Ninas and Easter Eggs – The Game’s the Thing! by Alys Cummings

 Who can resist the lure of a hidden message?

Solving things, uncovering an answer, is one of the joys of being human – just look at the vast numbers of us drawn to both murder mysteries and puzzles. 

But there’s something that can be even more rewarding than finding the answer which is, after all, the objective of the puzzle or the end of the story. And that is something that you don’t even need to discover, an unannounced extra that has been hidden purely for the fun of it.

In video games and movies, these have long been known as Easter Eggs. (There is a legend that this arises from The Rocky Horror Picture Show where some of its very dedicated fans have spotted actual Easter Eggs rumoured to have been overlooked in an egg hunt organised by cast and crew – perhaps unlikely given the movie was filmed in the Autumn. It’s more commonly accepted the phrase arose from the game Atari where the developer hid a credit to his own name.) 

For solvers of crosswords, these hidden messages abound – you might find one spelt out in an acrostic at the start of clues, in the letters round the edge of a completed grid, or in the words at the top and bottom, for example. Perhaps it’s unsurprising that for people who love playing with words – and whose cryptic setter names are themselves playfully hiding their true identity - they are a fairly common occurrence. Some setters have regular Ninas – such as Pangakupu who frequently hides words and messages in Māori in their puzzles. Well-known examples from the Guardian include a puzzle from the much-loved setter Araucaria, who revealed the news of his late-stage cancer to solvers in a series of clues. And in 2017 those who solved a puzzle by an apparently new setter called the Sphinx discovered they were in fact completing the same puzzle that featured in that evening’s episode of Inside No.9 – The Riddle of the Sphinx. The setter was one of the show’s creators, Steve Pemberton.

In the world of the cruciverbalist these hidden messages are called Ninas, named after the work of American caricaturist Al Hirschfield, who would hide his daughter’s name, Nina, in the lines of his drawings.

In Murder Most Cryptic, my debut novel combining murder mystery with cryptic clues, the protagonist is called Nina – an allusion for crossword fans to enjoy. And there are plenty of other Ninas for readers to find, if they wish to look for them.

In the crosswords that feature in the novel they are used to give additional information about what happened to the man who collapses and dies in Chapter One. These Ninas help the recovery group at the heart of the book begin to piece together what might have happened. But there are also clues from these crosswords at the head of each chapter, with the word that is the answer hidden somewhere in the chapter itself. These are not part of the plot, just something extra for the reader, a treasure hunt if they wish to take part in it. 

One of my Ninas in Murder Most Cryptic is something I haven’t yet revealed – a message hidden in the names of all seven principal characters. I’d love to know if anyone thinks they’ve spotted it….

Readers of Murder Most Cryptic might also spot references – some more obvious than others – to other crime writers they enjoy. The books of some of my favourite authors appear and comments on a blog one of my characters writes gave some freedom to sneak in yet more allusions that readers may recognise.

This is something that authors who find their written work transferring to the screen may also indulge in - a moment of mingling among their own characters for that other type of Easter Egg, a cameo. Who spotted Mick Herron sitting alongside Diana Taverner during a funeral in the latest series of Slow Horses?

It’s a little treat, a surprise, something extra for a mystery lover.

For although a setter or writer can convey a huge range of messages hiding in plain sight, the vital thing about a Nina is that it is not necessary. The solver doesn’t need to spot it to complete the crossword, it’s simply there because it exercised the setter’s mind and they hope it will do the same for the the solver. It’s all just part of the game.

Murder Most Cryptic by Alys Cummings (Penguin Books Ltd)

Nina is a promising young journalist. She’s also an alcoholic. Once a week, she attends a recovery group in the local church hall. When a stranger walks in one night, the group think they might have a new member. Until he promptly drops dead. The police believe it’s nothing more than an accident. But the group soon realise there’s more to this mystery than meets the eye, when they discover a cryptic crossword clue hidden in the dead man’s pocket – the answer to which is Murder. As more mysterious and threatening clues start appearing in a newspaper crossword, Nina and team must work to crack this cryptic case. Can they solve the clues, and catch a killer? Or will the next crossword spell death for one of them…

More information about the author can be found on her website. You can also find her on Instagram and X @alyseliza

Andrew Lowe on The Vanishing Room and writing detectives whose minds work differently.

British policing has a curious blind spot. It increasingly recognises that neurodivergent people may possess cognitive strengths well suited to police work: unusual powers of concentration, persistence, attention to detail and a tendency to see things from unexpected angles. But it still has no reliable idea how many neurodivergent officers it employs.

Police Scotland says that around one in ten people has a neurodivergent condition, and now actively encourages neurodivergent applicants to discuss the adjustments they might need during recruitment. Other forces have introduced similar schemes.

Yet national workforce statistics still don't tell us how many serving officers are autistic, or have ADHD, dyslexia or other forms of neurodivergence. In some forces the information simply isn't recorded. In others it depends on officers choosing to disclose it.

That reluctance to disclose may itself tell us something. A 2025 University of Leicester-led study, published in The Police Journal, interviewed a small group of neurodivergent police officers and staff from across the UK. Some expressed worries that disclosing a formal diagnosis might restrict their careers or affect promotion. But they also repeatedly described the advantages their different ways of thinking brought to police work: noticing things colleagues missed, remembering information, making unexpected connections and approaching problems from unconventional directions. One officer said: "I make a great detective because I'm autistic."

Another went further. Police forces, they argued, were "missing a trick" by failing to seek out neurodivergent recruits deliberately. Pair a neurodivergent officer with a neurotypical colleague and, in their words, "you'll have a dream team."

