Killer Women Festival for Crime Writing & Drama - 15 March 2020

The Killer Women Festival for Crime Writing & Drama takes place on 15th March 2020 at Brown’s Courtrooms, 82-84 St Martin’s Lane, Covent Garden, London WC2N 4AG.

Now in its fourth year, London’s only author-led, boutique crime festival opens its doors to women and men with a packed programme – old favourites and new discoveries from fiction and TV drama, and many festival firsts, plus world experts in policing, forensics and criminology.

Exclusive early bird day tickets go on sale at £65 (plus booking fee) on 1 January 2020. Early bird tickets are available only to Killer Women Club members. Anyone can join the club for free  here. Full price tickets will be available to all from 1 February 2020 for £75 (plus booking fee).

9-10am

REGISTRATION

Sign up for the Nutshell Challenge (teams will be drawn up on a first come, first served basis) and read and discuss the Sunday Papers with Killer Women Alison Joseph (author of the Sister Agnes series) and Kate Rhodes (author of the Hell Bay and Alice Quentin series).

10.15-11.15am

Judges Court

JUSTICE ON TRIAL

Britain’s only black chief constable and Chief Inspector of the CPS Michael Fuller (Kill the Black One First); Alison Levitt QC, chief counsel to the CPS during the Savile Enquiry, and England and Wales Commissioner for Victims Dame Vera Baird discuss whether the criminal justice system is fit for purpose.

Chaired by N.J. Cooper (author and former Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.)

10.15-11.15am

Barristers Court

PEAKY BLINDERS TO COUNTY LINES: GANGS

Professor Carl Chinn (expert in the real Peaky Blinders) with Tracey Miller (former gang member and anti-gang activist, author of Sour) and Jason Farrell (home editor for Sky News, author of County Lines) talk about gang culture, past and present.

10.15-11.15am

Judges Chamber

MY FIRST MURDER: WRITING CRIME FOR KIDS

Featuring YA novelists Karen M McManus (NY Times bestselling author of One of Us is Lying) and Holly Jackson (author of bestseller A Good Girl’s Guide to Murder) and middle-grade novelists Elly Griffiths (bestselling crime novelist for adults, whose first novel for children is A Girl Called Justice) and Robin Stevens (Murder Most Unladylike Mysteries).

Chaired by Laura Wilson (crime novelist and Guardian crime fiction reviewer).

11.30-12.30pm

Judges Court

LIVE PODCAST

Live Podcast with Ann Cleeves: in conversation with the author of Shetland and Vera

11.30-12.30pm

Barristers Court

TOXIC MASCULINITY

Rebecca Wait (Our Fathers), Lucy Foley (The Hunting Party), Mel McGrath (The Guilty Party) and Marnie Riches (Tightrope) discuss social stereotypes and dangerous behaviour.

Chaired by William Shaw (Deadland).

11.30-12.30pm

Judges Chamber

DRINKING THE KOOL AID: CULTS

Louise Jensen (The Family), Alex Marwood (The Poison Garden), Will Carver (Nothing Important Happened Today) and Lisa Jewell (The Family Upstairs) discuss the appeal of cults in fiction.

Chaired by Claire McGlasson (The Rapture).

12.30-2pm 

LUNCH

1.30pm

Coffee and cookies with Helen Monks Takhar, author of sensational summer debut ‘Precious You’

2-3pm

Judges Court

K9: LIVE POLICE DOG DEMONSTRATION

Sniffer pups Bob and Bert and general police dog Titan are put through their paces by handlers Ruth and Chris Bond, 

2-3pm

Barristers Court

FACT TO FICTION: TRUE CRIME ON TV 

Exclusive insights into the making of ITV’s landmark 2020 drama WHITE HOUSE FARM, based on the Jeremy Bamber case.

Sponsored by ALL3MEDIA

2-3pm

Judges Chamber

SECRETS & LIES

Erin Kelly (Stone Mothers), Dorothy Koomson (Tell Me Your Secret), Kia Abdullah (Take it Back) and Trisha Saklecha (Your Truth or Mine?) explore the drivers of the psychological thriller.

