In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Andrew Taylor

 Name: - Andrew Taylor

Job: - Author

Website: - www.andrew-taylor.co.uk

Twitter and Instagram: - @andrewjrtaylor

Facebook:- andrew.tayloratlydmouth.9

Introduction

Andrew Taylor is the author of six different series (Dougal, Sergeant Jim Bergerac (written as Andrew Saville), Blaines, Lydmouth, Roth Trilogy and Marwood and Lovett).  He is also the author of over half a dozen standalone novels and half a dozen children’s books to name a few.  

His books have been nominated and won numerous wards with his first novel, Caroline Minuscule (1982), wining the John Creasey Memorial Award of the Crime Writers' Association of Great Britain. He is the only author to have won the CWA's Historical Dagger three times with Office of the Dead (2000), The American Boy (2003) and The Scent of Death (2013). The American Boy a gothic mystery linked to Edgar Allan Poe's boyhood years in England, was one of the ten titles featured in Channel 4's Richard and Judy Book Club 2005 and was also selected for The Times Top Ten Crime Novels of the Decade.

In 2009 Andrew Taylor received the CWA Diamond Dagger for lifetime achievement. In 2016 he started a series set in Restoration England featuring James Marwood a government agent and Clerk in the court of King Charles II and Catt Lovett an architectural designer. The first book in the series being The Ashes of London (2016). In 2020 The King's Evil (2019) won the Historical Writers Association (HWA) Gold Crown for best historical novel of the year. The seventh book in the series Treason is due to be published in March 2027.

His most recent book A Schooling in Murder (2025) was a Times/Waterstones No 1 bestseller and was long-listed for the 2026 Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year.

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

I’ve just finished Alexander Starritt’s Drayton and Mackenzie, which is a weird bromance set in the world of high finance in the last 50 years and featuring all too historical figures, including tech billionaires and at least one chairmen of the Fed. Not a crime novel but weirdly, hypnotically readable. As for writing, I’ve just been tidying up my new 17c novel, Treason, which comes out next March. I’ve also been working on two side projects, as yet under wraps. After that comes a return to the 17c.

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

I suppose they fascinate us partly because they have the uncomfortable power to enact our darkest desires and deepest fears. 

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

Tom Ripley, of course, who’d probably be charming and present you with a bottle of very nice wine while eying up your valuables (he’d be out of luck with us). And perhaps Professor Moriarty. Conan Doyle presents him (when he mentions him at all) as a convenient blank labelled ‘Evil Mastermind’. But I bet he’s got a rich and fascinating interior life, as well as some interesting tales to tel about the dark side of Sherlock Holmes.

How do you relax?

In a variety of ways. 

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

Tom Ripley again. He tends to wriggle out tricky situations in the end. I’m hoping he would help me do the same.

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

I have cleverly anticipated your question by already writing several novels featuring an anti-hero, including my very first, Caroline Minuscule, which was set when it was written – ie 1980-1. (Rereading it makes me feel slightly queasy today.) I’ve no idea where I’d set another book involving an anti-hero. You’ll have to come back to me on that one…

How would you describe your latest published book?

A Schooling in Murder is a pastiche of a Golden Age whodunit set in a third-rate girls’ boarding school in 1945. The twist is that it’s narrated by the murder victim, who is already dead at the start of book. I can’t tell you how much I enjoyed writing this novel. 

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

Tom Ripley (there’s a theme emerging here), Richard III (if he actually is a villain), and the chillingly evil Jack Havoc in Allingham’s The Tiger in the Smoke. 

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

The Sopranos. Breaking Bad. And (some way behind) The Wire. Because all three explore the moral and social consequences of evil in such a chillingly plausible way. 

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

I’ve been coming the Crime Fiction Weekend for nearly 30 years and for the same reasons: meeting old friends and making new ones; discussing crime fiction with people who share this strange passion of ours; and coming away with a good reading list. Also, two days without doing any washing up. 

A Schooling in Murder by Andrew Taylor (HarperCollins Publisher)

England, May 1945. In the last days of World War II, Monkshill Park School for Girls stands far apart from the violence in Europe. Yet a woman has been murdered in its grounds. Annabel Warnock, a teacher with a secretive past, has disappeared. The teachers and girls whisper that she’s run away, but in fact she has met a violent end. Replacement tutor and amateur crime writer Alec Shaw arrives to find a school riven with bitter rivalries and dangerous tensions. He begins to suspect there is a real-life mystery waiting to be solved… and these echoing halls hide a killer.

Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. The programme can be found here.

Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026 Announced

Fan favourite Elly Griffiths' The Frozen People wins

THEAKSTON OLD PECULIER CRIME NOVEL OF THE YEAR 2026

With US legend David Baldacci honoured for outstanding contribution to crime fiction

Festival Dates: 23 – 26 July 2026

www.harrogatetheakstoncrimeaward.com

#TheakstonsAwards #TheakstonsCrime

The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths has been announced as the winner of Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026, the UK and Ireland’s most prestigious crime fiction award, presented by Harrogate International Festivals at a special ceremony compèred by writer and broadcaster, Steph McGovern, on the opening night of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

The Frozen People is the first book in a new series with a time-travelling spin, as an unsolved mystery takes cold cases investigator Ali Dawson back to the frozen Victorian London of January 1850 to explore a series of killings that have twenty-first century consequences for politicians and Ali's own family. The judges described The Frozen People as 'bold,' 'superbly plotted' and 'highly original'.

