The British Book Awards Crime and Thriller Shortlist

 

The British Book Awards shortlists have been announced.

The shortlist for the Crime and Thriller are as follows - 

Troubled Blood by Robert Galbraith 

The Sentinel by Lee Child and Andrew Child

The Patient Man by Joy Ellis

The Guest List by Lucy Foley

The Thursday Murder Club by Richard Osman

A Song for The Dark Times by Ian Rankin

All the other shortlists can be found here. Congratulations to all the nominated authors.

Walking a Tightrope in Stilettos – The PI’s lot. by Marnie Riches

In her recent review of Tightrope, fellow author, Sarah Rhiannon Ward observed that my new thriller, featuring Private Investigator, Beverley Saunders, put her in mind of Sara Paretsky’s V. I. Warshawski novels. How amazing to be mentioned in the same breath as Paretsky! I was deeply flattered, I can tell you, especially since this debut outing for the fearless but flawed Bev is the first time I have told a story with a PI at the helm. 

Crime-thrillers with private sleuths or non-police officers as the main protagonists are among the most successful in the world. Patricia Cornwell has millions of fans for her Dr. Kay Scarpetta series, featuring a chief medical examiner. Elly Griffiths is doing brilliantly well with her forensic archaeologist, Dr. Ruth Galloway. My own criminologist heroine, Dr. George McKenzie (in my The Girl Who… series, set in South East London and Amsterdam) has done rather well with readers too. But back to the humble independent sleuth! In addition to Paretsky and Sue Grafton, JK Rowling has had incredible success as Robert Galbraith, writing about her PI, Cormoran Strike. On the small screen as well, the private gumshoe has captured imaginations across the globe. In the 80s, we adored Magnum PI with Tom Selleck. Back in the 1990s, the great British TV-watching public tuned in to get their weekly fix of Hetty Wainthropp Investigates…for four series! And yet, there certainly isn’t currently a proliferation of super-successful PIs in the broad church that is the British crime -fiction genre. They’re massively outnumbered by cops!

As I write this piece for Shots readers, I do have to ask why there is this disproportionate dominance of coppers in crime-fiction, when amateur or non-police sleuths have so much more freedom to investigate. As an author, you get far more mileage from a PI who plays fast and loose with the law than from a detective who is bound by hierarchy, protocol and legal idiosyncrasies. Bev Saunders turned out to be a tremendously fun protagonist for me. Initially, she starts digging for dirt on behalf of her client, Angela Fitzwilliam – the battered wife of Shadow Cabinet Minister, Jerry Fitzwilliam. On the surface, Angie has it all. She’s a wealthy, pampered housewife, living in Hale, Cheshire, where footballers rub shoulders with old money and millionaire entrepreneurs. But scratch the surface and Angie’s world is falling apart, thanks to her bullying, lying husband who puts on a convincing show for the media. 

As Bev is a recent divorcée herself, she’s persuaded to take on Angie’s plight and find strong evidence of grounds for divorce that will insure Angela against Jerry’s threat to deny her custody of or even access to their children and to withhold all her marital wealth. This is a powerful man who likes to play dirty, but because Bev is a lone wolf – apart from help in digital matters that she gets from her therapy-group friend and technology-whizz, Doc – Bev can play dirty too. By catfishing the Cabinet Minister and trying to honey-trap him, she becomes embroiled in a terrifying cat-and-mouse chase, where eventually, she is the one being investigated, nay, stalked. Unlike a detective, Bev Saunders is able to go the extra mile without worrying that she’ll be disciplined by a superior. In fact, she’s so naïve to the risks of the job, the pay is so poor and the stakes – if she fails in her self-employed venture – are personally so high, that Bev’s prepared to walk a very perilous tightrope indeed if she’s to bring her case to a satisfactory conclusion. She’s willing to hack, lie and literally flirt her way to the truth, allowing me to take the reader on a very gritty, at times seedy and thrilling journey.

Do you think 2019 is going to be the summer where Private Investigators get their time in the sun again thanks to a fictitious northern divorcee with sex- and origami-addictions? Will you read Tightrope and be glad that Bev is so driven, so unregulated and so unprofessional in her conduct? Might you just enjoy the danger that little bit more knowing you could easily do her job…if only you were brave and foolhardy enough? Why don’t you let me know?!

