CrimeFest to End After 16 Years

 

CrimeFest, one of the UK’s leading crime fiction events hosted in Bristol each year, has announced 2025 will be its final convention.

In a statement announcing the closure, Adrian Muller, co-founder, co-host and director of CrimeFest, said: “It is with sadness – but great pride – that we announce that our sixteenth CrimeFest, which takes place from 15-18 May 2025, will be the final one.”

Inspired by a visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention, the first CrimeFest was held in June 2008. CrimeFest is a convention run by fans of the genre, initially organised by Myles Allfrey, Liz Hatherell, Adrian Muller, and Donna Moore, and more recently hosted by the latter two.

Whereas most crime fiction events are invite-only, with a fixed programme of authors, CrimeFest offers a more democratic model. As a convention, any commercially published author can sign up to appear on a panel.

Adrian Muller said: “CrimeFest provides many authors with a platform they would not have been offered elsewhere in the UK. And, subsequently, readers discover and meet writers they otherwise may never have heard of. During CrimeFest, all delegates – be they authors or readers – come together as equals to celebrate the genre they love.”

Taking place across four days, each year CrimeFest showcases around 150 authors across more than 50 panels; over the years, 1,100 authors will have appeared at the event.

CrimeFest also invites Featured and Highlighted guests, securing major authors including Cathy Ace, Lee Child, Ann Cleeves, Martina Cole, Michael Connelly, Jeffrey Deaver, Sue Grafton, Anthony Horowitz, P.D. James, Lynda La Plante, and Ian Rankin.

Lee Child attended the very first convention, and was a Featured Guest at the fifth and tenth anniversaries of CrimeFest.

Lee Child said: "Sadly all good things come to an end - and Adrian Muller's Bristol CrimeFest was one of the very best things ever. It was a warm, friendly, relaxed and inclusive festival, hugely enjoyable for authors and readers alike. Myles, Liz, Donna and Adrian, their team of volunteers - and Dame Mary from Specsavers - have my sincere thanks for many delightful weekends over the years."

The event is sponsored by Specsavers. 

Co-founder of Specsavers, Dame Mary Perkins, who will be attending again next year, praised the event: “I am an avid reader and fan of the genre, and I always look forward to CrimeFest. It is so friendly, and it feels like all who go are welcomed as part of a big family, connected by a love of books, and reading. We are proud sponsors and I will miss CrimeFest and the camaraderie very much.”

Adrian added: “Thanks to the support of Specsavers, our highly valued sponsor, we introduced reduced cost Community Passes for UK school and public librarians, students and for people on benefits. In 2021 we also created an annual bursary for crime fiction authors of colour. We’ve run community projects at local schools in the community; donated books to many schools and libraries across Bristol and the UK; our anthology Ten Year Stretch and our raffles each year have raised thousands of pounds for the Royal National Institute of Blind People, and the seven awards we present each year celebrate crime fiction, non-fiction, TV and crime fiction for children and young adults – the latter two being the first in the UK. We are immensely proud of these initiatives.”

Author and co-host of CrimeFest, Donna Moore, said: “CrimeFest is a labour of love for us and our volunteers. We are immensely grateful to the authors, readers, publishers, booksellers, sponsors, volunteers, and a whole host of other people who have supported us over the years.”

The organisers promise to say goodbye “in style”, with the attendance of some big-name authors to celebrate its 16 years.

The final CrimeFest takes place 15-18 May at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel

 

Photo shows organisers Adrian Muller and Donna Moore with Specsaver's co-founder (and headline sponsor), Dame Mary Perkins, photo credit Gary Stratmann.

 

The Island of Lies an apology

 

I have to make an apology.

It was only meant to be a small, private joke – a bit of fun – because there's precious little of that in most crime fiction pages.

I'd just spent four years on the Faroes trilogy, writing a story which didn't shy away from the bleaker side of multiple murders. So, having brought The Fire Pit to a rather graphic and dark conclusion, I was ready for a change of mood. 

The trouble is, I've always been rather pedantic about accuracy in police procedure. My personal (and slightly neurotic) worry is that someone will read one of my books and then point out that I've made a basic technical mistake. As a result, I tend to be rather obsessive about research and getting things right. If a plot calls for someone to discover a corpse, then – for reality's sake – I usually feel obliged not to shy away from the unavoidable consequences of that situation, whether I like it or not.

But after the Faroes books I was disinclined to leap straight back into writing more grim reality, so I started to wonder whether I could dispense with that for a while. In fact, what if there was a way to write a crime novel where I didn't feel constrained by accurate procedure and realism? What if, instead, I made the rules and perhaps set the story in a fictional time and location, so no one could tell me I'd got it wrong? 

I may have had a touch of cabin-fever at the time, I suppose, but it seemed like the perfect solution to lighten the mood. 

I'd like to say "and so, before long, Citizen Detective was born", but that wouldn't be true.

I could have guessed that creating an entire society from scratch – as well as the plot of a decent murder mystery – can't be done quickly. However, I also discovered that it's really quite liberating to dispense with gritty realism and simply let your imagination off the lead for a run.

So, the world I eventually came up with was that of Citizen Detective (Grade III) Arne Blöm. He is a very small cog in the machinery which regulates an oppressive authoritarian society, perhaps not dissimilar to East Germany in the fifties or Sweden under the Communists.

Most of Blöm's working day consists of filling out forms (some realism there), padding his timesheet, and trying to avoid saying anything contentious or unpatriotic which might be overheard by the State bugs in the light fitting. But then, of course, there are deaths, which seem unrelated until Blöm is summoned to the sinister Ministry of Governance and Homeland and discovers that things are not as they seem with the State apparatus.

Generally speaking, I was quietly pleased with the book and the small alternative world I'd created. It had been fun to write, which was all I intended, but when I showed it to "a friend in the industry" they were a little sceptical.

Yes, they agreed, it was a sort of crime novel, but was it hard-boiled or comfy crime; a mystery, a police procedural and/or Scandi-noir? How would I categorise it?