Detective fiction has always been fascinated by brilliant outliers: from Holmes and Poirot to Monk, Saga Norén, Lisbeth Salander and, more recently, neurodivergent detectives such as George Cross and Patience Evans. Their minds don’t simply work better than everyone else’s. They work differently. And many of the qualities associated with that difference are peculiarly useful to a detective: the ability to bracket emotional noise in favour of logical analysis, identify patterns and inconsistencies, retain unusual amounts of detail, sustain intense focus, resist conventional assumptions and stick with a line of inquiry long after others have given up.

Another recent example, BBC TV’s Ludwig, offers a new twist on the idea: a celebrated puzzle-setter with autistic traits who assumes the identity of his missing detective twin and discovers that his puzzle-solving mind is remarkably well suited to murder investigation. We’ve come a long way from wheeling in charlatan “psychic” consultants, and it’s exciting to imagine a future in which neurodivergent traits are increasingly understood as part of a particular cognitive profile, rather than simply a liability or disability.

This idea of a policing “dream team”—a formidable pairing of a neurotypical whose exceptionalism comes from a depth of experience, and a neurodivergent who sees and perceives the world differently—is the engine that powers my Lennox & Blackwood series.

Olivia Blackwood is the grenade I’ve lobbed into the white patriarchal monoculture of the Met: she’s queer, mixed race and has ADHD. I’ve tried to show how her neurodivergent traits both enhance her investigative instincts and make aspects of the job, and life around it, more difficult. As a senior officer sarcastically suggests in the first book, The Whispering Bones: ‘Is there anyone who doesn’t have ADHD, these days?’ Blackwood quickly bats this back: ‘Around ninety-five per cent of UK adults, sir. Although a fair chunk of them will be undiagnosed, high-functioning.’

Blackwood begins the series as a mid-thirties PC, but she’s mentored up to DC level by Oswald Lennox, a DCI in his early fifties. Lennox is a precise operator with a fearsome investigative reputation and is at first reluctant to work with such a messy, unfiltered character. But their methods dovetail, and after working the harrowing case at the centre of The Whispering Bones, they find common ground in a past tragedy that runs through the series. In the second novel, The Vanishing Room, that symbiosis deepens, and so do the stakes.

At the start of The Vanishing Room, Blackwood receives a commendation in front of her policing peers, and chooses the moment to state her neurodivergence, loud and proud, saying that she’s been called many things, including ‘difficult’, ‘hard work’ and ‘mental’, but raises her award to make the point that ‘being different doesn’t have to be a weakness. It can also be a strength… Here’s to the power of diversity. To difference!’

Meanwhile, Lennox is facing his own personal crisis: memory gaps, hand tremors, uncharacteristic lapses of judgement. As the tests point towards an unthinkable prognosis, he’s forced to adapt his own methods and hide his compromises in a way that resembles the social masking behaviour adopted by some neurodivergent people to help them navigate the neurotypical world.

The characters face a new central case in each book, and there’s also that shared tragedy running underneath: Blackwood's own unsolved mystery, the disappearance of her childhood best friend Abigail, more than a decade cold. It’s the one case Lennox couldn’t solve as a DI, and as Blackwood revisits the disappearance with her new-found police powers, both are drawn back into the darkness. Where the thread leads, and what it could cost each of them to keep pulling it, is where the series is heading.

I didn’t want to present ADHD and neurological difference as colour: a tic, a running joke, a superpower, a way of making a character quirky. Blackwood's brain is the reason she's good at the job. She scatters her attention wide enough to catch connections a more linear thinker would miss; she also can't face a spreadsheet without wanting to climb out of her own skin. Both things are true at once, and neither cancels the other out.

So, this is Lennox and Blackwood: one detective whose difference is lifelong and increasingly claimed as a strength, another whose mind may be starting to fail him in ways he can't control or reverse. They're both just trying to keep functioning, and increasingly, they can only do it together.

If policing is beginning to recognise that neurological difference can be an investigative strength, then the question goes beyond how neurodivergent officers can be accommodated within an institution built around a neurological norm. It becomes a question of what policing might be missing when it expects everyone within that institution to think in broadly the same way.

Crime fiction worked this out a long time ago. The best detective in the room is often the one looking at the same evidence as everybody else and seeing something entirely different. It seems policing fact may finally be catching up with fiction.

The Vanishing Room by Andrew Lowe (Vinci Books) Out Now.

A British crime thriller in which a child’s disappearance from a locked London home leads two mismatched detectives to a predator who's spent years perfecting his method. Police procedural partnership, abduction suspense and a duel of wills with a killer who's always one step ahead. Love Builds the Strongest Cages. A young boy has disappeared from his London home. No sign of forced entry. No witnesses. No trace. Just an empty house and parents crazed with fear. When the investigation is linked to a horrific discovery beneath a derelict Victorian mansion, DCI Oswald Lennox and DC Olivia Blackwood realise they're up against a methodical predator who's been perfecting his lethal craft for years. Every hour that passes brings the missing boy closer to an unthinkable fate. Lennox is struggling with lapses in memory and focus. Blackwood’s impulsive streak threatens to derail a career that's only getting started. As the pair close in, the killer makes his boldest move yet, turning the case into a battle of wills that neither detective can afford to lose. For some monsters, death isn't enough.

The Whispering Bones and The Vanishing Room, books 1 and 2 in the Lennox & Blackwood series, are out now, published by Vinci Books. The Holloway Screamer, book 3, is out in February 2027. A prequel novella, The Rising Silence, is available in October 2026.