Crime fiction phenomenon Elly Griffiths, from Sussex, has been shortlisted for the Award eight times and was Highly Commended in 2023 for The Locked Room. She received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in 2025. Griffiths is the author of the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries; the Brighton Mysteries and the Detective Harbinder Kaur series. Her intricately plotted novels told with wry humour and featuring engaging characters have sold over 5 million copies worldwide, winning her fans across the globe. 

Elly Griffiths receives a £3,000 prize, as well as an engraved beer cask handcrafted by one of Britain’s last coopers from Theakston’s Brewery.

On winning the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, Elly Griffiths said:

‘I’m so excited and just so grateful to everybody. I’ve been honoured to be shortlisted eight times but to win is just incredible. A bigger twist than I’ve ever dreamed up in my books.’

The Frozen People was selected by a judging panel made up of journalists, broadcasters and representatives from the Award’s sponsors, with the public vote counting as the eighth judge. This incredibly strong shortlist also included The Midnight King by Tariq Ashkanani, The Death of Us by Abigail Dean, Beautiful Ugly by Alice Feeney, Clown Town by Mick Herron and Quantum of Menace by Vaseem Khan.

The McDermid Debut Award, named in recognition of world-famous crime writer Val McDermid, was won by Frances Crawford for A Bad, Bad Place, it was also announced. 

A gritty and atmospheric thriller set in 1970s Glasgow, A Bad, Bad Place centres around 12-year-old Janey Devine who discovers the body of a murdered woman - the daughter of a local gangster – while walking her dog on a disused railway track and becomes irrevocably tangled up in the police investigation. Scottish writer Frances Crawford graduated from Glasgow University aged sixty, before becoming a writer. She receives a £600 cash prize and an engraved beer casket. The award was presented by Chair of Judges, Val McDermid, and Simon Theakston, Chairman of T&R Theakston.

Playwright Mel Pennant was awarded ‘Highly Commended’ for A Murder for Miss Hortense, a mystery novel featuring a formidable, retired nurse turned amateur detective, whose sharp eyes and sharper wit uncover truths buried deep within her quiet Birmingham suburban community.

Val McDermid, Chair of Judges, said:

“The 2026 shortlist for the McDermid Debut Award was exceptional, and the judges struggled to say goodbye to any of the contenders. But we couldn’t resist Frances Crawford’s ‘A Bad Bad Place’, a moving and engaging thriller set in Glasgow’s Possilpark in the 1970s. It’s an engrossing read, and a remarkable debut from a first-time author in her 60s. The judges also wanted to give a Highly Commended nod to ‘A Murder for Miss Hortense’ by Mel Pennant.  Miss Hortense is a stalwart of her Jamaican community who refuses to accept the obvious solution when her nemesis is murdered, and Mel Pennant takes us deep into her world with wit, intelligence and irresistible storytelling.”

On winning the McDermid Debut Award, Frances Crawford said:

‘I am incredibly proud to have been on such a diverse and inclusive shortlist. Every one of the writers could have won. And the fact that it’s named after Val McDermid makes me extra proud to have won the Award.’

Globally bestselling US novelist, David Baldacci, received the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition for his exceptional contribution to the crime thriller genre, honouring a remarkable career that has captivated millions of readers worldwide and helped shape modern suspense fiction.

Former trial lawyer David Baldacci is a renowned global no.1 bestselling thriller writer, with over 150 million books sold worldwide. His first book, Absolute Power, became an instant international hit, with the movie starring Clint Eastwood a major box office success. He has since written more than fifty novels featuring a variety of characters including Walter Nash, Travis Devine, Amos Decker and Aloysius Archer. His most recent novel is Hope Rises, the sequel to Nash Falls, featuring anti-hero Walter Nash who is out for revenge against the ruthless FBI leader responsible for his daughter’s death.

David Baldacci said:

“Having cut my youthful teeth on British crime fiction, this award has special significance for me. Having read and loved The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, I recall hoping at the time that this Conan Doyle person had written more stories. A lot more. To join a group of some of the finest writers of any genre is humbling but also immensely thrilling. And it’s also a reminder that we need to continue our collective mentorship and inspiration of new voices in our writing community. Indeed, we need storytellers from across the human spectrum perhaps now more than ever, for reasons that are all too apparent for anyone who has lifted a pen or turned a page. Thank you again for such an honour."

Baldacci is the latest in a line of acclaimed authors to have received the coveted award, with previous winners including Sir Ian Rankin, Lynda La Plante, James Patterson, John Grisham, Lee Child, Val McDermid, P.D. James, Michael Connelly, Martina Cole and last year’s recipient, Elly Griffiths.

2026 AWARD WINNERS:

WINNER of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026: The Frozen People by Elly Griffiths (Quercus Books) 

WINNER of the McDermid Debut Award: A Bad, Bad Place by Frances Crawford (Transworld, Penguin Random House)  

HIGHLY COMMENDED for the McDermid Debut Award: A Murder for Miss Hortense by Mel Pennant (Baskerville, John Murray)  

Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award: David Baldacci (Pan Macmillan)

Simon Theakston, Chairman of T&R Theakston, said: 

“Congratulations to all of our brilliant winners. This was another outstanding year for crime fiction, and we judges faced a difficult task selecting winners from phenomenal shortlists, which truly showcased the depth, breadth and originality of the genre. Our Novel of the Year winner, ‘The Frozen People’ by Elly Griffiths, an enthralling and endlessly entertaining high-stakes mystery by one of our very best storytellers, had me gripped right from the start. We are delighted that global crime fiction icon, David Baldacci has been awarded the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award in recognition of his stellar writing career, and we’re honoured that he has travelled to Harrogate to receive the award in person and take part in the Festival.”