Well, I supposed it was a bit of all those, I said, but that didn't help. It turns out publishers don't have a category for something which is a "bit of all of those" (with a little sardonic humour thrown in), and if it can't be categorised it's a no-go. Apparently the marketing algorithms would have a melt-down.

So.

If you're a professional writer you have to accept that the requirements of publishers and TV companies are usually pretty inflexible. If they expected you to produce a gritty noir thriller and you give them something set in a country which doesn't exist and featuring a middle-aged detective who spends much of his time worrying about the repair of his brogues, well, they're not going to be terribly enthusiastic. 

All of which I knew, so I wasn't particularly surprised or disappointed. Citizen Detective was never supposed to be more than a break from realism for my own entertainment and it had served that purpose. 

Of course, being a writer it's always nice to be read, so I told my "friend in the industry" that I'd simply set the book free on Kindle. In these wonderful egalitarian times of independent publishing that's not hard to do, so why not?

"Bad idea," says my friend. "People will think it's one of your proper crime novels and then find out it isn't. They won't be happy."

Because my friend is a wise and serious person I thought about this. But I liked Blöm; I liked the story, even if it wasn't a "proper crime novel", and it seemed a shame just to put it away in a drawer. But then it occurred to me that this might actually be an opportunity to add another layer of intrigue and misdirection to the whole world of Blöm. 

What if I never claimed to have actually written the book? Then no one would expect my usual, realistic style. Instead I could say I'd simply "translated" it from a work by a dissident, underground author named O. Huldumann, writing at the time of the events he describes. I could even add a short afterword, describing how I first "discovered" a copy of the original book (a cult classic, of course) and how little is known about who Huldumann was. 

And so that's what I did. I thought it was fun to pile construct on construct, and so did some other people who not only figured out what had gone on, but actively joined in with the Great Huldumann Mystery. They know who they are. 

Trouble is, I might have been a little more convincing than I really intended to be, because I now discover there are some people who don't realise it was all make-believe. 

So, I'm coming clean here. I'd like to apologise if anyone misunderstood, and I now wish to categorically state that Citizen Detective and The Island Of Lies are not proper crime novels (even if there's a detective and multiple deaths to be solved). And, yes, O. Huldumann is as fictional as Arne Blöm and the world he inhabits. 

Sorry.

But I still had fun and I'm not sorry for that.

The Islands of Lies by O Huldumann (Translated by Chris Ould) Corylus Books

In the midst of Capital City's November crime wave Citizen Detective (Grade III) Arne Blöm finds himself appointed as a Konstable of the State Court and tasked with the arrest and detention of a man he's pretty sure is actually dead. However, being the Detective he is, Blöm quickly discovers that his assignment to the island of Huish has more sinister undertones. Faced with a series of strange and similar deaths, Blöm dispenses with traditional methods for solving the crimes and begins to suspect that certain sections of the island's population are not what they seem, nor as harmless as they might appear…

My Favourite reads of 2024

My favourite reads this year have spanned spy thrillers, a debut novel an end of a trilogy, translated novels and a contemporary topical thriller to name few. They are as follows in alphabetical order.

The Sparrow & The Peacock by I S Berry (No Exit Press/Bedford Square Publishers)

Shane Collins, a world-weary CIA spy, is ready to come in from the cold. Stationed in Bahrain for his final tour, he's anxious to dispense with his mission — uncovering Iranian support for the insurgency. But then he meets Almaisa, an enigmatic artist, and his eyes are opened to a side of Bahrain most expats never experience, to questions he never thought to ask. When his trusted informant becomes embroiled in a murder, Collins finds himself drawn deep into the conflict, his romance and loyalties upended. In an instant, he's caught in the crosswinds of a revolution. He sets out to learn the truth behind the Arab Spring, win Almaisa's love, and uncover the murky border where Bahrain's secrets end and America's begin.

The Waiting by Michael Connelly (Orion Publishing)

LAPD Detective Renée Ballard tracks a terrifying serial rapist whose trail has gone cold with the help of the newest volunteer to the Open-Unsolved Unit: Patrol Officer Maddie Bosch, Harry's daughter. Renée Ballard and the LAPD's Open-Unsolved Unit get a hot shot DNA connection between a recently arrested man and a serial rapist and murderer who went quiet twenty years ago. The arrested man is only twenty-three, so the genetic link must be familial. It is his father who was the Pillowcase Rapist, responsible for a five-year reign of terror in the city of angels. But when Ballard and her team move in on their suspect, they encounter a baffling web of secrets and legal hurdles. Meanwhile, Ballard's badge, gun, and ID are stolen-a theft she can't report without giving her enemies in the department the ammunition they need to end her career as a detective. She works the burglary alone, but her solo mission leads her into greater danger than she anticipates. She has no choice but to go outside the department for help, and that leads her to the door of Harry Bosch. Finally, Ballard takes on a new volunteer to the cold case unit. Bosch's daughter Maddie wants to supplement her work as a patrol officer on the night beat by investigating cases with Ballard. But Renée soon learns that Maddie has an ulterior motive for getting access to the city's library of lost souls.

Karla’s Choice by Nick Harkaway (Penguin Books)

It is spring in 1963 and George Smiley has left the Circus. With the wreckage of the West's spy war with the Soviets strewn across Europe, he has eyes only on a more peaceful life. And indeed, with his marriage more secure than ever, there is a rumour in Whitehall – unconfirmed and a little scandalous – that George Smiley might almost be happy. But Control has other plans. A Russian agent has defected in the most unusual of circumstances, and the man he was sent to kill in London is nowhere to be found. Smiley reluctantly agrees to one last simple task: interview Susanna, a Hungarian émigré and employee of the missing man, and sniff out a lead. But in his absence the shadows of Moscow have lengthened. Smiley will soon find himself entangled in a perilous mystery that will define the battles to come, and strike at the heart of his greatest enemy… Karla's Choice is set in the missing decade between two iconic instalments in the George Smiley saga, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold and Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy and  is an extraordinary, thrilling return to the world of spy fiction's greatest writer, John le Carré.