Tightrope by Marnie Riches (£7.99, Trapeze Books) Out Now

What happens when a private investigator ends up being the one uncovered?  Having lost everything after a failed marriage, Beverley Saunders now lodges in the basement flat of a house owned by her best friend Sophie and her husband, Tim. With Bev's former glittering marketing career in the gutter, she begins to do investigative work for other wronged women, gathering dirt on philanderers, bosses and exes.  But when Beverley takes on the case of Sophie's friend Angela, who is seeking to uncover grounds for divorce from her controlling husband, Jerry, the shadow Science Minister, she soon discovers that she isn't the only one doing the investigating... Beverley has a secret history she doesn't want coming out - but will she manage to stay hidden long enough to give Angela the freedom she deserves?

CrimeFest Awards 2019

CrimeFest Awards were announced on Saturday 11 May at the CrimeFest banquet.

Audible Sounds of Crime Award:
Lethal White by Robert Galbraith, read by Robert Glenister (Hachette Audio)

eDunnit Award:
Sunburn by Laura Lippman (Faber and Faber)

Last Laugh Award:
A Shot in the Dark by Lynne Truss (Bloomsbury)

H.R.F. Keating Award:
Difficult Lives – Hitching Rides by James Sallis (No Exit Press)

Best Crime Novel for Children:
Kat Wolfe Investigates by Lauren St. John (Macmillan Children’s Books)

Best Crime Novel for Young Adults
Run, Riot by Nikesh Shukla (Hodder Children’s Books)

**
The Petrona Award Winner was also announced:
The Kathrarina Code by Jorn Lier Horst, translated from the Norwegian by Anne Bruce, published by Michael Joseph

Congratulations to all the winners and nominated authors.

Theakston Festival Rounds up Six Suspects On Crime Novel Award Shortlist

The shortlist for crime writing’s most wanted accolade, the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, has been announced.

Celebrating its twelfth year, the Awards feature six titles whittled down from a longlist of 18 crime novels published by British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback from 1 May 2015 to 18 April 2016.

The award ceremony will be hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson on 21 July on the opening night of the 14th Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.

Also on the night, Val McDermid will receive the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, joining past winners Sara Paretsky, Lynda La Plante, Ruth Rendell, PD James, Colin Dexter and Reginald Hill.

Executive Director of T&R Theakston Ltd and Judge, Simon Theakston, said: “We’re particularly delighted to be honouring Val McDermid this year. On a personal note, Val had the vision to create this Festival with Harrogate International Festivals back in 2003. Thanks to her far-reaching passion and generosity for crime fiction - for writers and readers alike – it has become the biggest celebration of the genre in the world. As a writer, she is rightfully known as the Queen of Crime. Val is very deserving of this accolade in the pantheon of legendary crime authors.”

The 2016 Award is run in partnership with T&R Theakston Ltd, WHSmith, and The Radio Times.

The shortlist in full:

Time Of Death by Mark Billingham (Sphere)

Career Of Evil by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)

Tell No Tales by Eva Dolan (Harvill Secker)

Disclaimer by Renee Knight (Black Swan)

I Let You Go by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere)

           Rain Dogs by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)

           

Two debut novels make the shortlist. Renee Knight’s debut, Disclaimer, has been pitched as the new Gone Girl. The former TV documentary maker spent a decade writing film scripts, with her first novel turned down by every publisher, but persisted to write Disclaimer, a Sunday Times No. 1 bestseller, whose overseas rights have been sold in 35 countries and to Fox Searchlight. 

Clare Mackintosh first thriller I Let You Go was one of the fastest selling titles of 2015 and became a Sunday Times bestseller and a Richard & Judy book club winner. Clare spent twelve years in the police force, including time on CID, and as a public order commander. She left the police in 2011 and now writes full time.  Praised widely for its astonishing twist, overseas rights have now sold in 30 countries.

Robert Galbraith’s Career of Evil - the third novel in the Cormoran Strike series - was lauded by the critics and a number one bestseller in both hardback and paperback.  With the Cormoran Strike novels in the process of being adapted for a major new television series for BBC One, J.K. Rowling’s crime pseudonym has well and truly made his mark in the genre.