The award winners were revealed at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate, during the opening ceremony for the world’s largest celebration of crime writing, Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (23-26 July), which this year features a stellar line up of bestselling authors including Ardal O’Hanlon, Andi Osho, Denise Mina, Adam Kay, Abir Mukherjee, Elly Griffiths, Anthony Horowitz, Holly Jackson, Jane Harper, Nadine Matheson, Alice Feeney, Ann Cleeves and Brenda Blethyn.

The Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year 2026 is presented by Harrogate International Festivals and sponsored by T&R Theakston Ltd, in partnership with Waterstones, and is open to full-length crime novels published in paperback between 1 May 2025 and 30 April 2026.  The winner receives £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by T&R Theakston Ltd.

Extract from The Hotel Manager's Guide to Murder

  ‘Who is this guy? Is he staying here?’

          Torfi had dealt with more than a few dead guests in his years of working in hotels. But this one hadn’t tumbled down a flight of stairs at the end of a raucous company annual party or quietly failed to wake up. This person looked too young to be one of the Bristol Hotel’s usual cohort of guests, a slim youth with dark hair that spread across the pillow, while his blue eyes were wide open and staring, and his clothes were scattered around the room.

          Everything about this was wrong. There was a proper procedure for this, and Sigríður definitely wasn’t following it. As well as that, dead guests tended to be found by the chambermaids, not by senior staff during the night, letting themselves into rooms with a swipe of a master pass key.

‘No,’ Sigríður said. ‘He’s not a guest.’

‘All right. We need to get an ambulance here right away. Isn’t Ásbjörn here?’

  Sigríður shook her head.

  ‘No. And, yes.’

  ‘Who’s the duty manager? They should be dealing with this. And there should be paramedics here by now.’

  Sigríður looked at him almost pityingly. 

  ‘This is down to us.’

  Torfi’s confusion was making him dizzy.

  ‘Who’s the duty manager tonight?’ he asked again, as if this wasn’t happening.

  'That’s Ásbjörn, but he’s busy right now.’ Sigríður scowled and looked him up and down, as if measuring him for a coffin. ‘He’ll be here in a few minutes.’

  ‘He has something more important than this to deal with? And if this person isn’t a guest, whose room is this?’

  Sigríður shook her head, shrugged and shivered. Her voice had a brittle quality to it when she replied. 

  ‘Torfi. This is Alberto’s room. Was Alberto’s room. Understand? It’s up to us, you and me, right now, to make this go away. Understand?’

  ‘Fuck… I…’ Torfi stuttered. ‘I don’t think I can…’

  This time Sigríður’s eyes glinted as she fixed him with a piercing gaze.

  ‘Listen. You’re in too deep already to back out of anything. So stop acting like a frightened schoolgirl and go fetch a laundry basket. One of the big ones on wheels​’

  Between them, he and Sigríður dressed the dead man, collecting his clothes from the bedroom floor before Ásbjörn arrived, his face flushed and serious. They bundled the corpse into the basket. Sigríður deftly stripped the bed and stuffed the soiled sheets on top of the body.

  The three of them accompanied the young man on his undignified journey to the basement, leaving him just inside the big delivery doors. 

  Sigríður issued terse instructions. 

  ‘Get the van from the front,’ she said in a hoarse whisper. ‘Take it round here. You know what to do. Dump our friend somewhere and come straight back here.’

  ‘Where do I go? You want me to go alone?’

  ‘Anywhere he won’t be found for a day or two, or longer,’ Sigríður told him. 

  ‘Hvalfjörður, out in Hvassahraun somewhere. Up to you. Just be discreet and don’t get stopped by the police.’ 

The Hotel Manager's Guide to Murder by Erlendur Arason (Blekverk) trans Quentin Bates Out Now

The smarter a place looks, the darker the secrets it hides… Guests at one of Reykjavík’s smartest hotels never know what happens behind the scenes –including what brings a group of the city’s homeless to the Bristol Hotel every winter night while the rest of the world sleeps. When overworked supervisor Torfi finds himself given an unexpected promotion that comes with a respectable pay rise, he takes it as a lucky break – until he’s told to make a murder victim disappear, and that he doesn’t have any choice. That’s when his life rapidly gets a lot more complicated. What isn’t he being told? Torfi doesn’t know, but when police officers Haukur and Dagný start asking awkward questions, he needs to find answers – even though he knows only half of the story. Longing desperately to go back to his old, boring life, Torfi finds himself desperately out of his depth as his family are threatened and his problems spiral far out of his control.

Guilty Secrets with Martin Edwards

 Martin Edwards is an award-wining novelist and short-story writer. He is also a well-known editor of numerous anthologies. He is a former Chair of the Crime Writers Association and current President of the Detection Club. Aside for awards for his books, in 2011 he was awarded the CWA Red Herring Award in recognition of his services to the Association. In 2018 he was awarded the Dagger in the Library and in 2020 he was awarded the CWA Diamond Dagger. The most recent anthology he edited is the CWA Guilty Secrets.