Hotel Lucky Seven by Kotaro Isaka (Vintage Publishing)

A luxury hotel full of assassins - what could go wrong? Nanao ‘the unluckiest assassin in the world’ has been hired to deliver a birthday present to a guest at a luxury Tokyo Hotel. It seems like a simple assignment but by the time he leaves the guest's room one man is dead and more will soon follow. As events spiral out of control as it becomes clear several different killers, with varying missions, are all taking a stay in the hotel at the same time. And they're all particularly interested in a young woman with a photographic memory, hiding out on one of the twenty floors. Will Nanao find the truth about what’s going on? And will he check out alive?

Imposter Syndrome by Joseph Knox (Transworld Publishers)

'When you’re living a lie, you find it’s best to avoid close attachments…’ Lynch, a burned out con-artist, arrives, broke, in London, trying not to dwell on the mistakes that got him there. When he bumps into Bobbie, a rehab-bound heiress - and when she briefly mistakes him for her missing brother - Lynch senses the opportunity, as well as the danger… Bobbie’s brother, Heydon, was a troubled young man. Five years ago, he walked out of the family home and never went back. His car was found parked on a bridge overlooking the Thames, in the early hours of the same morning. Unsettled by Bobbie’s story, and suffering from a rare attack of conscience, Lynch tries to back off. But when Bobbie leaves for rehab the following day, he finds himself drawn to her luxurious family home, and into a meeting with her mother, the formidable Miranda. Seeing the same resemblance that her daughter did, Miranda proposes she hire Lynch to assume her son’s identity, in a last-ditch effort to try and flush out his killer. As Lynch begins to impersonate him, dark forces are lured out of the shadows, and he realises too late that Heydon wasn’t paranoid at all. Someone was watching his every move, and they’ll kill to keep it a secret. For the first time, Lynch is in a life or death situation he can’t lie his way out of.

Guide Me Home by Attica Locke (Profile Books)

Texas Ranger Darren Mathews has handed in his badge. A choice made three years before, which served justice if not the law, means that he may now stand trial. And his mother - an intermittent and destructive force in his life - is the cause of his fall from grace.And yet it is his mother's reappearance that may also be his salvation. A black girl at an all-white sorority at a nearby college is missing, her belongings tossed in a dumpster. Her sorority sisters, the college police, even the girl's own family, deny that she has disappeared, but Sera Fuller is nowhere to be found. A bloodstained shirt discovered in a woodland clearing may be the last trace of her. And Darren's mother wants her son to work the case. Disillusioned by an America forever changed by the presidency of Donald Trump, Darren reluctantly agrees. Yet as he sets out to find a girl whose family don't want her found, it is his own family's history that may be brought painfully into the light. And a reckoning with his past may finally show Darren the future he can build.And yet it is his mother's reappearance that may also be his salvation. A black girl at an all-white sorority at a nearby college is missing, her belongings tossed in a dumpster. Her sorority sisters, the college police, even the girl's own family, deny that she has disappeared, but Sera Fuller is nowhere to be found. A bloodstained shirt discovered in a woodland clearing may be the last trace of her. And Darren's mother wants her son to work the case.Disillusioned by an America forever changed by the presidency of Donald Trump, Darren reluctantly agrees. Yet as he sets out to find a girl whose family don't want her found, it is his own family's history that may be brought painfully into the light. And a reckoning with his past may finally show Darren the future he can build.

Moscow X by David McCloskey (Swift Press)

A daring CIA operation threatens chaos in the Kremlin. Its execution is foiled by a Russian woman with secret loyalties CIA operatives Sia and Max enter Russia to recruit Vladimir Putin's moneyman. Sia works for a London firm that conceals the wealth of the super-rich. Max's family business in Mexico - a CIA front since the 1960s - is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple, and their targets are Vadim, Putin's private banker, and his wife Anna, who is both a banker and an intelligence officer. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max's hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own. Careening between the horse ranch and the dark opulence of Saint Petersburg, Moscow X is both a gripping thriller of modern espionage and a daring work of political commentary on the conflict between Washington and Moscow.

Hunted by Abir Mukherjee (Vintage Publishing)

You can't save your kids. But can you stop them? It's a week before the presidential elections when a bomb goes off in an LA shopping mall. In London, armed police storm Heathrow Airport and arrest Sajid Khan. His daughter, Aliyah entered the USA with the suicide bomber, and now she's missing, potentially plotting another attack on American soil. But then a woman called Carrie turns up at Sajid's door after travelling halfway across the world. She claims Aliyah is with her son and she has a clue to their whereabouts. Carrie knows something isn't adding up - and that she and Sajid are the only ones who can find their children and discover the truth. On the run from the authorities, the two parents are thrown together in a race against time to save their kids and stop a catastrophe that will derail the country's future forever.

White City by Dominic Nolan (Headline Publishing)

It's 1952, and London is victorious but broken, a city of war ruins and rationing, run by gangsters and black-market spivs.  An elaborate midnight heist, the biggest robbery in British history, sends newspapers into a frenzy. Politicians are furious, the police red-faced. They have suspicions but no leads. Hunches but no proof. For two families, it is more than just a sensational headline, as their fathers fail to return home on the day of the robbery. Young Addie Rowe, daughter of a missing Jamaican postman and drunk ex-club hostess mother, struggles to care for her little sister in a dilapidated Brixton rooming house.  Claire Martin, increasingly resentful of roads not taken, strives to make the rent and keep her teenage son Ray from falling under unsavoury influences in Notting Dale. She finds herself caught between the interests of dangerous men who may know the truth behind her husband's disappearance: Dave Lander, whose reserved nature she finds difficult to reconcile with his reputation as a violent gang enforcer, and Teddy 'Mother' Nunn, a sociopathic, evangelising outlaw and top lieutenant in Billy Hill's underworld. Drawn together through the years in the city's invisible web of crime and poverty, the fates of the broken families and violent men collide in 1958, as the West Indian community of Notting Hill's slums come under attack from thugs and Teddy Boys. For Addie, Claire, Dave and Mother, old scores will be settled and new dreams chased in the crucible of London's violent summer.