Mark Billingham could make it a hat-trick after winning the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2005 and 2009. A stalwart of the genre, Time of Death is the astonishing thirteenth Tom Thorne novel - a story of kidnapping, the tabloid press, and a frightening case of mistaken identity. The novel is currently in adaptation with BBC Drama North.

Rain Dogs is book five in the critically-acclaimed Sean Duffy Thriller series set in 1980s Belfast by Northern Irish writer, Adrian McKinty. McKinty was shortlisted for the Steel Dagger in 2004 and has since been nominated for multiple awards in the UK, USA, France and Australia. He won the Ned Kelly Award in 2014 for Sean Duffy book three and book four was nominated for an Edgar in 2016. He currently lives in Melbourne, Australia.

Eva Dolan’s Tell No Tales is the second book from the author BBC Radio 4 marked as ‘a rising star of crime fiction’. Shortlisted for the CWA Dagger for unpublished authors when she was just a teenager, her debut novel Long Way Home, was the start of a major new crime series starring two detectives from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit. Tell No Tales focuses on murdered migrant workers and racial tension. 

Simon Theakston, said: “It’s a remarkable shortlist that shows the crime genre shapes our cultural landscape and dominates publishing.”

The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved oak beer cask made by Theakston Old Peculier.

Gemma Rowland, Operations Manager at Harrogate International Festivals, the arts organisation that delivers the festival, said: “2016’s winner will join the list of game changing authors who have won one of the most coveted awards over the last decade, including Denise Mina, Lee Child, and Sarah Hilary. The public’s vote is incredibly important as ultimately readers decide when it comes to judging a book’s worth, so I’d encourage everyone to make their voice heard – it’s free and simple to vote online.”

The overall winner will be decided by a panel of Judges*, alongside the public vote. The public vote opens on 1 July and closes 15 July at www.theakstons.co.uk.

2016 THEAKSTONS OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR LONGLIST REVEALED

Giants of the genre are pitted against a clutch of new voices in one of the most prestigious crime writing prizes in the country.

Renee Knight’s debut, Disclaimer, has been pitched as the new Gone Girl. The former TV documentary maker spent a decade writing film scripts, with her first novel turned down by every publisher, but persisted to write Disclaimer, whose overseas rights have been sold in 25 countries and to a Hollywood studio.

Lisa McInerney The Glorious Heresies, was longlisted for the Bailey’s Women’s Prize for Fiction 2016 and was described as a ‘spectacular’ debut by the Telegraph.

In a Dark Dark Wood was Ruth Ware’s debut thriller about a hen party with a murderous twist. It became an instant bestseller in the States and was snapped up to be a major motion picture under development by Reese Witherspoon.

David Young’s Stasis Child also became a bestseller, aimed at fans of Child 44 and Deutschland 83. Young’s first novel was published by Twenty7 imprint, which was established with a focus on debut authors.

Clare Mackintosh first thriller I Let You Go was one of the fastest selling titles of 2015 and became a Sunday Times bestseller and a Richard & Judy book club winner.

The debut novels will compete with those from stalwarts of the genre, including one of the biggest names in books – JK Rowling writing as Robert Galbraith. Other blockbuster names in the running include Mark Billingham, Ann Cleeves and Val McDermid.

Time of Death is the 13^th in Billingham’s much-loved Tom Thorne series; his detective was played by David Morrissey for Sky One. Time of Death has been commissioned by BBC TV, due for broadcast in autumn, 2016. Ann Cleeves shot to fame with her Vera (ITV) and Shetlands (BBC) series. The Moth Catcher features her iconic detective, Vera Stanhope.

Now in its twelfth year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was created to celebrate the very best in crime writing and is open to crime authors whose novels were published in paperback from 1 May 2015 to 18 April 2016.

The 2016 Award is run in partnership with T&R Theakston Ltd, WHSmith, and The Radio Times.




© Fenris Oswin

The long list, comprising 18 titles, is selected by an academy of crime writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers, members of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Committee and representatives from T&R Theakston Ltd and WHSmith.