Ayo:- Congratulations on editing Guilty Secrets which is of course the latest CWA Anthology. How many anthologies have you now edited and does it get any easier?

Martin:- I just counted, and this one is my sixtieth anthology. As with most things, experience does help, in that you get a better sense of which stories work together to form an appealing mix, and you feel a bit more confident about your selection judgments. 

Ayo:- Guilty Secrets is about folklore and mythology with the emphasis on the Supernatural, science and speculative fiction along with the mysterious. How did you decide on the theme?

Martin:- I like to devise anthologies of stories with fairly broad themes that can be interpreted creatively and perhaps in unexpected ways. My general approach as an editor is to have a fairly light touch on the tiller, so that the contributors have the freedom to exercise the full range of their talents. I chose this particular theme because it seemed to me to offer lots of interesting possibilities.

Ayo:- You clearly like writing short stories as you have written so many, what made you want to write short stories?

Martin:- I love reading short stories and I love writing them. When I was about thirteen, I was given a CWA anthology as a Christmas present, and it fascinated me. At that point I’d never heard of the CWA, but I already knew I wanted to be a crime writer and I felt I’d love to join an organisation full of people who did what I yearned to do. Of course, I never dreamed that I’d become Chair of the CWA, or win CWA awards, or edit the CWA anthology for thirty years. So I’ve been very lucky. And a constant element during all that time has been my enthusiasm for writing short stories, partly inspired by that first CWA book. And there’s no doubt that some ideas work better in short stories than in novels. Also, you can take risks in a short story, and experiment in ways that would be difficult, perhaps impossible, in a full-length novel. Which I find very exciting. 

Ayo:- Can you remember the very first short story that you wrote and your feelings about it once you had written it

Martin:- Definitely. It was a story called ‘Are You Sitting Comfortably?’ and it won first prize in a Southport Writers’ Seminar competition. It felt absolutely thrilling, an unforgettable joy! The judge was the fiction editor of Bella and she published the story in the magazine. At that time, I hadn’t had a novel accepted, so it really was a breakthrough moment. What’s more, Robert Barnard was in the audience, and he recommended the story to the editor of Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine¸ with which I’ve had a long and happy association. This was a wonderful start to my career as a published author of crime fiction and despite my extreme inexperience at the time, I still feel that it was a good story and ‘different’ from the norm. And I still like to try to be inventive and not follow a predictable path with my writing. This approach possibly has its downsides in commercial terms, but I believe it has kept me fresh as a writer, and perhaps it is why I can honestly say that I take at least as much pleasure in my writing now as I have ever done.

Ayo:- Is there a theme you would like to put together for an anthology.

Martin:- For years, I’ve had the idea of editing a book of mysteries inspired by the music of Burt Bacharach, who for me is pop music’s equivalent to Agatha Christie (i.e. ground-breaking and subtly sophisticated, under-estimated by some, but loved by many more). And I’m pleased to say that What the World Needs Now will soon be published, and that proceeds will go to autism charities in the UK and US. A worthy project, in my opinion, and it’s a book I’m extremely proud of, with great stories by the likes of Mark Billingham, Charles Todd, Sarah Hilary, and Ragnar Jonasson. And a foreword by Rupert Holmes, ace crime writer and composer of ‘The Pina Colada Song’!

Ayo:- Since short stories are compact, every element must work hard to build a specific world do you find this difficult?

Martin:- Not really. Writing short stories seems to come fairly naturally to me. I love writing novels as well, but I find them harder work, simply because the scale is much larger.

Ayo:- Short stories force you to omit more than you include. Have you ever written a short story that you would like to expand to a novel.

Martin:- Not exactly, but when I created the character of Rachel Savernake, and had the idea of writing a very different kind of novel about her, I was conscious that she was a very unorthodox individual, not really like anyone else in the crime genre. So I wrote a short story about her, just to see how much I enjoyed writing the character. I never tried to get that story published, but I proved to my own satisfaction, at least, that she was a strong character who would sustain an intricate novel. This gave me the confidence to write Gallows Court and the next five (so far) Rachel Savernake novels. And I still love writing about her. 

Ayo:- Short stories often end on a lingering note rather than a neat resolution. How do you know when a story is truly finished? 

Martin:- I sometimes wonder if any good piece of writing is ever truly finished. You can always try to improve what you’ve written (or what someone else has written - I did have the temerity to write a new ending for Anthony Berkeley’s brilliant classic mystery The Poisoned Chocolates Case!). I am very, very committed to revision and making my work better. But realistically, you have to draw a line somewhere, with both novels and short stories, or you’d never publish anything. I must admit, though, that five minutes after I submit something to a publisher, I have an idea about how I could have improved what I’ve written! And it’s this quest for constant improvement that helps to keep me energised and enthused as a writer.

Ayo:- With all the short stories that you have written, do you have a favourite?

Martin:- There are quite a lot that I’m very fond of, including some that never attracted a great deal of attention, perhaps because the books they appeared in didn’t get much publicity. The stories that have won or been shortlisted for prizes, such as ‘Murder and its Motives’, ‘Acknowledgements’ and ‘The Bookbinder’s Apprentice’, are all stories I’m proud of, but there are others, such as ‘Squeaky’, ‘InDex’, ‘The Woman Who Never Was’, and perhaps especially ‘The Outsider’, that I think are just as good. And I’m pleased with my two recent reverse chronology stories, ‘Don’t Look Back’ and ‘The Scares’; the former just got a great review in Publisher’s Weekly and the latter is in Guilty Secrets.