Holmes and Moriarty by Gareth Rubin (Simon and Schuster Ltd) 

Two adversaries. One deadly alliance. Together, can they unlock the truth? Sherlock Holmes and his faithful friend, Dr John Watson, have been hired by actor George Reynolds to help him solve a puzzle. George wants them to find out why the audience who comes to see him perform every night are the same people, only wearing disguises. Is something sinister going on and, if so, what? Meanwhile, Holmes’ archenemy, Professor James Moriarty is having problems of his own. Implicated in the murder of a gang leader, Moriarty and his second, Moran, must go on the run from the police in order to find out who is behind the set-up. But their investigation puts them in the way of Holmes and Watson and it’s not long before all four realise that they are being targeted by the same person. With lives on the line, not just their own, they must form an uneasy alliance in order to unmask the true villain. With clues leading them to a hotel in Switzerland and a conspiracy far greater than any of them expected, who can be trusted – and will anyone of them survive?

The Hitchcock Hotel by Stephanie Wrobel (Penguin Books)

Alfred Smettle adores Hitchcock. And who better to become founder, owner and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a remote, sprawling Victorian house sitting atop a hill in the beautiful White Mountains, New England. There, guests can find movie props and memorabilia in every room, round-the-clock film screenings, and an aviary with fifty crows. For the hotel's first anniversary, Alfred invites the five college friends he studied film with. He hasn't spoken to any of them in sixteen years.  Not after what happened. But who better to appreciate Alfred's creation? His guests arrive, and everything seems to go according to plan. Until one glimpses someone standing outside her shower curtain. Another is violently ill every time she eats the hotel food. Then their mobile phones go missing. You should always make the audience suffer as much as possible, right? The guests are stuck in the middle of nowhere, and things are about to get even worse. After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a dead body.

Butter by Asako Yuzuki (HarperCollins Publishers)

The cult Japanese bestseller about a female gourmet cook and serial killer and the journalist intent on cracking her case, inspired by a true story. There are two things that I can simply not tolerate: feminists and margarine Gourmet cook Manako Kajii sits in Tokyo Detention Centre convicted of the serial murders of lonely businessmen, who she is said to have seduced with her delicious home cooking. The case has captured the nation's imagination but Kajii refuses to speak with the press, entertaining no visitors. That is, until journalist Rika Machida writes a letter asking for her recipe for beef stew and Kajii can't resist writing back. Rika, the only woman in her news office, works late each night, rarely cooking more than ramen. As the visits unfold between her and the steely Kajii, they are closer to a masterclass in food than journalistic research. Rika hopes this gastronomic exchange will help her soften Kajii but it seems that she might be the one changing. With each meal she eats, something is awakening in her body, might she and Kaji have more in common than she once thought? Inspired by the real case of the convicted con woman and serial killer, "The Konkatsu Killer", Asako Yuzuki's Butter is a vivid, unsettling exploration of misogyny, obsession, romance and the transgressive pleasures of food in Japan.

Honourable mentions go to  -

The Instruments of Darkness by John Connolly (Hodder and Stoughton)

In Maine, Colleen Clark stands accused of the worst crime a mother can commit: the abduction and possible murder of her child. Everyone - ambitious politicians in an election season, hardened police, ordinary folk - has an opinion on the case, and most believe she is guilty. But most is not all. Defending Colleen is the lawyer Moxie Castin, and working alongside him is the private investigator Charlie Parker, who senses the tale has another twist, one involving a husband too eager to accept his wife's guilt, a disgraced psychic seeking redemption, and an old twisted house deep in the Maine woods, a house that should never have been built. A house, and what dwells beneath.

A Beginners Guide to Breaking and Entering by Andrew Hunter Murray (Cornerstone)

Property might be theft. But the housing market is murder. My name is Al. I live in wealthy people's second homes while their real owners are away. I don't rob them, I don't damage anything... I'm more an unofficial house-sitter than an actual criminal. Life is good. Or it was - until last night, when my friends and I broke into the wrong place, on the wrong day, and someone wound up dead. And now... now we’re in a great deal of trouble. Featuring crooked houses, dodgy coppers and a lot of lockpicking, A Beginner's Guide to Breaking and Entering is a gripping thriller about what it's like to be young, skilled, unemployed - and on the run.

Holmes, Margaret and Poe by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (Century)

Brendan Holmes, Margaret Marple and Auguste Poe run the most in-demand private investigation agency in New York City. The three detectives make a formidable team, solving a series of seemingly impossible crimes which expose the dark underbelly of the city - from a priceless art theft, high-stakes kidnapping and a decades-old unsolved murder, to a gruesome subterranean prison and corruption and bribery at the highest levels of power. But it's not long before their headline-grabbing breakthroughs, unconventional methods - and untraceable pasts - attract the attention of the NYPD and the FBI. After all, it's no surprise that there's a mystery or two to unravel in the city that never sleeps . . . not least, who really are Holmes, Margaret and Poe?

Midnight and Blue by Ian Rankin (Orion)

John Rebus spent his life as a detective putting Edinburgh's most deadly criminals behind bars. Now, he's joined them. As new allies and old enemies circle, and the days and nights bleed into each other, even the legendary detective struggles to keep his head. That is, until a murder at midnight in a locked cell presents a new mystery. They say old habits die hard... However, this is a case where the prisoners and the guards are all suspects, and everyone has something to hide.  With no badge, no authority and no safety net, Rebus walks a tightrope - with his life on the line. But how do you find a killer in a place full of them?

Winner of the Joffe Books Prize 2024 announced

 

Joffe Books is delighted to announce the winner of the Joffe Books Prize 2024: Rupa Mahadevan, for her addictive and atmospheric psychological thriller, The Goddess of Death. She receives a two-book publishing deal with Joffe Books, a £1,000 cash prize and a £25,000 audiobook deal from Audible for the first book. This is Britain’s biggest crime prize.