The longlist in full:

Time of Death by Mark Billingham, Little Brown

Rain Dogs, Adrian McKinty, Serpent’s Tail

Career of Evil, Robert Galbraith, Sphere

Black Eyed Susans, Julia Heaberlin, Michael Joseph

Disclaimer, Renée Knight, Black Swan

I Let You Go, Clare Mackintosh, Sphere

The Moth Catcher, Ann Cleeves, Pan

Tell No Tales, Eva Dolan, Harvill Secker

The Ghost Fields, Elly Griffiths, Quercus

The Missing and the Dead, Stuart MacBride, Harper Fiction

Every Night I Dream of Hell, Malcolm Mackay, Mantle

Splinter the Silence, Val McDermid, Little, Brown

The Glorious Heresies, Lisa McInerney, John Murray Publishers

The Nightmare Place, Steve Mosby, Orion Fiction

The Final Silence, Stuart Neville, Harvill Secker

In a Dark, Dark Wood, Ruth Ware, Harvill Secker

Death is a Welcome Guest, Louise Welsh, John Murray Publishers

Stasi Child, David Young, Twenty7

From 21 April, longlisted titles will feature in a six-week campaign across all 300 WHSmith stores and 80 library services, representing a total of 1645 library branches.

The shortlist of six titles will be announced on 31 May, followed by a seven-week promotion in libraries and WHSmiths.

The overall winner will be decided by the panel of Judges, alongside a public vote. The public vote opens on 1 July and closes 15 July at www.theakstons.co.uk.

Previous winners of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award include Denise Mina, Val McDermid, and Sarah Hilary.

The winner will be announced at an award ceremony hosted by broadcaster Mark Lawson on 21 July on the opening night of the 14th Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.

The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.

Executive director of T&R Theakston, Simon Theakston, said: “2016’s longlist shows that the crime genre is in incredibly robust health. It’s a showcase of some of the best authors in the world, and shows that the genre is the most influential when it comes to shaping publishing and popular culture. It’s incredibly exciting to see such strong new voices on the list, and it will no doubt be a hotly-contended award.”

Gemma Rowland, Literature Festivals Manager at Harrogate International Festivals, said: “The list demonstrates that even the giants of the genre are constantly kept on their toes, with debut voices as serious contenders. Last year’s winner was a debut from Sarah Hilary. It really shows whoever wins this year will know they’ve been pitted against the biggest talent at work today.”

Crime - North of the UK border Plus One

 According to the Scotsman newspaper, Scotland’s most successful authors have global sales far exceeding the population of their homeland. Dozens of well-known fiction writers live in Scotland, but which occupy the best sellers’ lists more than others?

JK ROWLING (Estimated global sales: 400 million)

 The story of how a single mother living in Edinburgh began writing the children’s books which would become the biggest publishing phenomenon of modern times in two southside cafes has passed into legend. The Harry Potter series of fantasy novels came to an end in 2007, but the books continue to sell in huge numbers and inspire a generation of young readers. “We cannot sing the praises of Rowling high enough,” Charlie Griffiths, director of the National Literacy Association, told the Scotsman in 2003. “Anyone who can persuade children to read should be treasured and what she’s given us in Harry Potter is little short of miraculous. To see children queuing outside a store, not for concert tickets or computer games, but for a book, is brilliant.” Rowling has since published four novels aimed at adults, including three under the pen name Robert Galbraith.

 IAN RANKIN (30 million)

 The first Inspector Rebus novel, Knots and Crosses, was published in 1987 and the most recent, Even Dogs in the Wild, hit the shelves last week. Rankin (55) was raised in Cardenden, Fife, and was a postgraduate student at the University of Edinburgh living in Marchmont when he first had the idea of writing a crime novel based in his adopted city.

 ALEXANDER McCALL SMITH (20 million)

 McCall Smith is Emeritus Professor of Medical Law at the University of Edinburgh and an authority on medical law and bioethics. Not content with reaching the top in one profession, he has since become a globally successful author. The first book in The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series was published in 1999 and was soon a best seller. Set in Gaborone, Botswana, it has been followed by 15 more books - a rate of one per year. McCall Smith has also written a number of children’s novels, as well as the 44 Scotland Street series, which was first published as short stories in the Scotsman.