Extract from The Butterfly House

When she realised Gerard wasn’t beside her, Violeta gave a start. Half asleep, she stretched out a hand and touched the sheets: they were still warm, so he’d not been long gone. Perhaps he’d gone to the bathroom or to get a glass of water, she thought: after all, her own mouth was parched. A glance at her watch confirmed it was still quite early, and instinctively she turned her head and looked towards the window. From the mattress that acted as a bed and rested directly on the wooden floorboards, Violeta glimpsed the grey light of day that encouraged you to take things slowly, and, turning over, she closed her eyes intending to sleep a while longer.

* * * 

The previous night he’d told her he’d only been living for four months in that down-at-heel mansion in the district of Vallcarca. The house, known by the nickname of the ‘butterfly house’, because of the brightly coloured Lepidoptera decorating the garden, was one of the many abandoned houses in the area transformed into squats by the anti-system movement in order to protest against property speculation in Barcelona. Nobody could remember who had put the butterflies there, but, as they were plastic, they’d survived the passage of time and become part and parcel of the garden. For years, the owners of the big house that, if one could believe the inscription on the façade, dated from the beginning of the twentieth century, had allowed the building to slowly crumble in the hope they’d get the necessary permissions to demolish it and replace it with a modern apartment block, a fate that, if nobody got in the way, would be the lot of most of the surrounding mansions. Some had lost their roofs and most supporting walls, and only a couple were intact enough to be habitable, even if in the most precarious conditions. With their slash-and-burn aesthetic and incendiary disenchantment, the squatters had taken apart tiled roofs, rebuilt walls, slotted in cables to siphon off electricity from street lighting, and covered the main façades with cartoons and political slogans. A dearth of green fingers had turned gardens into wild spaces, and, from the street, the tall, unpruned trees and ubiquitous weeds broadcast the state of neglect into which the buildings and land had lapsed. Rubbish piled up in gardens, and only in summer, when mosquitoes, flies and the stench became intolerable, did bouts of cleaning and excursions to waste-containers become more frequent.

The bedroom where Gerard had parked himself was cold and on the small side. It was in the attic, a long way from the main room where the squatters met to discuss politics, listen to music, drink beer and smoke joints. Like most of them, he too had screwed a chain on the door to make sure that one of the strangers continually going in and out of the squat didn’t rummage through his belongings. Not that he owned anything of value, apart from his laptop that he always carried with him, as a precaution, but everyone knew that now and then items of clothing went missing, as did packets of cigarettes and condoms.

You could see the mountain of Tibidabo from his bedroom window, and in the foreground, the rubble wastelands the large plots had become after the grand houses had been demolished. These wastelands ran down to the stanchions of Vallcarca bridge, some two hundred metres from the butterfly house, and demonstrated how much speculation and a quick-buck culture had changed the look of the neighbourhood. Now and then the Mossos were ordered to clear out one of the buildings and the heavy brigade descended and did its worst. In solidarity with their evicted comrades or under attack from the anti-riot police, the squatters then created an uproar that ended in street-fighting in the city centre, with baton charges, arrests, improvised barricades, burning containers and the windows of banks and shops smashed to smithereens.

Unlike Violeta, Gerard had yet to be arrested by the Mossos. Whenever there was a shit-show, Gerard tried to scarper and when that wasn’t possible, he made sure he wasn’t in the front line so as not to draw attention to himself.

‘In fact, I only came to live in this house because I needed a free pad where I could study and not have my father on my back all the time,’ he’d confessed to Violeta.

Gerard had only one year to go before he received a joint degree in maths and physics, and, with his first-class grades, he was convinced it would be easy for him to get a grant to enrol for a doctorate at Edinburgh University, in the very same department where Professor Peter Higgs had discovered the elementary particle that bore his name. In the course of his degree, Gerard had specialised in the Higgs boson and had the opportunity to be part of one of the teams experimenting with the particle collider on the Universitat Autónoma campus, and, as he told Violeta, he had high hopes of working one day with the British physicist’s students on the Large Hadron Collider at CERN.

‘So you’ll be going to Scotland next year?’ asked Violeta, hardly delighted by the prospect.

‘I hope so. But Edinburgh isn’t that far…’ added Gerard with a big smile.

While she killed time and made up her mind whether to stay a bit longer in the house or hit the road, Violeta found a packet of cigarettes and lit up. She’d not eaten anything and the smoke and nicotine made her stomach feel queasy, so she stubbed it out after a couple of puffs. She’d slept very little, smoked a lot and drunk over the odds, and felt rather hung over. Wondering whether it might do her good to drink something hot before leaving, she headed to the kitchen intending to brew up some tea.

Violeta was scouring the cupboards looking for an infusion to help deal with her queasy guts when she was startled by shouts from the garden. A voice was shouting for help. She rushed to the front door, and when she opened it she was shocked to see it was Gerard who was calling.

‘There’s a dead woman in the garden,’ she heard him mumble. ‘I think she’s been murdered.’

The Butterfly House by Teresa Solana (Corylus Books)

No money, no future - a motive for murder? The economic crisis has hit Barcelona hard, and a personal crisis might be about to hit Deputy Inspector Norma Forrester's family. When a body is found in the grounds of a former grand villa,now a student squat, Norma finds the case uncomfortably close to home. The downturn has turned the city into a breeding ground for crime, or is the motive more personal? Unable to stay away, although this case may represent a conflict of interest, Norma can't even count on the support of her forensic pathologist husband Octavi, who has more than enough to cope with following a major incident at the city's Prat Airport. When a face from his past appears, he and Norma are faced with choices and conflicts - just as her focus should be on finding the killer.