The Joffe Books Prize for Crime Writers of Colour was established in 2021 to actively seek out writers from communities that are underrepresented in crime fiction and support them in building sustainable careers, while simultaneously discovering brilliant new talent to join our bestselling list.

This year, submissions included gritty police procedurals, classic cosy crime whodunnits and ambitious sci-fi thrillers. 

The judges, including A.A. Chaudhuri, bestselling author of She’s Mine, literary agent Gyamfia Osei from Andrew Nurnberg Associates, Emma Grundy Haigh, former editorial director at Joffe Books and Jasmine Callaghan, commissioning editor, considered each manuscript in terms of both the strength of the writing and marketability. The judges unanimously awarded the Joffe Books Prize 2024 to Rupa Mahadevan.

From the judges: “This is a tense, fast-paced psychological thriller, with overlapping layers of intrigue and flawed narrators — all of whom have secrets. The eerie setting is fantastic and really adds to the undercurrent of unease and build-up of suspense. A truly gripping thriller with a fresh edge that sets it apart.”

Rupa Mahadevan grew up on the southern coast of India and has called Scotland home for over 15 years. She currently lives in Edinburgh with her husband and two children. When she is not grappling with Excel in her day job, she loves to read and dream up stories of her own. Her passion for becoming a published author is one step closer thanks to Joffe's Books and their commitment to promoting underrepresented authors.

Rupa says: “Winning the Joffe Books Prize is an absolute dream come true. As a writer, especially a writer of colour, it’s so easy to let insecurities take over. This win has given the writer in me the biggest validation, and I couldn’t be more grateful. I’m deeply honoured and thrilled to be working with Joffe Books, whose dedication to promoting underrepresented voices has made this incredible milestone possible.”

Jasmine Callaghan says: “It has been such an honour to have had the opportunity to read the fantastic submissions from so many amazingly talented writers. From the get-go, Rupa’s gripping psychological thriller stood out for its strong hook, tension-filled narrative and unreliable, well-nuanced cast of characters, and the judges’ decision was unanimous. Congratulations, Rupa!”

The synopsis reads: “A reunion of friends during the Hindu Dolls festival on the stormy island of Oban, Scotland, takes a deadly turn when a stabbed doll is found under a goddess statue. Leela (An outsider who has recently married a member of the group) is sure it foretells death.”

Lou Gilmond: On researching for PALISADE

 It started with an honourable member: Harry Colbey, although he wasn’t always called that. The member of parliament for Gloucester East had several names before that one stuck, and even then, I had to rob from the grave.

That’s the problem with research. It throws up complications. Neither the man nor the parliamentary constituency exist, but I write political thrillers set in Westminster and like to make sure there are no unfortunate coincidences. No accidental similarities of name that might set tongues wagging and confuse fiction with fact. Particularly since corruption and the choice between right and wrong are major themes of my Kanha and Colbey series of political thrillers.

As I was writing Dirty Geese, the first in the series, I was at the same time digging into MPs connected to scandal. Firstly, to ping out ideas for plot twists for that book and Palisade, the next in the series. But also, to be sure I didn’t use names for my two MP protagonists that were similar to those of anyone who really existed, particularly if linked to disgraceful goings-on or – as it tends to be called when connected to our politicians – sleaze.

Before I turned to writing, I worked for many years in regulatory affairs, which often involved lobbying MPs, ministers, and civil servants. During that time, I visited both the Houses of Parliament and the government departments of Whitehall on a regular basis, and even No 10 on occasion. It didn’t matter how many times I went, I still felt it an honour to be there; to stand, for example, in central lobby, an octagonal room at the centre of the Houses of Parliament and the beating heart of Westminster. Anyone can meet or lobby an MP in this room. It sits at a crossroads, one corridor leading off it to the Lords and another, on the other side, to the Commons. It is a place where members of both sides of the commons and members of both houses meet and mingle, and where the lobby press can interview ministers and backbenchers alike.

From my time visiting Westminster, I had a good grounding on the culture there and of the differing characters of MPs, of ministers and civil servants, but I’m one of those writers who like to be thorough when it comes to research, so I dug on in.

Affairs, theft, bribery, blackmail and sexual harassment: that was just for starters. Call girls, rent boys, aggressive pimps who call late at night, inappropriate content on computers, watching pornography at work, misrepresentation of educations and prior careers, drugs in the workplace, drugs outside of the workplace, vendettas, violence, and fraud.

It seemed that if there was a list of things that MPs shouldn’t be doing, every single item on it had been covered off in some form or other, at some time other.

It didn’t take too long to discover that the name I had chosen for one of my protagonists bore a resemblance to that of a real-life MP connected to one of the more salacious events in my research notes. I won’t say which one. Just a single letter differentiated their surnames. Annoying. The name of my male protagonist had to change. I picked another, and as my research continued, found the exact same thing happened again. Frustrating.

The name of a protagonist is an important cornerstone of any book and as I floundered about, my male protagonist was nameless while that first book, Dirty Geese was written. Then, at the last minute, when the manuscript was due in to my editor, I saw a name on a grave in a little churchyard on the south coast. ’Colbey.’ It was perfect. An honourable sounding name for an honourable MP, and as far as I knew – or to put it more accurately as far as google was aware – there had not been a British MP with that name since Thomas Colby died in 1588, and his version of the name had a different spelling. The given name of Harry came easily after that.

Harry Colbey, a truly honourable member of parliament. A rare and fine thing.

By the time I came to write Palisade, Harry Colbey felt as real as any of the MPs I met with in my time lobbying or in my subsequent research. He was an honest man, a family man, his kids grown up and just recently flown the nest. He had disappointed his wife with his choice of career, leaving his relatively well-paid position at a bank to stand for parliament.

