaster and Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year judging panel member Steph McGovern. The novel was announced at an event between Richard Osman and McGovern at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on Saturday 20th July. 

Publisher Francesca Pathak acquired world all language rights in two novels from Millie Hoskins on behalf of Matt Nicholls at United Agents.

McGovern’s first novel, Deadline, centres around Rose, a young broadcaster who is preparing to interview one of the most powerful men in the country. But as the live TV interview begins, she hears an unfamiliar voice in her earpiece telling her that her family have been kidnapped, and she must do exactly as the hijacker says in order to keep them safe.

Ann Cleeves has said of the novel: 'For years Steph has been supporting other crime writers at the festival. Now at Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in her own right. She's written a pacy, witty, engaging thriller, entertaining and delightfully authentic, but hard-hitting and thought-provoking too.  I can't wait for you all to read it.'

Steph McGovern is an award-winning broadcaster who currently presents The Rest is Money podcast with Robert Preston. Steph has worked in journalism for over 20 years, 8 of which as part of the BBC Breakfast family. She went on to present her own BAFTA nominated live daily show, Steph’s Packed Lunch, on Channel 4 and is a regular ‘Have I Got News for You’ panellist and host. Steph is an avid crime reader and has interviewed countless authors including Val McDermid, Ann Cleeves, Hillary Clinton, Harlan Coben, Lee Child and Don Winslow, as well as judging the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival since 2019.

Pathak says ‘As soon as I read Deadline, I knew this was the novel Steph was born to write. We are thrown into a high stakes suspense thriller with an authenticity on the world of broadcasting and politics that only she knows. I cannot wait for readers to discover Steph’s writing and the world of Deadline.’

McGovern says ‘Deadline is a book idea I’ve had since my early days on breakfast TV. Writing it has given me the chance to spend the last few years secretly living in a parallel universe where the high-pressured, high profile environments I’ve worked in, and the colourful characters I’ve met along the way, have all fed into my own invented dark story of power, corruption and lies. I’m buzzing to be launching the book at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. I’ve been coming here to stalk my favourite authors for ten years. Now to be here as an author myself is mind blowing.’

Pan Fiction will publish in hardback in July 2025.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Mark Billingham

 Name:- Mark Billingham

Job:- Author/ Member Fun' Lovin' Crime Writers,

Website: https//www.markbillingham.com 

Facebook: MarkBillinghamAuthor

X @MarkBillingham

Introduction:

Mark Billingham is an award winning crime writer. His first novel Sleepyhead was published in 2001 and introduced readers to Tom Thorne. So far there are 18 books in the series. He has twice won the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year. In 2004 with Lazybones and in 2009 with Death Message.

In 2010 Sky 1's adaptation of Thorne was broadcast with actor David Morrissey as Tom Thorne.

He has been nominated and won a various number of awards. His second Thorne book Scaredy Cat which was published in 2002 won the Sherlock Holmes award for best Detective Novel created by a UK author. It was also nominated for the CWA Gold Dagger. His 2005 novel Lifeless was nominated for the BCA Crime Thriller of the Year.

He is also the author of a number of standalone novels and short stories. His standalone novel In The Dark was nominated for the Gold Dagger in 2009. It was also made into a television series by the BBC in 2017.

2023 saw the start of a new series with the novel The Last Dance which features Declan Miller a rather unlikely hero who is a detective, dancer and has no respect for author. The second book in the series The Wrong Hands was published earlier this year.

He was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2011. Mark Billingham has been shortlisted 3 times for the CWA Dagger in the Library in 2015, 2019 winning the award in 2022. 

After taking part in an open mic session in The House of Blues in New Orleans in 2016 whilst attending Bouchercon along with Stuart Neville and Doug Johnstone Fun Lovin' Crime Writers came into being in 2017 with the additional members being Val McDermid, Chris Brookmyre and Luca Veste. They have so far twice played at Glastonbury.

Current book? (This can either be the current book that you are reading or writing or both)

My current read is the forthcoming novel by Chris Brookmyre, who was one of the speakers at last year’s St Hilda’s. The Cracked Mirror is a truly extraordinary detective novel which is blowing my mind in the very best way possible.