Coastal Crime 2027

 Crime writer starts new chapter as Coastal Crime announces 2027 date

Crime author Alex Stone publishes her latest thriller, The Jealous Girl, and launches a major new festival in the South: Coastal Crime.

Crime writer Alex Stone is preparing for a major new chapter this autumn - the publication of her latest psychological thriller, The Jealous Girl, and the launch of a new crime fiction festival.

Coastal Crime – The South's Crime Writing Festival takes place on Saturday 6 March 2027 at the Leonardo Royal Hotel Southampton Grand Harbour, bringing some of the biggest names in crime fiction together with emerging authors, aspiring writers, and readers for a day dedicated to the genre by the sea.

Festival founder Alex Stone was awarded a Katie Fforde Bursary in 2019 and published her debut thriller The Perfect Daughter with Boldwood Books in 2021. Her new Dorset-set psychological thriller, The Jealous Girl, is published by Boldwood Books on 10 September.

Alex Stone said: “It feels particularly appropriate that, just as The Jealous Girl is about to reach readers, Coastal Crime is beginning its first chapter.'

“Writing can often be a solitary profession, which is one of the reasons I'm so passionate about bringing writers and readers together. Coastal Crime is about celebrating the authors people already love, helping readers discover brilliant new voices, and creating a community where anyone with a passion for crime fiction feels welcome.”

The inaugural Coastal Crime programme is packed with panels exploring topics from reinventing the whodunnit, coastal noir, and adapting novels for screen.

Featured authors whose books have been adapted for screen include Sarah Pinborough, with the Netflix smash, Behind Her Eyes, Luke Jenning, whose books inspired the global sensation Killing Eve, TM Logan, whose The Holiday was adapted by Ch5 starring Jill Halfpenny, and New York Times bestselling screenwriter and novelist M J Arlidge, whose book was adapted for ITV’s Innocent.

Other bestselling authors include the award-winning Vaseem Khan, who was commissioned by the Ian Fleming Estate as an official author of the James Bond spin offs, featuring Q.

Journalist turned author Jackie Kabler also stars. Jackie worked as a news correspondent for the BBC, ITV and GMTV before writing bestsellers including The Perfect Couple and The Happy Family, selling over a million copies.

Sarah Pearse, Heidi Perks, Antony Johnston and Ava Glass also feature in a programme of talks, panels and opportunities for readers to meet new, emerging authors.

Alex said: “We’re creating a festival that celebrates bestselling names while championing new voices.”

Alex also runs an Author Events Academy, which has informed Coastal Crime’s dedicated Industry Hub, which will also run alongside the main festival.

The hub is aimed at aspiring and established writers, with sessions on breaking into the genre, understanding publishing routes, building visibility, mastering research, and pitching to agents, with expert contributors, including UK NetGalley Director Stuart Evers, on building a sustainable and visible writing career.

The hub also features forensic scientist Jo Millington, whose team has advised on major TV productions including Silent Witness, and Graham Bartlett, a former senior police officer turned bestselling author.

Writers will gain direct industry perspective from Curtis Brown Creative, sharing what agents are really looking for and how to approach submissions with confidence, alongside additional publishing professionals and specialists offering guidance across craft, research and career development.

A limited number of one-to-one appointments with agents and editors are now available to book.

Alex said: “Developing new, aspiring and emerging writers is something of a passion of mine. I’ve been through the process of dreaming of being a writer to published author. My Author Events Academy provides online workshops and development opportunities for writers, so that expertise and learning have really helped shape what we feel is an inspirational and practical day at Coastal Crime.”

The day concludes with a relaxed drinks reception, to meet authors and fellow crime fans.

Alex’s latest book The Jealous Girl explores toxic relationships, obsession and revenge. The novel follows Kirsty, whose obsession with the woman who has replaced her in her former boyfriend's life draws her into a web of family secrets, lies and ultimately something much darker. 

Dorset's dramatic coastline has long provided inspiration and settings for Alex's psychological thrillers, making the creation of a major crime writing festival on the South Coast a natural progression for the author.

Coastal Crime takes place on Saturday 6 March 2027 at the Leonardo Royal Hotel Southampton Grand Harbour. Early Bird tickets with 25% off are available until 31 October.

For tickets and further information please visit the website.

Death and Detection: Exploring Golden Age Crime Fiction,

Every Spring Christ Church hosts a Special Interest Event, where a group of specialists discuss the chosen topic in a series of lectures during the four-day event. Accommodation is provided in buildings of architectural and historical interest which reflect the different centuries since the college's foundation. All meals are included and are prepared under the direction of the college's Executive Head Chef and are served in the magnificent Tudor Hall. In 2027 they will be hosting 'Death and Detection: Exploring Golden Age Crime Fiction' taking place from the 8/4/27. 

 

Ticket information can be found here.

McIlvanney Prize Shortllist announced

 

BLOODY SCOTLAND REVEALS THE FINALISTS FOR 

THE McILVANNEY PRIZE 2026 

sponsored by the Glencairn Glass

Winner to be presented at 5pm on Friday 18 September 2026

This year the McIlvanney Prize is being judged by well-known broadcasters, Nicola Meighan and Sally Magnusson and crime reviewer, Gordon McGhie. Today they reveal the books they have selected as finalists and why:

Tariq Ashkanani - The Hollow Boys (Viper)

‘A powerful evocation of small town America and a deftly handled plot with an impossibly chilling mystery at its heart.’