His plan had been to serve his constituents well and represent their interests in the House of Commons to the best of his ability. He had had a brief moment of political stardom, promoted to a junior minister early on, but he wouldn’t do what they told him. He wouldn’t compromise his morals to toe the party line, so he had been kicked back to the backbenches.

There he disappeared from view, working quietly and tirelessly on behalf of his constituents, all ambition for advancement forgotten, much to his wife’s embarrassment and shame. But when Colbey uncovers a corrupt plot between senior ministers and a big tech organisation, he feels he must abandon his hopes of a quiet slide towards retirement and instead stand up and fight for what he believes in, no matter the cost.

Both Palisade, and its predecessor, Dirty Geese, are thrillers that look at corrupt links between politicians and big tech organisations, particularly those who now have advanced AI capabilities at their fingertips. They can be read standalone, or picked up in any order, as each book looks at different aspect of the same conspiracy – although chronologically, Dirty Geese comes first.

I tried hard to make sure that the politics within them is reflective of the way our parliamentary processes really work, or to be more accurate, on occasion don’t work. But both Dirty Geese and Palisade are crime thrillers at heart and they each start with a murder. They both involve jeopardy, deceit, international conspiracy, corruption and a whole catalogue of twists and turns. And they each turn on the hope that there is at least one MP out there who will do what needs to be done, who will stand up and say what needs to be said, and that is the honourable Harry Colbey.

 Palisade by Lou Gilmond (Fairlight Books) Out Now

When opposition Chief Whip Esme Kanha is handed a secret dossier containing evidence of government corruption, she suspects its original owner, a top journalist, was murdered for gathering it. Despite the danger, she feels she must investigate. Meanwhile, lowly backbencher Harry Colbey is working his own leads. A known campaigner against big tech, he is often sent data from anonymous sources and this time round he has something truly alarming. But both Colbey and Kanha must tread carefully in a world dominated by AI, where 'what can see watches, what can hear listens, and what can be followed is tracked'. As Kanha and Colbey again join forces, they are locked into a deadly race against political corruption, no matter what the cost. But when an old enemy returns, it may already be too la

Palisade by Lou Gilmond is published on 21st November and is available to buy in bookshops now.

More information about Lou Gilmond can be found on her website. You can also find her on Instagram @lougilmond

CrimeFest ’25 to Feature Exclusive le Carré Event

 

Le Carré’s sons feature in event in honour of their father.

CrimeFest, one of the UK’s leading crime fiction conventions, will feature an exclusive John le Carré event featuring the author’s two sons.

Considered one of the greatest novelists of the postwar era, the ‘Ghost of Honour’ panel sees le Carré’s son, Nick Harkaway, discuss his latest novel, Karla’s Choice. In the book, Nick brought back one of his father’s most famous literary creations – George Smiley.

The panel also welcomes Le Carre’s older son, the film producer Simon Cornwell, who is the CEO and co-founder of the independent studio, The Ink Factory. He is currently executive producing the much-anticipated second season of The Night Manager for Amazon and the BBC, starring Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman.

Further guests for the panel are to be announced.

Director and co-founder of CrimeFest, Adrian Muller, said: “As a genre, crime fiction dominates our TV and film screens, and John le Carré is undoubtedly a seminal influence. It’s a huge honour to welcome his sons. We’re excited to discuss Nick’s acclaimed novel, and to get an exclusive look into the upcoming adaptations of le Carré’s iconic novels with Simon.”

CrimeFest, sponsored by Specsavers, is hosted from 15 to 18 May 2025 at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, when up to 150 authors are expected to descend on Bristol appearing in over 50 panels. It attracts regular delegates from as far as Australia, the Far East, Canada, the United States, and mainland Europe.

Also confirmed for 2025 is the Canadian mystery writer, Cathy Ace. Cathy's Cait Morgan Mysteries have been optioned for TV by the production company, Free@Last TV, which is behind the hit series, Agatha Raisin.

Vaseem Khan, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA), has also been confirmed as 2025’s Gala Dinner’s 'Leader of Toasts' for the 2025 CrimeFest awards. Vaseem is author of the Malabar House historical crime series set in Bombay. His first psychological thriller, The Girl in Cell A is out in May 2025.

Considered as one of the most democratic of crime fiction events, CrimeFest is open to all published authors and known for its inclusive approach. To appear on a panel, authors – or their publishers - simply sign up as a delegate to take part. Authors have until the end of November to sign up to be featured in the 2025 convention.

The convention began in 2008 and attracts readers, fans, editors, publishers, and reviewers.

Other confirmed names for ’25 include: Andrew Child, who has taken over writing the Jack Reacher novels from his brother Lee; veteran novelist and Diamond Dagger recipient John Harvey, who has written over 100 books, including his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels, and Kate Ellis, winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library award.

First introduced in 2022, the CrimeFest bursary for a crime fiction author of colour returns for a fourth year. The bursary covers the costs of a weekend pass to the convention, with a night’s accommodation and panel appearance. Previous recipients include Saima Mir and Elizabeth Chakrabarty. Entries for 2025 are now open.

The convention also continues its Community Outreach Programme. In partnership with the independent Max Minerva’s Bookshop and participating publishers, CrimeFest gifts thousands of pounds of crime fiction books for children and young adults to school libraries.

With thanks to Specsavers, librarians, students, and those on benefits are offered significantly discounted tickets.

To find out more, or to book your spot as a delegate, go to: https://www.crimefest.com/

 

Winner of 2024 Petrona Award announced

 

The winner of the 2024 Petrona Award for the Best Scandinavian Crime Novel of the Year is: 

DEAD MEN DANCING by Jógvan Isaksen translated from the Faroese by Marita Thomsen and published by Norvik Press. 

Jógvan Isaksen will receive a trophy, and both the author and translator will receive a cash prize. 