Favourite song: 

On any other day, I might have chosen Wichita Lineman by Glen Campbell, God Only Knows by the Beach Boys or He Stopped Loving Her Today by George Jones, but instead I’m going to cheat (ever so slightly) by picking my favourite single. It’s the double A-side released by the Beatles in 1967: Penny Lane/Strawberry Fields Forever. Two incredible songs, one by Lennon and one by McCartney, combined on the greatest 45 rpm masterpiece in music history.

Which two musicians would you invite to dinner and why?

Elvis Costello and Paul McCartney, although I would be too awestruck and quivering with Fanboyish glee to say anything much beyond, “Twiglets, anyone?”

How do you relax?

I play the guitar (not as well as I should), I play poker (probably somewhat better than is good for me), I read and I listen to music from the 70s and early 80s.

Which book do you wish you had written and why?

Well, there’s that book about a boy wizard which did fairly well…but setting financial remuneration aside, if I’d written The Maltese Falcon I could go to my grave a happy man. Still fizzing and fat-free almost a century after it was published, it remains a masterclass in characterisation and dialogue and is one of those refreshing narratives in which pretty much everyone is morally corrupt to one degree or another.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer.

It wasn’t as if I was particularly young when I started, but I would definitely tell that middle-aged me to make his central character younger. Oh, and that stepping out of your comfort zone is usually a very good idea.

How would you describe your latest published book?

The Wrong Hands is the second in a new series, featuring Blackpool-based detective, widower, rat-fancier and ballroom dancer, Declan Miller. Like its predecessor, it’s lighter in tone than my earlier books; dare I say it…tragi-comic. So, there are jokes for which I probably should apologise but refuse to, along with a foxtrot or two, a psychotic welder and a weaponised Cadbury’s crème egg.

With A Dance to the Music of Crime: the artful crime to murder being the theme at St Hilda's this year, which are you three favourite albums?

In no particular order: Revolver by the Beatles, This Year’s Model by Elvis Costello and The River by Bruce Springsteen.

If you were given the ability to join a band which, would it be and why? 

Well, I’ve been given (just) enough ability to be a member of The Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, which enables me to live out rockstar fantasies alongside my pals, Chris Brookmyre, Luca Veste, Doug Johnstone, Stuart Neville and Val McDermid. But if I could join ANY band…? It would obviously be the Beatles, but then I’d instantly ruin it because it wouldn’t be the Beatles anymore and I’d be the weak link that would destroy the greatest band in history. So, I’ll probably just stick with the FLCW…

If you were to re-attend a concert, which would it be and why?

I saw Springsteen in 1981 in Birmingham on the River tour. It was an amazing show, with the Boss at the height of his powers playing almost every track from what remains a favourite album. Pete Townshend came on towards the end! I’d like to go back simply to experience again those three (or was it even four) unbelievably exciting hours.

What are you looking forward to at St Hilda's?

All of the sessions sound unmissable, but as always, at any gathering of crime writers and readers, it’s the conversations before and after the sessions that will probably be the highlight. Hanging out with friends, colleagues and lovers of our genre is rarely anything less than a joy.

The Wrong Hands by Mark Billingham (Little Brown Publishers) Out Now

This is one case Miller won't want to open . . . unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Still desperate to solve the murder of his wife, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase . . . containing a pair of severed hands. Miller knows this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne'er do well Wayne Cutler - a man he suspects might also be responsible for his wife's death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of. Chuck in a Midsomer Murders - obsessed hitman, a psychotic welder and a woman driven over the edge by a wayward Crème Egg, and Miller is in a mess that even he might not be able to dance his way out of.

Information about 2024 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book online.

The Strand Critics Awards nominees

The Strand Magazine has announced its list of nominees for the annual Strand Magazine Critics Awards.

Authors S.A Cosby, Laura Lippman, and Dennis Lehane headline this year’s nominees for the Best Novel Award, while Jonathan Karp of Simon & Schuster receives the Publisher of the Year Award. Kathy Reichs and Max Allan Collins are both honored with Strand Lifetime Achievement awards.