Gavin Bell - 138 Main Street (S&S)

‘A genuinely unputdownable serial killer novel. We loved the originality and the sheer scale (both geographical and imaginative) of this thriller.’

Frances Crawford - A Bad, Bad Place (Transworld)

‘A bold, vital and original voice in Scottish crime writing. Full of wit and humanity, the characters stay with you long after you put the novel down.’

Philip Miller - The Diary of Lies (Polygon)

‘Absolutely beautiful prose evoking the Fife Coast and Edinburgh under snow. A truly exquisite sense of pace and a strong female lead character.’

Zoë Rankin - The Vanishing Place (Viper)

‘A gripping story about a forgotten family, alone and vulnerable in the New Zealand wilderness. We loved the strong characterisation in this compelling debut.’

Tariq Ashkanani was the winner of the McIlvanney Prize 2025 and also won the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize in 2022. He is one of the most established names on the list, which includes two debut authors – Frances Crawford and Zoë Rankin – who are also shortlisted for the Bloody Scotland Debut Prize, the latest book by Gavin Bell (who has previously written as Mason Cross and Alex Knight) and Philip Miller who appears on the McIlvanney shortlist for the first time. 

It’s also a triumph for indie publishers with Viper (Profile) appearing twice and Polygon (Birlinn) ensuring that indies dominate the list of finalists. 

Kirsty Nicholson, Head of Marketing at awards sponsor Glencairn Crystal, said:

“We’re thrilled to once again be part of the McIlvanney Prize and to celebrate the incredible talent at the heart of Scotland’s crime-writing community. This year’s finalists have delivered stories that intrigue, thrill and captivate, showcasing the imagination and originality that make this crime fiction prize so special. We’ll be raising a Glencairn Glass to every finalist as we look forward to discovering who takes home this year’s prize. Congratulations to all the shortlisted authors and the best of luck!”

The presentation of both prizes will take place in the Church of the Holy Rude at 5pm on Friday 18 September before a grand procession led by the two winners and guest programmer Denise Mina to her event with Lee Child at The Albert Halls. 

Derek Byrne on the Boy He Didn’t Trust.

Before I wrote Pretty Boy Red, I found myself drawn to writing from the perspective of a boy who was not entirely innocent. His name was Troy, the central character from my first novel Shotline. He seemed vulnerable until the moment he became dangerous. To get into his head I had to enter a different mental space, tripping along in a kind of stream-of-consciousness where madness was never far away. It was fun in a reckless sort of way, but I didn’t really think this kind of ruleless writing would see the light of day. Shotline has never been published, but the character Troy was knocking around in my head waiting for another chance. And it came. 

My attachment to Australia stretches back decades, along with a fascination for those quirky crime cases rooted in the landscape – kidnappings, murders, people vanishing without trace into the vastness. In June 2022, I read a news report from Perth in Western Australia: boys as young as fourteen had been transferred from Banksia Hill Youth Detention Centre to the adult prison at Casuarina, after they’d left their own facility unfit for habitation. There was an outcry. Children in an adult prison. Opinions divided. Some argued they deserved it; others that they were victims of a system that had failed them. Out of that tension, the character Joel Brady was born. Fourteen years old, nicknamed “Psycho” for his violent outbursts, he is awaiting trial for a crime so grave that he is to be judged in adult court before the public. Although inspired by contemporary events, I chose to set the story back in the late 80s early 90s, when I lived in Australia and was immersed in youth culture. This was a pre-digital world: no mobile phones, networked computing confined largely to academic and official settings. Distance, silence, and institutional opacity allowed dark undercurrents to fester, the kind that would later surface in crimes such as the Snowtown murders and backpacker murders. 

Joel is part of a cohort transferred into the wing of a harsh adult prison. I imagined a setting like Fremantle Gaol in Western Australia, closed in 1991, with its slopping out, rats, dirty brick walls and imposing gatehouse entrance, the site of a violent riot in 1988 in which guards were taken hostage. The aim was to place these boys under relentless pressure. 

The story begins when Joel catches sight of an adult prisoner who seems to recognise him, triggering a memory buried deep in his subconscious. There can be no contact between adult and juvenile inmates, but Joel senses a creeping menace behind the walls and corridors of the wing – a smell he seems to recognize, a name scratched onto a wall, a drawing shoved under the door to his cell. When a prisoner goes missing, his imagination begins to fill in the gaps. 

The difficulty with Joel is not simply that he may be guilty. It’s that he may not be telling the truth, even to himself. Joel is awaiting trial for his role in a series of abductions. Hugh, one of the boys who survived, is called by the Crown to testify. The trial becomes a central tension in the novel, the clash between Joel and Hugh. Who is telling the truth? 

Joel has memory gaps. Fragments arrive out of sync, often in second person, as if he is watching someone else. “There is a difference between unwilling and unable,” his psychiatrist tells the court when questioned about Joel’s dissociative amnesia. Even inside prison, Joel’s version of events is not left unchallenged. His cellmate Glenn – initially an enemy – becomes one of the few steady points in Joel’s fractured world,pushing him towards truths he would rather avoid. And me, the writer – can I trust Joel? At times it feels as though he is leading me, not the other way round. 

And what of Troy? He gave me the clues to get inside Joel’s head, to explore that space, to understand what it would be like to be that boy standing in rooms created for adults: a dock cell, a corridor of stone, a slop-stained cell, wondering who he is supposed to be, swinging between crisis, submission, and defiance. Joel resists explanation. He withholds. He distorts. The only way to write Joel was to keep following him, even when I no longer knew where he was leading me. But that is the point. Joel was never meant to be fully understood, or fully believed. He was the boy I didn’t trust.