Ayo:- Writing short stories is incredibly difficult would you rather write a short story or a novel?

Martin:- I love writing both, but of course short stories take less time, which is a point in their favour! I enjoy subverting readers’ expectations, and a good short story can do that – so can a good novel, of course. I suppose writing a novel that works really well is especially satisfying – in my case, books like The Crooked Shore or Hemlock Bay would, at least in my opinion, fall into that category, as would the novel I’m doing edits on right now, Fever Island.

Ayo:- What would you say to someone who is considering writing a short story but is hesitant.

Martin:- As with so many things in life, I think that one should ask oneself what one really wants to do, and be clear about that, before wondering how to go about doing it. If you really want to write a short story, then I’d say: definitely go for it, and the chances are, you’ll find the experience very rewarding, in artistic if not necessarily financial terms. If you’re not sure you really want to do it, perhaps find something else you feel really enthused about instead. For me, commitment is a very important thing for a writer. There’s nothing whatsoever wrong with being committed to writing a story that sells, either. But I think being committed to writing a story that has that precious element of difference and is not like lots of other stories is even more appealing.

Ayo:- When can we expect to read your next short story.

Martin:- What the World Needs Now is due out soon, and it includes my story ‘Who Gets The Guy?’, inspired by a rather lovely if little-known song by the great Dionne Warwick. It’s a tale about the music business in the 60s and I really enjoyed writing it.

Guilty Secrets: From the Crime Writers Association - Beyond and Within (Flame Tree Publishing) Out Now

Editor Martin Edwards has commissioned an entertaining range of stories from the membership of the world's most celebrated group of crime and mystery writers, the Crime Writers' Association (CWA). Founded over 70 years ago by John Creasey, the Crime Writers’ Association supports, promotes and celebrates this most durable, adaptable and successful of genres, while supporting writers of every kind of crime fiction and non-fiction. In this new collection, enjoy 23 original, thrilling mysteries packed full of enthralling characters, drama and intrigue, by the following authors: Martine Bailey, Christine Poulson, Dea Parkin, Martin Edwards, C.J. Carver, Kate Ellis, Shawn Reilly Simmons, Phil Lecomber, L.C. Tyler, Glenda Young, Antony Johnston, Simon Dinsdale, Renita D’Silva, Paul Gitsham, Yvonne Eve Walus, Brian Price, Pam Plumb, Nick Guthrie, Margaret Holbrook, Andy Sykes, Cath Staincliffe, Roland Moore and Rachel Amphlett.

The Flame Tree Beyond and Within short story collections bring together tales of myth and imagination by modern and contemporary writers, carefully selected by anthologists, and sometimes featuring short stories from a single author. Overall, the series presents a wide range of diverse and inclusive voices with myth, folkloric-inflected short fiction, and an emphasis on the supernatural, science fiction, the mysterious and the speculative.

In The St Hilda's Spotlight - Ajay Chowdhury

 Name: Ajay Chowdhury

Job:- Author, Businessman and Theatre Director

Website:- https://ajaychowdhury.com

Instagram:- ajaychowdhury.author

Facebook:- ajay.chowdhury

X:- @ajaychow

Introduction:- Ajay Chowdhury is the author of six novels in the Detective Kamil Rahman his novels. He was the inaugural winner of the Harvill-Secker Bloody Scotland crime fiction award. His debut novel The Waiter and his third book The Detective were Sunday Times crime books of the month. His fourth book The Spy was longlisted for the Wilbur Smith Adventure Novel. His fifth novel The Invitation is a free interactive novel. His sixth novel The Shadow was shortlisted for the Eastern Eye Crime Novel of the Year 2026. 

His most recent book is his first standalone novel entitled Eden Falls.

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

I’ve just started writing the eighth Kamil Rahman novel, which still feels slightly surreal. At the moment, all I know is that it’s about the pernicious influence of social media and is set in London’s East End. One of the joys of writing crime fiction is discovering the story as I go, so I’m excited to see where it leads. I’m also reading Len Deighton’s Billion-Dollar Brain, which is absolutely delightful.

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

The best anti-heroes are intelligent, charismatic and often strangely relatable, despite doing terrible things. They let us explore our darkest impulses from the safety of an armchair, which is both unsettling and oddly cathartic.

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

Tom Ripley and Hannibal Lecter. I’d cook them a nice Indian meal (no liver), pour the Chianti and then sit back to watch the psychological sparring.

How do you relax?

Listening to music and watching television, mostly. At the moment I’m enjoying the Rolling Stones’ new album and Your Friends & Neighbours, which is enormous fun.

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

Dexter Morgan. Assuming the person causing the difficult situation deserves it, his code should ensure everything works out rather well.

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

I already have. The Patriot, the next Kamil Rahman novel, is published in November. Its antagonist is a charming Sikh historian plotting an audacious theft of the Koh-i-Noor diamond from the Tower of London to return it to India. Much of the novel is told from his point of view, and writing someone so intelligent, persuasive with a powerful, if misguided, moral compass was a joy.

How would you describe your latest published book?

Eden Falls is my first standalone thriller and is a bit like Thelma & Louise at 100 miles an hour. A quantum physicist disappears, forcing his wife and his ex-girlfriend (who can barely stand each other) to race across America in search of him. Standing in their way is a tech trillionaire trying to weaponise AI, setting up a battle of immense power against determination, ingenuity and courage. 