Chaired by Julia Crouch (Her Husband’s Lover).

3.15-4.15pm

Judges Court

PSYCHOPATHS: MAD OR BAD?

Discussion of the psychopathic mind with TV criminologist Professor David Wilson (My Life with Murderers) and Dr Shubulade Smith, Head of Acute Forensic Psychiatry at the Maudsley, and Kerry Daynes, forensic psychologist and author  of The Dark Side of the Mind.

Chaired by Sharon Bolton (The Craftsman).

3.15-4.15pm

Barristers Court

FRESH BLOOD

Discover the most exciting new crime writers of the year: Bella Ellis (The Vanishing Bride), Trevor Wood (The Man on the Street), Russ Thomas (Firewatching) and Kate Bradley (To Keep You Safe), and hear about their journey to publication and their accomplished debuts.

Chaired by Sarah Hilary (crime author of the DI Marnie Rome series).

3.15-4.15pm

Judges Chamber

GETTING AN EARFUL: AUDIO CRIME

What makes a great crime listen? Why is audio true crime so popular? An insider’s guide to all things audio with some of the best producers, writers and voice talent in the business.

4.30-5.30pm

Judges Court

THE FORENSIC FRONT LINE

Ground-breaking forensic scientist Professor Angela Gallop (When the Dogs Don’t Bark) discusses her life and work with Lin Anderson (bestselling author of the Dr Rhona MacLeod series).

4.30-5.30pm

Barristers Court

BANGED UP: IS PRISON WORKING?

Former inmates Carl Cattermole (Prison: A Survival Guide) and Michaela Booth explore the issues.

Chaired by HMP Grendon Writer-in-Residence Simon Booker (Kill Me Twice).

4.30-5.30pm

Judges Chamber

CRITICAL INCIDENT TRAINING

Former police and military psychologist Emma Kavanagh explains what it takes to survive an attack.

5.45-6.30pm

Barristers Court

THE NUTSHELL CHALLENGE.

Devised exclusively for Killer Women and sponsored by Endeavour, this competition is in honour of CSI pioneer and mother of forensic science Frances Glessner Lee. Lee created the Nutshell Studies of Unexplained Death: 20 miniature crime scene dioramas made for the purpose of training homicide detectives, most of which are still in use today. Competitors will work in teams to briefs by top crime writers to create the best doll’s house style crime scene using miniature furniture, figures and weapons.

Sign up at morning registration to join a team. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first come, first served basis on the day.

5.45-6.30pm

Barristers Court

KILLER WOMEN MENTORING SCHEME

Showcasing Kahlia Bakosi, Louise Cannon, Laura Mace and Veena Muthuraman, the winners of the scheme launched this year to find and encourage new female voices in crime fiction from BAME and low income or working-class backgrounds.

Supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England

6.30-8.00pm

DRINKS PARTY

Please join us for a free glass of prosecco courtesy of Simon and Schuster

'Reading for Pleasure' £500 cash prize competition

 The Jolabokaflod CIC team have launched the ‘Reading for Pleasure Prize’ Competition, which seeks compelling, disruptive and innovative ideas – in 500 words or less – from entrepreneurs, innovators and the general public; ideas that will encourage people in the UK and beyond to read for pleasure throughout the year. The competition seeks to address the current worldwide fact that leisure reading is not a high priority: for example, in the UK 36% of people do not read regularly (DCMS, 2015); and in the USA only 19% of people over 15 read for pleasure on any given day (‘American Time Use Survey’, US Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2018).

Jolabokaflod CIC is a not-for-profit company that promotes the 75-year-old Icelandic ‘Christmas book flood’ tradition, which encourages people to buy books as presents for loved ones to start reading as soon as they receive them on Christmas Eve. The company adapts this literary concept for the digital age, to engage the book trade and the reading public in the UK and around the world.

12R Prizes is run by Twelve Ronnies to crowdsource solutions to complex issues. The ‘Reading for Pleasure Prize’ Competition, sponsored by Jolabokaflod CIC, addresses one such challenge: to champion reading as an attractive entertainment choice for everyone’s leisure time. The competition asks entrepreneurs, innovators and the general public to crowdsource compelling ideas that capture people’s imagination and fire their enthusiasm to read for pleasure.