The judges’ statement on DEAD MEN DANCING: 

Similar to the story of the ancient god Prometheus, a man has been shackled to rocks on the Faroe Islands, and left to drown on the beach. The discovery of his body throws the local community into an unsettling chaos, and as the journalist Hannis Martinsson investigates, he comes across evidence of similar deaths. He realises they are linked to the events in Klaksvík in the 1950s, and a local revolt which tore the community apart. As Martinsson digs into the troubled past, he learns about his country’s history, and also gives the reader a chance to discover what makes the Faroes intriguing and spellbinding. Being a largely unknown territory to most, Dead Men Dancing includes a useful introduction to the modern reality of these islands by the CEO of the Faroese Broadcasting Corporation, mirrored by the social commentary that lies at the heart of the book itself, and the portrayal of the relationship with Denmark throughout the years. 

This is only Isaksen’s second novel to be translated into English following Walpurgis Tide. This contemporary Faroese crime fiction writer places his characters in the wild, beautiful, and unforgiving environment and allows them to search for truth. The judges found the location to be absolutely integral to the unfolding of the plot, and how the raw natural beauty of the Faroes served as a reflection of the thoughts and actions of the characters.

Dogged and uncompromising, Martinsson is a superb creation, similar in his ‘detective’ thinking and approach to Gunnar Staalesen's lonely wolf PI Varg Veum, which the judging panel found very appealing. Martinsson's gloomy demeanour and natural cynicism was beautifully balanced throughout with the more empathetic side of his nature, and in the age-old tradition of crime fiction his personal and professional relationships are fraught with tension. 

The translation by Marita Thomsen is both accomplished and a little unusual, drawing as she does on the vernacular and intonation of the Scottish dialect. Again, the judges found this to be refreshingly different, and enjoyed the unique cadence and rhythm this gave to the book overall, an essential quality of any book in translation. 

The judges agreed that in Dead Men Dancing the balance between location, plot and characterisation worked well, incorporating some of the familiar tropes of crime fiction, but also providing a refreshingly different reading experience. This was achieved by the depiction of the Faroes themselves and their history, working in symmetry with the narrative, and also by the characterisation of Martinsson, reminiscent of the traditional spare style in Nordic crime fiction. The assured and distinctive translation was also a significant factor in the judges' overall decision. 

Statements from the winning author, translator and publisher:

Jógvan Isaksen (author): 

I feel it is a great honour to win this award, especially when I see that the competition includes several of my favourite Scandinavian authors. I am also proud to represent my country, the Faroe Islands, a self-governing part of the Danish Kingdom with its own language and traditions. Furthermore there are special bonds between the UK and The Faroes since the friendly occupation during World War II. I personally became a member of Collins Crime Club when I was only thirteen, and fought my way through crime novels I could hardly read. But at last I got there and have for many years been an admirer of Agatha Christie, Dorothy Sayers, Eric Ambler, Colin Dexter, Ian Rankin and many, many more. 

Marita Thomsen (translator): 

It was thrilling to translate the Faroese novel Dead Men Dancing and a great honour to receive the Petrona Award. I am privileged to find myself in the company of the master crafters of stories and languages shortlisted this year, congratulations to all! My thanks first and foremost to Jógvan Isaksen for keeping us in suspense, as he navigates the rugged outlines of the psychology and wild shores of the Faroe Islands. This book offers a fascinating window into regional tensions in the archipelago and historical tensions in the Kingdom of Denmark. Thank you to the passionate Norvik team for expert guidance and editorial advice. And to Richard and Jane for your patience and boundless enthusiasm for everything, even the difference between rowing boats and oared boats. 

Janet Garton (Norvik Press Commissioning Editor):

We are delighted that Dead Men Dancing has won this year’s Petrona Award. Jógvan Isaksen is a master of suspense, and his maverick amateur sleuth Hannis Martinsson takes the reader on hair-raising trips by land and sea before – of course – solving the mystery before the frustrated police. The Martinsson series was the basis of the successful TV series TROM, and this is the second of the series to be published by Norvik Press, after Walpurgis Tide in 2016. Hopefully there will be more to come! 

 

Managing a Maverick! Peter Lovesey on the four smart women who tried and succeeded . . . mostly

Like me, the Bath detective, Peter Diamond, has reached the end of the line. He made his debut as far back as 1991 in The Last Detective, an odd title for a series that would last 33 years. It didn’t seem odd at the time, because the book was supposed to be a one-off, about a middle-aged rebel out of sympathy and out of touch with modern policing. He tackles one last challenging case and by the end of the book he has quit the force and become a department-store Santa Claus – another unsuitable job, because his last act as a cop was shoving a twelve-year-old against a wall and putting hm in hospital. But as a civilian he still managed to solve the case and inform the right people how it was done. For all his failings, he was second to none as a sleuth.

So what changed my mind about writing a series? The Last Detective was my nineteenth novel in twenty-one years of trundling along as a mid-list author. To my great surprise, this one had an outstanding reception. The critics lavished praise on it. Julian Symons in the Times Literary Supplement wrote the longest review I had ever had, calling it a brilliant performance. Marcel Berlins in The Times, noted that this was my first modern whodunit, “and a terrific job he makes of it”. The American connoisseur of crime fiction, Allen J Hubin, called it a marvellous achievement; Tom Nolan in the Wall Street Journal rated it as “a perfectly realized murder mystery”; and Josh Rubins in the New York Times described it as “a bravura performance from a veteran showman.” At the Bouchercon, it won the Anthony award for the year’s best novel. Closer to home, the chair of the Dagger judges, F E Pardoe, gave me an earful for not allowing the book to be submitted. I was chair of the Crime Writers Association that year and might conceivably have presided over an awards dinner in which I presented the main award to myself.

Reeling from it all, the “veteran showman” was persuaded to rescue the last detective from his latest job as a night-club bouncer and relaunch him as a series. I had no idea how long it would last, but over the next two books I found a way of getting Diamond back into the Bath police and there he has remained until the end of this year.

A long series brings its own problems and the most immediate was Diamond’s age. In The Last Detective, he was 41. The books were supposed to keep up with the times. He would be 74 by now. In the new one, Against the Grain, there is talk of his retirement – and no wonder. I have to hope my loyal readers will suspend disbelief and allow him to be forever middle-aged.