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

Leaving aside the ones I’ve already mentioned, and broadening the definition to include master criminals, I’d choose Professor Moriarty, A. J. Raffles and Ernst Stavro Blofeld. They each embody a different kind of villainy: intellect, charm and sheer audacity.

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

If HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey counts, then definitely HAL. It’s one of my favourite films, and HAL remains one of cinema’s greatest antagonists. I’d also happily rewatch The Sopranos and Breaking Bad any time. Tony Soprano and Walter White are two of the finest anti-heroes ever created.

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

This will be my first visit, so I’m really looking forward to it. I love that the festival favours talks over panels, it’s equal parts terrifying and invigorating. And I suspect I may have a slightly different take on “Bad Apples” from some of the other speakers…

Eden Falls by Ajay Chowdhury (Vintage Publisher)

After the murder of his best friend, newlyweds Adam and Aisha cut their honeymoon short. But just as they are about to board a flight home from Delhi, Adam disappears at the airport – seemingly kidnapped – leaving Aisha stranded without her passport, her phone, or answers. When the FBI and India’s intelligence agency begin interrogating her, it becomes chillingly clear they know far more about Adam than she ever did. Her only clue is his final, haunting message: I’m sorry. Thousands of miles away, Sara Wolf, a scientist stuck on a dead-end project at Princeton, receives a message she never expected from her former lover. It contains two words: Help her. Bound together by suspicion, rivalry, and a man they both love, Aisha and Sara are forced into an uneasy alliance. Decoding Adam’s clues, they follow a trail that leads them across the United States - into a shadow world of weaponised AI, tech billionaires, and a secret no one is meant to find. Eden Falls is a gripping, high-stakes thriller that spans continents and asks how far we will go - and who we will trust - when the truth can destroy everything.

Information on how to buy online tickets can be found here. The programme can be found here.

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 rule-less 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... 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.

 

Keeping It Real: A Rod for Your Own Book? by Trevor Wood

When I first set out to write a book, I had no idea what I was letting myself in for. I’d signed up for the inaugural MA in Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia – the main deliverable of which was to write an eighty-thousand-word crime novel, with very little thought to what that book might be about.

Inspiration eventually came from two of the sacred texts put forward for the course, Roseanna by Maj Sjowall and Per Wahloo (arguably the architects of Scandi-Noir) and 1977 by David Peace, part two of his Red Riding Quartet. Both books dealt with real-life problems, examining the effects on ordinary people of corruption, austerity, unemployment, alienation and, in the case of 1977, real-life events surrounding the Yorkshire Ripper. Obviously there were still crimes to be solved and puzzles to be worked out, but these books were more than that, they held a mirror up to society, raising as many questions as they answered. In short, they were the kind of books I realised I wanted to write.

Deciding that and doing it are clearly two different things. The most compelling idea I came up with (though my wife also had a hand in it) was to write a book from the viewpoint of a homeless protagonist, one who sees a crime take place but no one believes him. I thought it would be interesting to play with the invisibility of the homeless and perhaps even change people’s perception of those unfortunate enough to have fallen through the cracks.

However, we’re often advised to write what we know, and I knew very little about the homeless community. Fortunately, there was a brilliant organisation in my home city, Newcastle, that could help. The People’s Kitchen has been supporting the homeless for more than forty years, feeding and clothing hundreds of people every day. A research visit to learn exactly what they did there turned into volunteering as a cook one afternoon every week. What I learned there helped me fill in the gaps in my knowledge – as well as giving me a little more credibility when pitching the book I eventually wrote – The Man on the Street. The book turned into a three-book series and my one afternoon a week turned out to be good for my soul as well as my credibility; I ended up working there for six years, long after I’d finished writing about my homeless characters.

You’d think I’d have learned my lesson when planning a new series but clearly I’m a little slow on the uptake and started to work on the idea of a senior cop who has been diagnosed with early-onset dementia. I’d become increasingly aware of the impact of dementia on many of my friends and family. Whilst it hadn’t directly affected me – both mine and my wife’s parents died relatively early – I had several aunts and uncles who were affected and countless friends who were spending half their time looking after ageing parents who had been unfortunate enough to be hit by this pernicious disease.

Luckily the charity sector was there to help me again. I’d noticed there was a charity walk to raise money for Alzheimer’s Research taking place in Harrogate at the same time as the Theakston’s Crime Festival. Following my previous model of trying to give something back, I signed up for it and thanks to the power of social media and my ever-supportive friends and fellow writers, raised enough money to slot into the charity’s chart for top-fundraisers. The Alzheimer’s Research rep for the North East contacted me and that first contact led to an ongoing relationship during which they have introduced me to many people with first-hand experience of the issues. I have spoken to both victims and carers and been introduced to many amazing projects involving scientists who are looking at finding a cure. 

It’s a subject that deeply affects so many people, so it’s important to try and get the details right. It’s also an ever-changing world and as the books are set more or less in the present day that means keeping on top of all the latest developments with the so-called wonder drugs that are being tested, any one of which could change the way this series develops. On top of that there are various political movements to monitor, not least the recent attempts to introduce an assisted dying bill in England and Wales and, separately, in Scotland.