The call for entries for the ‘Reading for Pleasure Prize’ Competition opens on 26 October 2019 (First Day of Winter in the Old Norse calendar; a public celebration in Iceland). A jury panel of global book-trade experts will select via a blind judging process a shortlist of up to six entries for the best ideas submitted to the competition by the deadline of midnight on 24 December 2019 (the culmination of Jólabókaflóðið in Iceland on Christmas Eve). The shortlist will be published on 1 January 2020 (New Year’s Day) and the winner announced on 6 January 2020 (Twelfth Night, the official end of the Christmas season).

The winner receives a cash prize of GBP £500 (equivalent to approx. USD $630). In addition, a crowdfunding campaign at CrowdPatch, to put the winning entry into action, will open on 7 January 2020 (the day after Epiphany) and close on 14 February 2020 (Valentine’s Day, International Book Giving Day, and the end of Jolabokaflod’s winter crowdfunding cycle).

The £500 prize was donated by Jolabokaflod CIC, whose founder – Christopher Norris – will join Twelve Ronnies’ co-founders Jake Shaw and Simon Krystman to present the cheque to the winner at a ceremony to be announced in the New Year when the winning entry is revealed.

The entry form can be found here.

Peter James’ 2019 Christmas Literary Lunch

Many of us cling to traditions, especially when the Christmas and Hanukkah Holidays approach.

I have traditional reads from authors I have followed over many years, like Lee Child, Martina Cole, Harlan Coben, Michael Connelly, John Connolly, Peter May and Thomas Harris to name just a few – These are writers that provoke deep thought, introspection as the pages turn. I could name many more; many more that have enriched my life [and the lives of others], but for today, we’ll settle on the ones I’ve named above.

It’s perhaps Peter James’ literary work, and his presence that always comes to mind when the blanket of winter is upon me. One tradition that sprang from a generous lunch, many years ago, soon became a date, a fixture that I eagerly accept annually, inking it in thick red sharpie in my diary – The Peter James annual Christmas lunch. It’s hosted generously by his Publisher Pan Macmillan, his Agent the poet Isobel Dixon – and this year managed adroitly and with uncommon enthusiasm by Emily Souders of Riot Communications.

As the decade draws to a close, it is always excellent to break bread with fellow writers / literary commentators. This year’s event featured guests Karen Robinson [of the Times Crime Club], Deidre O’Brien [of The Mirror], Barry Forshaw [of the F.T.  DVD reviews, Fiesta, among many others], Laura Wilson [of the Guardian], Nic Clee [of Book Brunch] and the poet and the uber literary agent Isobel Dixon. There was a lot of laughter around the table, and afterward Mike Stotter and I carried on drinking Gin and Tonics until it was very late, exchanging anecdotes. I find the company of people who read books, especially crime, thriller and horror novels to be good for the mind and the soul.

Everyone was delighted to hear that Literary bad-boy Mark Timlin has returned to print, but sad and melancholic that Marcel Berlins passed away this year. The reality of life and that of existence is a mystery; so any opportunity to share our time with people who are important to us, and to laugh deeply - must be embraced with uncommon alacrity.

But as ever, I digress.

It was back in 2006, that Peter was publishing his sophomore Roy Grace novel in hardcover LOOKING GOOD DEAD [with the first DEAD SIMPLE coming out in Paperback]. Peter knew that both Barry Forshaw and I were Horror Fiction readers / reviewers from way back. It should be remembered that prior to the Roy Grace police procedurals, Peter had penned thrillers and a series of horror novels that made critics pronounce him to be “…the British Stephen King…”. So joining Barry and I were Carla McKay, and Mark Timlin. The lunch was a splendid affair, where we laughed and we laughed, between a discussion about what books we’d enjoyed and in Mark Timlin’s case the need for more wine. I was curious about Peter’s 2^nd book in this [now] bestselling Roy Grace series, as I could tell even then, these police procedural novels had legs.