Recognizing excellence in the field of mystery fiction and publishing, The Strand Critics Awards are judged by an ever-changing group of book critics and journalists. This year’s judges were chosen from Los Angeles Times, National Public Radio, USA Today and The Associated Press.

The 2023 Strand Critics Awards nominees for Best Mystery Novel and Best Debut Mystery are …

BEST MYSTERY NOVEL

All the Sinners Bleed by S.A. Cosby (Flatiron Books)

Everybody Knows by Jordan Harper (Mulholland Books)

Small Mercies by Dennis Lehane (Harper)

Resurrection Walk by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown and Company)

Prom Mom by Laura Lippman (William Morrow)

Time’s Undoing by Cheryl A. Head (Dutton)

The Secret Hours by Mick Herron (Soho Crime)

BEST DEBUT MYSTERY

Fadeaway Joe by Hugh Lessig (Crooked Lane Books)

Mother-Daughter Murder Night by Nina Simon (William Morrow)

The House in the Pines by Ana Reyes (Dutton)

Don’t Forget the Girl by Rebecca McKanna (Sourcebooks Landmark)

Adrift by Lisa Brideau (Sourcebooks Landmark)

The Peacock and the Sparrow by I.S. Berry (Atria Books)

Past recipients of Strand Critics Awards include Jane Harper, Attica Locke, Angie Kim, Alex Michaelides, Megan Abbott, Michael Connelly, and Laura Lippman.

Strand Lifetime Achievement and Publisher of the Year Awards

“It’s always the highlight of the year when the nominees are announced, and I can’t think of a more deserving group than the writers on this year’s list,” said Andrew F. Gulli, managing editor of The Strand Magazine. “Jonathan Karp, who receives this year’s Publisher of the Year Award, has created a culture at Simon & Schuster that is so supportive of authors and their works, and throughout his career has had an amazing knack for knowing just what to publish. I also have to say that both Kathy Reichs and Max Allan Collins have contributed so much to the genre. They are among the nicest and most professional people I have worked with, and they are so deserving of the Strand Lifetime Achievement awards.”

Kathy Reichs and Max Allan Collins Take Home Strand Lifetime Achievement Awards

“I am honored and delighted that Strand Mystery Magazine has selected me as a recipient of its Lifetime Achievement Award,” said Reichs. “And I am humbled. To have my name included in the gallery of literary masters who have previously been recognized is astonishing and rewarding. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

“This is a lovely honour from the last magazine of its kind, much as I am part of a passing pulp breed,” said Collins. “My heroes included Chester Gould, Mickey Spillane, and Donald E. Westlake, later my mentors and friends. My love of movies culminated in the filming of my Road to Perdition. Nathan Heller, Quarry, and Ms. Tree are evidence of my love for detective fiction, much as the Antiques books written with my wife Barbara are of my love for her. I am lucky and blessed to make my living telling elaborate lies about humans at their best and worst.”

Jonathan Karp of Simon and Schuster Wins Strand Publisher of the Year Award

This year’s recipient of the Strand Magazine’s Publisher of the Year Award is Jonathan Karp, CEO, publisher, and president of Simon & Schuster. Throughout his time at Simon & Schuster, Karp has overseen an amazing boost in revenue, consolidated several imprints, and managed to navigate the world of digital publishing while ensuring that print books are still at the forefront of so much that S&S does. During his career he has frequently taken chances on books he believes in — that other editors might have passed up — and, more often than not, those chances have paid off in the form of critically acclaimed books that are also commercially successful.

“I’m grateful to the Strand for this honour, and to all of the great publishers who have taught me through the years, especially Kate Medina, Ann Godoff, Harry Evans, Jamie Raab, and Carolyn Reidy, as well as the authors who have made this work so satisfying, for so long,” says Karp.

Past recipients of the Strand Publisher of the Year Award include Dan Smetanka, Tom Doherty, Morgan Entrekin, Josh Stanton, and Bronwen Hruska.