VAL McDERMID (10 million)

 Kirkcaldy native McDermid began her working life as a journalist and published her first novel, Report for Murder, in 1987. She began writing fiction full-time in 1991 and is now one of the most successful crime writers of modern times. Her series of novels featuring psychological profiler Dr Tony Hill was adapted by ITV as the hit drama Wire in the Blood.

IRVINE WELSH (2 million)

 Welsh grew up in Muirhouse, Edinburgh, and worked in a variety of jobs before the publication of his first novel, Trainspotting, in 1993. That title has now sold more than one million copies in the UK alone, thanks in part to the success of the 1996 film adaptation by Danny Boyle. Welsh’s 10th full length novel, A Decent Ride, was published in April.

CHRISTOPHER BROOKMYRE (2 million)

 Brookmyre’s debut novel, Quite Ugly One Morning, introduced the world to investigative journalist Jack Parlabane in 1996 and was followed by the best seller Country of the Blind a year later. Brookmyre, who grew up in Barrhead, has since published 18 further works of fiction. He can call upon a variety of singular protagonists in his novels, which are known for their gripping narratives, black humour and social comment.

Read more: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/culture/books/who-are-scotland-s-most-successful-living-authors-1-3951657#ixzz3s1Tupyld

 

TWENTY7 SIGNS DEBUT CRIME THRILLER SERIES

BY SCREENWRITER SIMON BOOKER

 Bonnier Publishing Fiction's new imprint Twenty7 has acquired two crime novels from screenwriter Simon Booker. Booker's TV credits include The Inspector Lynley Mysteries and The Mrs Bradley Mysteries for BBC1 and ITV thrillers The Blind Date and The Stepfather.

Without Trace is the first in a series of psychological thrillers featuring single mother Morgan Vine, an investigative journalist who specialises in miscarriages of justice. Without Trace will be published as an ebook in January 2016 and as a paperback in June.

 

CWA Dagger Longlists and Criminal Splatterings ...

CWA DAGGER LONGLISTS ANNOUNCED

The Crime Writers' Association is delighted to reveal the long listed authors for the CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger, the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.
The results were revealed mid-way through National Crime Reading Month (www.crimereadingmonth.co.uk) and the shortlists will be unveiled at the Dagger Awards dinner on 30th June 2015. Tickets for the Dagger Awards - which will be held at Hotel Russell in London - are now on sale (http://thecwa.co.uk/event/dagger-award-dinner-2015/).  "Our judges have had a wonderful time reading all these brilliant books," says CWA chair Len Tyler. "What a year for crime fiction. These long lists are a great demonstration of how diverse and fascinating the genre is right now. No wonder it's the most popular type of fiction with UK readers." The CWA Goldsboro Gold, CWA John Creasy (New Blood) and CWA Ian Fleming Steel Daggers will be presented to the winners at a ceremony in the autumn. Full details will be announced in due course.

THE LONGLISTS

 

CWA GOLDSBORO GOLD DAGGER LONGLIST

The Shut Eye by Belinda Bauer/Transworld Publishers/Bantam Press

The Rules of Wolfe by James Carlos Blake/Oldcastle Books/No Exit Press

The Silkworm by Robert Galbraith/Little, Brown Book Group/Sphere

Missing by Sam HawkenProfile Books/Serpent's Tail

Mr Mercedes by  Stephen King/Hodder & Stoughton/Hodder & Stoughton

Pleasantville by Attica Locke/Profile Books/Serpent's Tail

The Bone Seeker by M.J. McGrath/Pan Macmillan/Mantle

The Serpentine Road by Paul Mendelson/Little, Brown Book Group/Constable

Life or Death by Michael Robotham/Little, Brown Book Group/Sphere

The Kind Worth by Peter Swanson/Faber and Faber/ at Bloomsbury House  

 

CWA JOHN CREASEY (NEW BLOOD) DAGGER LONGLIST

The Abrupt Physics of Dying by Paul E Hardisty/Orenda Books

Dear Daughter by Elizabeth Little/Vintage Publishing, Penguin Random House/Harvill Secker