Read about the inaugural Peter James Christmas Lunch, back in 2006 from Jeff Peirce’s THE RAP SHEET – Click Here to Dine with a Deadman  

It was such a fun lunch, just before Christmas that Peter proclaimed that we should do this again. He is a man of his word, and so over the years ‘The Peter James Christmas lunch’ has become a bigger affair, where Peter generously invites colleagues to close the year with a wonderful literary event. It’s Peter [with his publishers] way of ending the year with comradery, and is done so with flourish and with good humour.

A decade ago, after the Christmas Lunch in 2009, Peter James kindly agreed to answering a lengthy series of questions from Mike Sotter and I. We often joke that it was…… the interview with no end…..it’s archived HERE, and acts as a primer for those few who are unfamiliar with Peter’s writing as well as his role as a Film Producer.

So, as we head back to the future - 2020 is set to be a signal-year for Peter James as well as the team he has assembled around him. Shots would like to share the news we gathered during lunch, with our readers -

The most exciting being, that DEAD SIMPLE [his first police procedural] is planned to start filming next year for ITV, with John Simm to play Roy Grace –

The Doctor Who star will take on the troubled Detective Superintendent Roy Grace in the series, which is based on the bestselling Roy Grace novels by Peter James.

The series will consist of two episodes and will cover the first two books, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, with filming due to begin in Brighton in early 2020.

Novelist Peter James said: “John Simm, who actually looks like the Roy Grace of my imagination, is inspired casting! With John in the lead, the brilliant scripting by Russell Lewis, and our wonderful production team, I’m confident that fans of my novels and of TV crime dramas in general will be in for a treat.”

John Simm is best known for playing The Master in Doctor Who and fellow time traveller Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, and was recently in ITV crime drama Strangers.

Read More from The Radio Times HERE

I remarked that it was an extraordinary achievement that the 2019 Roy Grace novel DEAD AT FIRST SIGHT beat Thomas Harris’ CARI MORA [his sixth novel], which was released on the same day. Peter James was Numero Uno again in the Nielsen Book Charts.

If it hasn’t happened in fiction most of us are aware of it in reality, if not personally. How many of us have been the target of desperate countrymen stranded in a foreign land who can be saved by the loan of a few pounds?

James elaborates that crude scam into a sophisticated scheme with neat variations and here incorporating an on-line dating agency. There is a nebulous network of organisations with operators extorting vast sums of cash from vulnerable people mainly in the USA and UK. The extortioners hail from Germany, Eastern Europe, West Africa – and Brighton, Sussex.

Read Gwen Moffat’s full review at Shots Magazine HERE

The mention of Cari Mora, by Thomas Harris got me excited again, though I appear one of the few critics who considered Harris’ sixth novel to be an audacious literary masterpiece. I do not fear being alone on this matter - this is why – CLICK HERE

We were also delighted to hear that one of my favourite novels, the techno-thriller PERFECT PEOPLE is optioned to come as a streaming-TV miniseries.

I wrote at the time -

A surreal journey of ethics, science, and religion – and as far away from the dark alleyways of Roy Grace’s Brighton as one could get, but a blindingly hot read set at the edges of our reality and indicative that Peter James can carve a thriller as tortuous as the DNA Double-Helix – In a word, remarkable.

Read the full review HERE

As for the adaptation –

Shades of Blue creator Adi Hasak has lined up his next European TV project – an adaptation of Peter James’ psychological thriller Perfect People for Scandinavian streamer Viaplay with German producer Leonine.

The event series is based on James’ book, which was published in 2011, and is a ripped-from-the-headlines thriller and family drama set in the world of genetically-engineered children who, as they hit puberty, are revealed to be not as “perfect” as their designers had intended.

Read More from DEADLINE HERE

I remarked that considering the amount of work that Peter James has done over the years [including Chair of the Crime Writers Association for two consecutive terms] and being awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger 2016 for his contribution to the Crime and Thriller Genre, his presence at many international events, such as Capital Crime this summer – coupled to the subject that lies at the heart of his techno-thriller PERFECT PEOPLE, I believed that Peter had perfected cloning technology, and the Peter James who ate with us in London’s Ivy Club was not the actual author, but one of his many clones. Due to the excellent wine, it drew a few laughs [as we were indeed seeing doubles everywhere].