Pretty Boy Red by Derek Byrne (Eye Books) Out Now

Child prisoner Joel Brady is facing trial for murder. If he can survive that long. 'Vivid, complex, hard-hitting and compelling' Ray Robinson In the juvenile wing of a prison in Western Australia, fourteen-year-old Joel Brady - small, girly-voiced, nicknamed 'Psycho' - is awaiting trial for his role as sidekick to child abductor Marcus Welby. Joel still isn't sure what he did that last day at Welby's outback house of horror; his memory has blotted it out. Is his mind playing tricks in other respects too? Did he really see the malevolent Quentin, another of Welby's associates, in the adult wing of the prison? Or is Quentin a figment of his imagination, as Joel's lawyers insist? A more immediate priority is hiding from the rampaging cons who have escaped the adult wing, one of whom wants Joel's head. Will his cellmate Glenn, an arch-enemy who has become his first real friend, stay loyal? Set in an ultra-violent, alpha-male world where human connection is a double-edged sword, and interwoven with a gripping courtroom drama in which the truth about Welby's chilling set-up gradually emerges.

More information about the author can be found on his website. He can also be found on Instagram @Derek171923. On Facebook and on X@Bai39878353Paul.

The Idea Behind An Ordinary House by Rae Starling

In August 2006 – almost 20 years ago to the day that I’m writing this article – I was living in Germany and driving to collect my young children from a play party. The news came on the car radio with a lead headline about a girl who had suddenly appeared on a street in neighbouring Austria after being missing for eight years. The story sounded fantastical. Thinking my German must have let me down, I quickly tuned to an English-language radio station. What I thought I’d heard was confirmed. Natascha Kampusch hadn’t been seen since she vanished on her way to school at the age of ten. Now, as a resilient eighteen-year-old, she finally escaped from her captor.

World media went mad. Her first TV interview for ORF, the Austrian national broadcaster, aired in full in ten countries, and excerpts were shown in another one hundred and twenty.

Inspired by the case, I thought about writing a thriller that would explore the aftermath of a kidnap victim’s escape and the challenges facing them as they adjust to life outside. It felt like a sensitive issue that would need respectful handling and thorough research, so I enrolled on a PhD at the University of Birmingham.

My thesis title was: Hijacking Survivor Narratives: A Creative and Critical Study of Trauma Appropriation in Fiction. I examined topics in several disciplines, including trauma writing and post-traumatic stress disorder. However, within a month of starting my research, I read one academic article and two personal memoirs that made me rethink my approach.

(i)The article, by Fairleigh Gilmour, examined the media coverage of the ‘Kampusch’ case. Gilmour discovered that initially sympathetic reporting soon turned against the teenager. In Gilmour’s view, Natascha Kampusch received negative press because she did not present as the typical stereotype of a victim. Instead, she claimed her independence and seemed to hold a complex and contradictory attitude towards her abductor.

 Gilmour analysed 355 newspaper articles in English language newspapers from 2006 to 2010 and noted the occurrence of four story ‘angles’ to refer to Natascha Kampusch: the ‘mad’ woman (28% of coverage referred to Natascha Kampusch in this way); the ‘bad’ woman (15%); the ‘sex slave’ (19%); and the ‘virgin bride’ (16%).

The two memoirs that made me review my plans were written by Natascha Kampusch herself. (ii) In her first book, 3096 Days, she powerfully contests each of these stereotypes and (iii) in her second book, 10 Years of Freedom, published some eleven years after she escaped, she is still citing incidents of ongoing media intrusion and unwelcome attention from the public.

Sadly, since hearing what I thought was an unbelievable news story about Natascha Kampusch’s captivity and escape, I have heard of other women and girls – including Elizabeth Smart, Sarah Smith, Jaycee Dugard, Amanda Berry, Gina De Jesus, Michelle Knight, and Katy Morgan-Davies – who all suffered long-term abuse and captivity. I read memoirs by these survivors as well as the two by Natascha Kampusch. One point that several mentioned was the difficulty of readjusting afterwards under a media spotlight.

These memoirs, together with the Gilmour article, inspired me to write about how an individual's experience of crime might be rewritten by the media and social media. When we soak up true-crime headlines, we can sometimes forget about the effects of media sensationalism on the victims.

A recent example concerns the media coverage of the search for a missing Lancashire woman in January 2023.  (I won’t name her as she never had the opportunity for a right of reply to the coverage.) Social media platforms were rife with speculation and keyboard warriors flocked to the River Wyre, where she was last seen, to make videos and play at amateur sleuthing.

With their working hypothesis being undermined by the media and social media, the police divulged private details about the woman’s health, and some TV news channels invaded her family’s privacy. Although there was no survivor in this case – she had sadly drowned – the potentially traumatising effect of media intrusion on her family cannot be overlooked. 

In my thriller, An Ordinary House, a traumatised teenager finds his story sensationalised after rescue from years locked in a suburban house. As well as navigating lurid headlines and false allegations, he must suppress nightmarish memories of his ordeal to stop himself spiralling out of control. We see him face scrutiny not only from the media but also from detectives, lawyers, psychologists and social media keyboard warriors.

If you like dark thrillers, I hope you’ll give this one a go. 

Sources

(i)             Fairleigh Gilmour, ‘The Girl in the Cellar: Media Representations of Natascha Kampusch’, Current Issues in Criminal Justice, 25. 2 (2013), 645-666.