The third book in the DCI Jack Parker series, The Angel of Death, deals directly with this issue as Jack and his team investigate a series of deaths that they suspect involve so-called mercy killing. As I’ve been developing this book I’ve had to keep one eye on the passage of bills through both parliaments as well as wrestling with the views of both proponents and dissenters. It’s an incredibly difficult subject with strong arguments on either side and, for the moment, both bills have been shelved. Ultimately a good result for the dissenters and for the book, much less so for those hoping to bring an earlier end to their suffering.

Do I wish I’d gone down a different route and just written a relatively straightforward police procedural or a psych thriller? Probably not. If nothing else I’m way better informed on a handful of subjects that I knew little about beforehand. I can, however, completely understand why more and more writers are turning their hand to romantasy!

The Angel of Death by Trevor Wood published by Orenda Books on 16th July 2026.

DCI Jack Parker is back… Death is stalking the streets of Newcastle. An anonymous killer is offering the terminally ill a dignified escape. Mercy to some. Murder to others. Killer. DCI Jack Parker doesn’t want the case. He has a secret of his own – an early-onset dementia diagnosis he’s desperate to conceal. But the signs are becoming impossible to ignore. As his mind begins to betray him, the city faces its own moral reckoning. Or. While politicians debate a contentious new law and the self-styled Angel of Death selects another victim, Jack’s world is shaken when the killings are traced to a carers’ support group – one his wife, Helen, has been attending in secret. Saint. Yet his deepest fear is also his darkest temptation. Because when his disease becomes unbearable, Jack can’t escape one haunting question: Could the Angel of Death be the saviour he’s been waiting for?

More information about Trevor Wood and his books can be found on his website. You can also find him on Facebook on X @TrevorWoodWrite

Unsung Heroes by Kate Rhodes

Behind most authors stands at least one unsung hero. In my case, it’s my husband Dave Pescod. While I write this piece, he’s sitting across the kitchen table from me, reading a draft of my latest crime novel, with a deep frown on his face. I have come to realise during our thirty-year marriage that the frown doesn’t always signal displeasure. Often, it’s just concentration. He’s thinking of ways to help my story to run more smoothly, or a fresh detail to deepen the plot. I guess you could call him the equivalent of a chatbot, with the added value that comes from being a real human being!

I doubt that I would ever have found the confidence to write a book, without Dave’s help. I was thirty when we met, and working as an English teacher, while he taught art. Until then my writing was like a guilty secret. I just stole odd moments to write occasional poems or short stories, convinced that they weren’t good enough to publish. I discovered that Dave was a writer, too, selling jokes to radio and TV shows, as well as short stories. He had this big, flamboyant talent, which I found daunting. It took me ages to gather the courage to show him my work, and I’ll never forget his reaction. He just looked at me and said with absolute conviction that I had talent. By then I knew that he was never inclined to bullshit, so his words made me glow.

My unsung hero gave me the confidence to write my first crime novel, and since then many more have followed, and it’s been a joyous ride. I’ve enjoyed the pleasure that comes from a fruitful creative relationship. We still often pass each other manuscripts to edit, fragments to fine tune, and spend hours mulling over potential plots and characters together.

Dave has never been keen on the spotlight, but it felt right to shine it on him for once, as he patiently edits my twentieth book for me. I wonder how many other authors have partners/friends/siblings that play a similar huge role in their creative lives? Writing can be a lonely profession at times, so all these unsung heroes deserve huge thanks for their invisible, but invaluable, support.

The Mermaid’s Cry, by Kate Rhodes published by Orenda Books on 16th July 2026.

DI Ben Kitto returns…. A coast in celebration. When DI Ben Kitto sees a baby thrown into Penzance harbour, he prays it’s a trick of the light. But the threat is real. The child survives – barely – and soon a chilling pattern emerges. As the Dark Sky Festival brings dancers, dreamers and stargazers to Cornwall’s coast, children begin to vanish. A killer in the crowd. A small mermaid figurine is found beside each scene, echoing the legend of the Mermaid of Zennor, who lured a man to his death beneath the waves. Still reeling from a devastating bereavement and determined to protect his young son, Ben is pulled back into the field and into a deadly investigation. When the killer’s messages begin arriving at his home, the threat becomes terrifyingly personal. A final reckoning. Suspicions fall on familiar faces. When the summer solstice approaches, Ben must confront the boundaries of love, loss and obsession. In a final, desperate chase along the headland, only his bond with Noah – and the loyalty of his dog, Shadow – can prevent tragedy from repeating itself.

More information about Kate Rhodes and her books can be found on her website. On Twitter @k_Rhodeswriter and on Instagram @katerhodeswriter.

 

Brown Detectives: An Unlikely Club…by Arvind Ethan David

Abir Mukherjee's Wyndham and Banerjee. Vaseem Khan's Baby Ganesh and Malabar House. Imran Mahmood's courtroom protagonists and Ajay Chowdhury’s Kamil Rahman. And now Arvind Ethan David’s The Great Game. Why is British Asian crime fiction booming right now?

The last thing I thought I was doing as I was writing my debut novel "The Great Game" was that I was inadvertently writing myself into a members' club.

Let me clarify: I knew I was writing in part about “membership”.  I’m particularly proud of the scene where our narrator-hero, Balvinder Singh, is denied entry to the Garrick Club, where he is supposed to meet his companion, the gentleman thief, AJ Raffles for breakfast. He's denied entry, of course, because he is not a member and only members may enter its hallowed dining room. He is not a member, in part because he is an Indian, in the London of 1905.