Here’s Peter discussing writing the Techno Thriller PERFECT PEOPLE as well as about where Roy Grace  came from -

And I’d add it was perhaps one of his clones that worked with Hugh Bonneville on the Audible version of his extremely thought-provoking thriller ABSOLUTE TRUTH, click HERE for more information.

We also learned that Peter has a true-crime book, written in partnership with Graham Bartlett, following their first collaboration DEATH COMES KNOCKING [Click HERE for info on their first collaboration].

The new work is titled BABES IN THE WOOD

On 9 October 1986, nine-year-olds Nicola Fellows and Karen Hadaway went out to play on their Brighton estate. They would never return home; their bodies discovered the next day concealed in a small clearing in a local park. This devastating crime rocked their close-knit community and the whole country.

Following the investigation moment by moment, drawing on exclusive interviews with officers charged with catching the killer, former senior detective Graham Bartlett and bestselling author Peter James tell the compelling inside story of the murder hunt and the arrest of local man Russell Bishop. The trial that followed was one of the most infamous in the history of Brighton policing – a shock result sees Bishop walk free. ‘Not guilty.’

Three years later, Graham is working as a junior detective in Brighton CID. A seven year old girl is kidnapped and found wandering naked on the freezing South Downs. When Bishop’s name comes up as a suspect, it’s clear history had come close to repeating itself. With the law and science against them, the police are frustrated that, still, he would escape justice for the double murder.

Read More HERE

And I haven’t mentioned Peter’s theatrical work, or his recent Short Story Collection or even his Cold Hill Horror Books……

We all lead busy lives, so the Peter James’ Christmas Lunch was an excellent opportunity intersect with colleagues who have become friends with our shared enthusiasm for literature’s darkest avenue, Crime Mystery and Thriller – of which Peter James is one of the leading lights., due to his talent, but also his work ethic.

So, if you’ve not discovered the work of Peter James, or wish to keep up to date with his literary, audio or film / TV work, then Click HERE and to follow his Detective Roy Grace Click HERE

Mike Stotter and I would like to pass our thanks to Emily Souders of Riot Communications, Pan MacMillan, Blake Friedmann and the staff of London’s IVY Club for an excellent Christmas Lunch – though Roy was absent to say Grace……

Shots Magazine would also like to wish all our readers, a very Merry Christmas and a Happy Hanukkah, and may 2020 be an excellent year for you all, and remember to pick up a book as Reading [aka Bibliotherapy] is important for the mind, and here’s why – CLICK HERE

Photos © 2019 Ali Karim, Audible, Pan Macmillan and The Ivy

“We don’t invent our natures...they’re issued to us along with our lungs and

Pancreas and everything else.”

Dr Hannibal Lecter, speaking to Will Graham

Thomas Harris / Red Dragon [1981]

A Taste of Capital Crime

If you are missing Capital Crime watch the video below which showcases the 2019 festival and see if you can spot yourself. If you haven't been to Capital Crime we hope the video will give you a sense of what to expect in 2020: a warm welcome, lots of fun and great entertainment.

Capital Crime Festival from Capital Crime on Vimeo.

The inaugural Capital Crime took place in September 2019 but never fear. Capital Crime 2020 will be taking place between 1st -3rd October 2020

Regular tickets are now on sale priced at £150 for a weekend pass and £80 for a day pass. Visit www.capitalcrime.org for more information. 

Stay tuned for more news soon.

Roy Grace series by Peter James to be adapted for Television

© ITV

John Simm will play the lead role in police drama Grace, ITV has announced.  The Doctor Who star will take on the troubled Detective Superintendent Roy Grace in the series, which is based on the bestselling Roy Grace novels by Peter James.

The series will consist of two episodes and will cover the first two books, Dead Simple and Looking Good Dead, with filming due to begin in Brighton in early 2020.

Novelist Peter James said: “John Simm, who actually looks like the Roy Grace of my imagination, is inspired casting! With John in the lead, the brilliant scripting by Russell Lewis, and our wonderful production team, I’m confident that fans of my novels and of TV crime dramas in general will be in for a treat.”