(ii)           Natascha Kampusch and Heike Gronemeier, 10 Years of Freedom (Berlin: Ullstein Buchverlage, 2017).

(iii)         Natascha Kampusch and Heike Gronemeier, 3096 Days (London: Penguin, 2010)

An Ordinary House by Rae Starling (Hera Books) Out 3^rd September 2026

We lived in a house on Beech Avenue. Outside-People say we're safe now. But one of us wants to go back. Back to that house and the darkness it held. Police raid an ordinary house in a quiet suburban street and find a traumatised teenager held captive with his family. They call him a survivor, but he doesn't know what to believe. His memories don't match what his siblings and the press tell him about his home. As he struggles to make sense of his new world, he must find and face the truth. With one of his siblings set on revenge, should he forget his family, or turn from victim to killer?

You can find more information about Rae Starling and her work on her website.

 Rae Starling can also be found on X @RachelSargeant3 on Instagram @raesargeant3 and on Facebook.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Jo Callaghan

 Name:- Jo Callaghan

Job:- Author and senior strategist 

Instagram:- @Jocallaghankat

Introduction:

Jo Callaghan is the author of four books in the Kat and Lock series. Her debut novel In The Blink of an Eye was published in 2023 and won the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year in 2024. It was shortlisted for CrimeFest Debut novel and the Barry Award for Best First Novel. Human Remains the third book in the Kit and Lock series was longlisted for the Theakston's Crime Novel of the Year Award in 2026. Her most recent novel is Body Of Lies which is the final book in the Kat and Lock series.

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

I have just finished The Sea of Tranquility by Emily St. John Mandel (Station Eleven is one of my favourite books) and I have just started Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan. I am consuming a lot of non-fiction books and podcasts at the moment to help with the novel I am currently writing, which is taking me into the world of Quantum Physics and elite athletics. I know nothing about either, but both are absolutely fascinating, so I am having a ball!

Why do you think anti-heroes are so interesting to readers? 

To be honest, I don’t accept the term ‘anti-heroes’ as it relies upon a false, binary premise that people are either heroes or anti-heroes, when in reality, we are all both. I think readers and viewers are fascinated by so-called ‘anti-heroes’ as they are more complex, rounded characters that reveal more about humanity and ourselves.

Which two anti-heroes or enemies would you invite to dinner and why? 

Hmm. I think most so-called ‘anti-heroes’ tend to have huge egos and personalities, so if I wanted the evening to be fun and enjoyable I would only invite one, with maybe another quiet, non-assuming person who would listen in awe. I am struggling to choose between Tony Soprano and Tommy Shelby, so I think I will invite them both but on separate days. I think Tony would help with the cooking, and Tommy could help with the washing up.

How do you relax? 

The truth is I don’t. It is something that I really struggle with. I work full-time in a very pressured job and there is usually a lot going on at home too. I think reading a really good book in the sun is the most relaxing thing I do – but it is all too rare. Writing is also a type of relaxation to me, as I can be so completely immersed in the next word, the next sentence that it shuts everything else out – I suspect this is what other people get from running or yoga. But conversely, the plot and characters keep me awake at night!

Which anti hero would you like to be on your side in a difficult situation.

Depends on the situation! If it was physically dangerous, then I’m going for Tommy Shelby again as he could probably prevent any violence with just the sheer force of his barely controlled rage. He is also very clever, so I am sure we could concoct a strategy whereby no one gets hurt, but ultimately, we still win.

If you were to write a book involving an anti-hero where would you set it and why? 

We are all anti-heroes as well as heroes and novels are a way of holding the mirror up to humanity and ourselves. So, they could be set anywhere. But my stories are often high-concept, so I try and ground them in reality, which is why they are set in the Midlands where I am from.

How would you describe your latest published book? 

It is called Body of Lies, and it’s the fourth and FINAL book in the Kat and Lock series, which pairs the lead – DCS Kat Frank with AI Detective, AIDE Lock. It opens on Halloween, with a local MP found murdered on medieval stocks with a taunting message written in binary code that seems to target Kat and Lock: catch me if you can. Like all good crime novels, my series explores what it means to be human, and the question at the heart of my books is, how much can AI learn, and what happens when it does? I hope I provide an answer of sorts in this fourth and final instalment…

With Bad Apples: crime fiction’s enemies and anti-heroes theme at St Hilda's this year, who are you three favourite anti-heroes: 

Walter White (Breaking Bad)

Tommy Shelby (Peaky Blinders)

Villanelle (Killing Eve)

Which 3 films or television series featuring anti-heroes would you rewatch and why.

The best TV series are the ones that get better the more you watch them. I have watched Breaking Bad and Peaky Blinders 3 times, and I am currently re-watching Widow’s Bay – Tom Loftis might be my new favourite ‘anti-hero’!

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

I have never been before, so don’t quite know what to expect (and I’m a bit nervous about it to be honest). But I am looking forward to seeing other writers who have become friends, and I expect to learn a lot from listening to all the other talks. That is the best thing about crime festivals: most crime writers are intellectually and emotionally curious people and we are constantly trying to learn and improve our craft. I have already learnt a lot just preparing for my own talk, so I am looking forward to an emotionally uplifting and intellectually stimulating weekend – if that doesn’t make me sound too swotty! 