Whilst the Garrick Club of the time had no explicit prohibition on non-white membership — and no explicit prohibition on female membership either, despite keeping women out for nearly two centuries until 2024 — that was precisely the point. It didn't need to write such rules down. It was more or less taken as given that no such people, unless perhaps they were royalty, were likely to be admitted by the committee. We would be, if you'll forgive the pun, blackballed.

Balvinder's experience of members' clubs is drawn from my own. I remember being a young thing in London in the late 90s, newly graduated from Oxford, and deciding to check out the Oxford and Cambridge Club to which I was given default membership (this, of course, despite my being, like Balvinder, of Indian origin.) I went with a friend, a fellow — white — recent graduate, suited and booted to the nines. We preened ourselves in the elegant dining room in the blazing summer sunshine.

I remember the sunshine was blazingly hot because I was positively sweltering, and started to loosen my tie and my jacket. Before I could complete either task, a white-coated waiter sprinted across the room, alarm and consternation written across his face, and made it very clear that "sir" was to remain fully dressed if "sir" wished to remain in the dining room.

I wasn't proposing to get naked — simply to adjust my attire to match the temperature and the direct sunlight. Perhaps I am particularly thin-skinned to still carry the scar of this encounter almost thirty years later, having not in the intervening time deigned to return to the Oxford and Cambridge Club. Perhaps. It did teach me something about what it is to be a member of British society as a British Asian, and I was probably playing with that in the novel.

All the more surprising, therefore, that even before the novel is published I have found myself, by virtue of writing it, a member of a particularly elite and wonderfully convivial club: that of British Asian crime fiction writers.

Vaseem Khan, Abir Mukherjee, Imran Mahmood, Ajay Chowdhury; the list goes on. All these British Asian authors have written multiple bestselling and critically acclaimed novels in the crime or mystery genre, featuring — rather, starring — Indian detectives. In a couple of cases, like me, in the historical crime genre. This is nothing short of revelatory and wonderful in itself. Even more wonderful is the fact that there exists a real warmth and bond of friendship between these authors, one they have most generously extended to me.

Being a habitual questioner of things, though, the very existence of this group prompts me to ask: how come? Is there something specific about crime fiction that appeals to those of us of subcontinental heritage? Is there some market gap that we are consciously or unconsciously all exploiting?

In the case of Vaseem and Abir's books, the parallels are kind of spooky. My novel has an Indian protagonist in 1905 London. Abir's books team up an Indian and an English detective in 1919 Calcutta. Vaseem's Malabar House series features a female Indian detective in 1950 post-independence Bombay. I had not read either of their books before writing mine — an error I have since corrected to my great delight — but it's impossible now not to look at the three different worlds as connected, as existing in a sort of conversation with each other, telling a previously untold story spanning the relationship between Britain and India in the early twentieth century through the metaphor of crime.

The idea of "convergent evolution" is the scientific notion that different species in radically different parts of the world can respond to similar environmental factors and produce similar outcomes. For example, the emu. The emu and the ostrich are not remotely related despite looking astonishingly similar. The ostrich evolved on the plains of sub-Saharan Africa, whilst the emu is native to Australia's deserts. Both environments permitted, encouraged, and gave an advantage to a large flightless bird with a long neck and powerful legs. Perhaps something similar is going on with this growing group of historical crime fiction writers.

As to exactly what that environment is, I don't have a definitive answer yet. It's one that I suspect I will continue to explore — alone and with my fellow writers, in conversations and in our books — for years to come. If I were to hazard a working hypothesis, it would be this:

There is something in the subcontinental and colonial mindscape that simultaneously craves order, justice, and the good functioning of law, and at the very same time is deeply suspicious when that law and that order is imposed by imperial powers. We live in a time where imperial powers — not the same ones that our grandparents and great-grandparents contended with, but the new American, Chinese, and Russian imperial powers — are flexing their muscles. Our scepticism and our hackles rise in ancestral remembrance and we reach for our pens.

Perhaps it is by looking back and either excavating or inventing times when our fictional ancestors stood up against the unjust laws of imperial Britain that we are playing our own act of tiny defiance. We are trying to correct wrongs that can never be corrected in the real world.

For whatever reason, it's a club I'm honoured and delighted to be a member of. I'll try and keep my clothes on and not be thrown out of it.

The Great Game by Arvind Ethan David (published by Thomas & Mercer) on 14th July, price £6.99 paperback original.

An outsider in London investigates a series of brutal murders targeting English aristocrats in a timely and provocative historical novel brimming with intrigue, wit, and rage. London, 1905: Law student and military veteran Balvinder dev Singh has found an extra legal way to fund his studies. As friend and accomplice to the infamous gentleman thief AJ Raffles, he rubs shoulders with the upper crust―and steals their valuables. That is, until their next mark, an imperialist general, is grotesquely murdered in the library of his Mayfair mansion. Bal and Raffles find themselves implicated in a series of killings that soon attracts the attention of Scotland Yard―and the aging Sherlock Holmes himself. As Bal works to clear his name, he must hide his checkered past from a new acquaintance, the beautiful Irish violinist Maud Adler. Her fiery views lead Bal to question his own place in the world. But when he comes face-to-face with a plot to strike at the very heart of the British government, he must decide how much he’s willing to risk for his adopted city.

More information about the author can be found on his website. He can also be found on Instagram @arvind.david