John Simm is best known for playing The Master in Doctor Who and fellow time traveller Sam Tyler in Life on Mars, and was recently in ITV crime drama Strangers.

Grace will follow Simm’s character Roy Grace as he investigates a missing groom-to-be following a stag night prank, while Grace himself is haunted by the disappearance of his own wife, Sandy. Suspecting something more sinister, Grace ends up getting dangerously close to the bride-to-be…

The series will be written by Russell Lewis, who also created (and wrote) Inspector Morse prequel Endeavour.

“I’m thrilled and honoured to be involved in bringing Peter James’ brilliantly gripping series of Roy Grace novels to ITV,” Lewis said.

“Each story is a fantastic, hair-raising, twisting, switch-back of a roller-coaster ride that grips the reader from first to last, and the opportunity to translate that best-selling magic to television is like all one’s Christmases and birthdays come at once.”

He added, “That John Simm will be breathing flesh to the bones of Roy Grace really is the cherry on a dark, and troublingly encrimsoned cake…”

Edinburgh Conan Doyle Network Conference - Call for Papers

Conan Doyle in Edinburgh 

25th – 27th June, 2020

Edinburgh Napier University

Proposals are invited for a conference in Edinburgh about Arthur Conan Doyle. At the centre of the conference will be the relation between the writer and his native city, but papers about all aspects of his work and life will be welcome.

“I do not come before you as a stranger. I was born in Edinburgh. I spent my boyhood there. I was educated at the University, and I graduated there. I owe much to the old City” (Arthur Conan Doyle, The Edinburgh Evening Dispatch 25th Sept 1900.) Arthur Conan Doyle was born in Edinburgh on the 22nd of May 1859, and studied medicine at the University of Edinburgh from 1876 to 1881. Famously, Dr Joseph Bell, one of his professors, was said to be the inspiration for the character Sherlock Holmes.  Although Conan Doyle only spent 12 years of his life in Edinburgh, it was the city which shaped him and out of which his stories grew. As Val McDermid notes: “those early years in Edinburgh played a crucial role in his development as a writer” (2009). This conference will explore the interplay between city and writer, and we invite broad, imaginative and interdisciplinary interpretations on the topic of ‘Conan Doyle in Edinburgh’. We also welcome proposals for papers on other topics concerning the writings and life of Arthur Conan Doyle.

Key note speakers: Owen Dudley Edwards and Nicholas Daly

We will also be running a virtual conference alongside the physical conference which we hope will encourage greater participation for those unable to attend for financial, environmental or other reasons. If selected, the online participants will be asked to record their presentation which will be hosted on our website before, during and after the conference. Viewers and attendees of the conference will have the opportunity to ask questions of the online participants. The online participants will be included in the conference programme.

‘Conan Doyle in Edinburgh’ is the second event associated with a new scholarly enterprise, The Edinburgh Edition of the Works of Arthur Conan Doyle, sponsored by the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Selected papers from across the conference will be considered for book publication.

Please send proposals for 20-minute papers, panels of three papers, posters, or virtual attendance, on topics which can include, but are not limited to:

Conan Doyle and Edinburgh

Conan Doyle and Cities

Conan Doyle and Medicine

Conan Doyle and other Authors

Conan Doyle’s Campaigns

Conan Doyle and his Fiction

Travel and Empire Writing

Science and Science Fiction

Spiritualism and the Supernatural

The City and Crime Writing

Editing Conan Doyle

Proposals should be no more than 300 words, and submissions should include a 50 word biography. Online participants should note on their proposal their wish to be considered for the virtual conference. If you are only able to attend for one day please state which day in your proposal. Proposals should be sent in Word or .odt format to Linda Dryden, Douglas Kerr and Jonathan Wild at: edinburghconandoyle@gmail.com

Deadline for proposals: Friday 31st January 2020

Attendance: full conference £200, single day £75, virtual conference £45. A social events calendar, including opportunities for visits, walks and planned meals, will be sent to participants before the conference. Conference attendees will have Saturday afternoon free to explore Edinburgh.