Bodies of Lies by Jo Callaghan (Simon & Schuster)

Human suspicion. AI manipulation. When truth can be rewritten, who can you trust? DCS Kat Frank is back at the Future Policing Unit after a devastating loss - and straight into her most disturbing case yet. On Halloween night, a local MP is found murdered. Beside the body is a taunting message in binary code, aimed directly at Kat: Catch me if you can. The victim was a vocal opponent of AI. The motive looks political. But as Kat investigates with her partner, AIDE Lock - the world’s first AI detective - the case spirals into something far more dangerous. Then a cyberattack takes down the National Grid. With the country in chaos and lives on the line, Kat and Lock must track a killer who is always one step ahead. But in a world of deepfakes, deception and digital ghosts, instinct is no longer enough. Kat must decide whether to trust the one thing she still fears most: her AI partner. Because this time, Lock may not just be solving the case. He may be changing what it means to be human. Can Kat stop a killer before the lights go out for good?

Information about programme and ticket sales including on line tickets can be found here.

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In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Sarah Vaughan

Name: - Sarah Vaughan

Job: - Author

Website: - https://www.sarahvaughanauthor.com

Instagram: - @svaughanauthor

Facebook: - @Sarah Vaughan Author

Introduction: -

Sarah Vaughan is a former journalist turned author.  Her first two novels are women’s fiction. Her first political thriller Anatomy of a Scandal was published in 2018 and was a Sunday Times bestseller and is now a global Netflix limited series. Her second crime book Little Disasters was published in 2020 and was shown in May 2025 on Paramount Plus. Reputation has been optioned by the team behind Anatomy of a Scandal. Her most recent book is entitled Based on a True Story.

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

I’ve just read Sabine Durrant’s superb Dead Heat which features an unreliable narrator anti-hero and has really Ripley and Gatsby vibes.  As with her Lie With Me, she is excellent at capturing the precariousness of being an outsider and the oppressiveness of Greek heat.

Why do you think anti-heroes are so interesting to readers?

I think we love a psychological puzzle. No one wants to read about an anodyne character: we want to know what motivates deeply flawed, even villainous, characters. And when they’re extreme – and criminal – they make us feel better about ourselves.

Which two anti-heroes or enemies would you invite to dinner and why?

Tom Ripley and Iago. Think of their waspishness. Thankfully I don’t smoke, so I don’t possess an ash tray.

How do you relax?

A bit of a cliché but “getting out in nature”. In an ideal world, that means walking on a Cornish cliff. Day to day, it’s walking my dog Olive in the fields near my home. Sitting at a desk all day is terrible for one’s posture and I feel scratchy if I don’t get out first thing. Swimming – which I don’t do enough of; holidays; meals with family and friends; reading in bed. Having said that, I’m currently finishing a book so feel a constant low thrum of anxiety.

Which anti-hero would you like to be on your side in a difficult situation.

The one with the least scruples.

If you were to write a book involving an anti-hero, where would you set it and why?

I love London and think it lends itself brilliantly to anti-heroes: think of the potential for deception, for getting deliberately lost, and to reinvention. But my son’s about to go off to university in the north-east and I’m looking forward to exploring Northumberland (I can’t keep setting books in north Cornwall.) It feels remote and beautiful.

How would you describe your latest published book?

Based on a True Story is a feminised King Lear about power lies and family narratives which starts with a body found on a storm-lashed north Cornwall beach. Famed children’s author Dame Eleanor Kingman has gathered family and friends to celebrate her 70^th birthday and her latest number one bestseller. But someone’s been sending emails threatening to expose a secret she’s kept for half a century. With a TV documentary crew arriving to film a retrospective, can she unearth her nemesis and maintain the fiction on which her multi-million-pound career depends?

With Bad Apples: crime fiction’s enemies and anti-hero’s theme at St Hilda's this year, who are you three favourite anti-heroes?

At the risk of being horribly unoriginal: Ripley, Iago, Moriarty.

Which 3 films or television series featuring anti-heroes would you rewatch and why?

I adore Succession. How many anti-heroes does it have? Not just Logan Roy and his kids but the like of Lukas Matsson (played by Alexander Skarsgard) who sends frozen bricks of his blood to an employee with whom he’d been involved.

I’ve just watched The Beast in Me. Matthew Rhys’ Nile Jarvis is not so much an anti-hero as a psychopath and is horribly compelling.

Talking of Alexander Skarsgard, he also excelled at being charming and then toxic in Big Little Lies (where he is not so much anti-hero as outright villain.)

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

Writing’s such a solitary job and I thrived best, career-wise, when I worked in a cramped lobby room: I miss the banter of fellow journalists, so I’m giddy about being with other writers for a weekend. And, having spent three gorgeous years at Oxford, I’m looking forward to pretending I live there again. I used to plod round Christ Church meadow so might even manage that.

Based on a True Story by Sarah Vaughan (Simon & Schuster Ltd)

All families have secrets. But it's the lies that can kill. A lavish 70th birthday party. A body found on a storm-lashed beach. And a secret that someone is dying to tell...  Famed children’s author Dame Eleanor Kingman has summoned her family and friends to her exquisite manor house on the cliffs. They're celebrating her birthday – and her latest number one bestseller in her series of books based on a mother fox and her cubs. But the night before the party, Eleanor receives an email: an email that threatens to expose the lie she’s kept up for over half a century. Someone knows her secret. Is it her estranged literary agent? Is it her ex-husband, to whom she no longer speaks? Is it the nanny she fired all those years ago, who always did have a knack for storytelling? Or is it one of her three daughters, all of whom have a stake in the publishing empire she has built... With a TV crew arriving to film a documentary of her life, Eleanor needs to find out who sent the email – and preserve her multimillion-pound career. But when push comes to shove, and it's time to tell the truth - will anyone actually believe her?

 More information about St Hilda's and how to purchase online tickets can be found here.

#HCFW26