The challenge for me as the writer was to find a way of allowing this dinosaur to have a believable role in a modern police force. He has the deductive skills to solve crime, but I had cast him as a loner, uncomfortable working with a team who are partly in awe, partly in shock at his disregard of policing theory and protocol. By good fortune, his deputy is Inspector Julie Hargreaves, intelligent, brave and empathetic. She smooths the way for him, with the team and with his superiors. When there are murmurings in the ranks, Julie comes to his defence. But she is not afraid to let hm know when he is out of order. People like Julie deserve to be cherished. All too often, their value goes unappreciated. Diamond values her, but there comes a point, in the sixth book of the series, Upon a Dark Night, when his bull-in-a-china-shop attitude goes too far.  He doesn’t understand why Julie takes offence and puts in for a transfer. His wife Stephanie has to explain why. By then, Julie has gone.

After six books, I tired of Diamond and he was probably sick of me. I knew too much about him, his home life with his wonderful wife, Steph, his work with the murder squad in Bath, his clumsiness, his dislike of fast cars, his short fuse with troublesome colleagues and the men in white coats. I took time off from the series and wrote a book called The Reaper about a murderous rector called the Rev Otis Joy.  I still believe Joy was an inspired creation, but most readers didn’t agree. They wanted more Diamonds.

I decided the only way to rescue the series from tedium was to give Diamond a life-changing experience and find out how he coped with it. In Diamond Dust, his beloved Steph is murdered at the start. ‘How could you do that?’ I am asked whenever I give a talk or meet a reader. I try to explain, but I am not forgiven. Steph was the love of his life. She understood his deepest insecurities and helped him deal with them. Earlier in her life she had made a disastrous marriage that ended in divorce. A new relationship was the last thing she wanted when this overweight, overbearing policeman made a mess of a talk he was giving on safety first to the brownie group she led. After that, he kept finding excuses to come back. In the end, she saw the positives in his personality. The turning point was the summer camp when he turned up unexpectedly with two donkeys called Bradford and Bingley. The brownies were overjoyed and Stephanie changed her mind about getting married again.

I was learning that a series can be much more than a number of artfully plotted stories linked by a main character. As the books progress, so do the lives of the people in them, the main protagonist, his family and colleagues. The killing of Steph was cruel and catastrophic. No way could the book be called cosy and predictable. How would Diamond channel his grief?

It sounds calculating, but Steph’s murder gave me the impetus to continue. In Diamond Dust, he is barred from investigating his own wife’s killing. Typically, he ignores the ban. In the books that follow, he is a changed man, mentally scarred. He recovers his bluff exterior, but we know he will never get over his loss. His good fortune is that in time two other women help him to function.

The first is Ingeborg Smith, a journalist he meets at press conferences. She isn’t good news herself. Not for Diamond, anyway. She asks penetrating questions and won’t take evasion. Highly intelligent, she is a formidable adversary. However, Diamond, too, is smart. He senses that Ingeborg secretly wishes she were behind the microphones dealing with the questions. Her ambition is to become a detective. For him, this solves the problem. He invites her to apply for a job in the police and fast-tracks her into his team, where her brilliant mind is put to positive use. Over the series, she quickly rises in the ranks. She is never officially his deputy, as Julie had been, but she can take up any role from going undercover to dealing courageously with dangerous suspects, to keeping her boss from making a fool of himself. And she takes no nonsense from the team, who understandably have their complaints about Diamond’s rough-and-ready crime-solving.  Ingeborg, the thorn in his flesh, has become his protector.

Thanks to Inge, life in the office became tolerable and engaging again. But what of his personal life? For several books in the series, he lives alone in the house he shared with Steph in Weston, her cat Raffles his only companion, a comfort, but a daily reminder of his loss. Then, in one of novels – I won’t say which – he  meets Paloma Kean, who suffers a traumatic shock through no fault of her own. Diamond is sympathetic. By degrees a friendship is formed and eventually a relationship. Paloma invites hm to move into her large house on Lyncombe Hill, where she has a successful business providing images of costume for period dramas on TV, film and the stage. Raffles approves, and the deal is done. Paloma becomes the fourth woman who understands Diamond better than he understands himself. She can never replace Steph, but she has some of Steph’s insights and often sheds light on work problems that baffle him.

In the last of the series, Against the Grain, Julie Hargreaves, retired and living in a Somerset village, contacts him out of the blue and invites him to stay, bringing Paloma and, of course, Raffles. A week in the country has no appeal, he tells Paloma. He is a townie, through and through. And he doesn’t tell her that he is uneasy about these two women from quite different stages in his life meeting for the first time. Persuaded that Julie must have a good reason, he agrees to go. A huge shock awaits him, not to mention a village murder to investigate. There I must stop. I want you to read the book and I may have given away too much already.

Four remarkable women. Between them, they span the entire series. Where would Peter Diamond have been without them?

Against the Grain by Peter Lovesey (Sphere, Little Brown Publishers)

When his former deputy, Julie, invites Detective Peter Diamond and his partner Paloma to spend a week at her home in the depths of rural Somerset, Diamond is horrified. What could be worse than seven days in the back end of nowhere with nothing to do? But it turns out that Julie has an ulterior motive. A local woman is doing time for manslaughter after a wild party ended in a tragic accident: a man suffocated in a silo of grain. Nobody in the village has much sympathy for Claudia, the unruly daughter of a wealthy local farmer. Nobody that is, except Julie, who is convinced there's more to this case than there appears and wants her former boss to investigate. And as Diamond tests his skills as an amateur sleuth, he soon discovers that the countryside isn't quite so dull as he'd anticipated . . .

Against the Grain is published by Sphere on November 14 and in America by Soho Press on December 3.

‘The MWA Grand Master brings his Peter Diamond series to a richly satisfying conclusion in Against the Grain.’ Publishers Weekly 

More information about Peter Lovesey and his books can be found on his website.