Dry Bones in the Valley by Tom Bouman/Faber and Faber

Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng/Little, Brown Book Group

Fourth of July Creek by Smith Henderson/Random House/William Heinemann

The Girl in the Red Coat by Kate Hamer/Faber and Faber

The Killing of Bobbi Lomax by Cal Moriarty/Faber and Faber

The Well by Catherine Chanter/Canongate Books

You by Caroline Kepnes/Simon & Schuster  

 

CWA IAN FLEMING STEEL LONGLIST

No Safe House by Linwood Barclay/Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction

The Defence by Steve Cavanagh/Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction

The Stranger by Harlan Coben/Orion Publishing Group/Orion Fiction

Missing by Sam Hawken/Profile Books/Serpent's Tail

The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins/Transworld Publishers/Doubleday

Nobody Walks by Mick Herron/Soho Crime/ Soho Crime

The White Van by Patrick Hoffman/Atlantic Books Ltd/Grove Press

The Final Minute by Simon Kernick/Random House/Century

Runner by Patrick Lee/Penguin/Michael Joseph

The Night The Rich Men Burned by Malcolm Mackay/Pan Macmillan/Mantle

Cop Town by Karin Slaughter/Random House/Century

The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson/Faber and Faber

Heartman by M.P. Wright/Black & White Publishing

Good luck to all!

 

Crime Writing Festival Noirwich

Returns for a second year this September, launching its programme with Lee Child, and announcing new partner Dead Good Books

After the success of last year's festival, Noirwich Crime Writing Festival is returning to the streets of Norwich from Thursday 17 September to Sunday 20 September to bring award winning authors to the UNESCO City of Literature.

In 2014, over 500 people attended the festival and this year plans to be even bigger with Lee Child announced as the headline act on Thursday 17 September at Jarrolds Department Store.

This year, festival goers can experience the breadth of crime writing, from exciting debuts to new author collaborations at the festival.

The full line-up, tickets and more information about Noirwich can be found on www.noirwich.co.uk

 

Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith to be published October 2015

J.K. Rowling and Robert Galbraith have announced the publication dates for the upcoming Cormoran Strike crime novel, Career of Evil.

The book, which will be published by Little, Brown Book Group, is set to be released in US on 20th of October and in UK on 22nd of October

 

Orenda Books Signs New Amanda Jennings Thriller

Karen Sullivan, publisher of Orenda Books, is thrilled to announce the acquisition of World English Language rights for bestselling author Amanda Jennings' In Her Wake, from Broo Doherty at DHH Literary Agency.

A dark, page-turning psychological thriller, In Her Wake is also a profoundly moving and dramatic story of one woman's self-discovery, when a family tragedy reveals shocking news that changes her life forever.

Karen says, “In Her Wake is a chilling, exquisitely written and evocative thriller that hinges on the abduction of a child, and the effect this crime has on everyone connected with it. It's also a compelling study of the nature of identity, with a series of interconnected, shocking discoveries driving a complex and deftly orchestrated plot set on the ruggedly beautiful, richly described Cornish coast. Amanda's reputation as a fine writer preceded her, and In Her Wake is undoubtedly her best yet, placing her firmly at the heart of contemporary crime fiction. I could not be more excited to publish Amanda, and know that In Her Wake is a perfect fit for the growing Orenda list.”

Amanda says, “I am over the moon to be joining Orenda. I am inspired by Karen's energy and passion, and it's wonderful to see how she champions her books and takes care of her authors. It's an exciting time for me and I very much look forward to working with her and the rest of the talented team.”

In Her Wake will be published in Spring 2016, by Orenda Books.

 

Cooking Classes with Agatha Christie

 

A unique cookery demonstration is to be held to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Agatha Christie, the Queen of Crime. It will be in Christie’s own Devon kitchen, and guests are advised to treat samples with extreme caution.

 

The French writer Anne Martinetti will be recreating recipes from Christie’s books, singling out those particularly suitable for concealing poison as an extra ingredient. As any devotee of Miss Marple or Hercule Poirot knows, the great detectives only have to show up for a morning coffee, light luncheon or afternoon tea party for one of the guests to topple over the table clutching their throat and turning blue.  Read more...