Capital Crime 2026 - Headliners Announced

CAPITAL CRIME ANNOUNCES 2026 HEADLINERS, INCLUDING GLOBAL SENSATIONS LEE AND ANDREW CHILD, JANE HARPER, CLAIRE DOUGLAS, ANDREA MARA AND COMEDY WRITING TALENTS ARDAL O’HANLON AND ANDI OSHO

Capital Crime Festival 2025

The 2026 festival to return to the Leonardo Royal Hotel, St Paul’s, on 18th-20th June.

Partnership with The Reading Agency announced, in the National Year of Reading

Founder David Headley heralds crime as ‘one of the most engaging and accessible genres, and the perfect way to help people rediscover a love of reading’

Fingerprint Awards to return on 18th June, presented by radio and TV broadcaster, and host of The Bookshelf Podcast Ryan Tubridy

Capital Crime, the celebrated crime and thriller festival led by Goldsboro Books’ co-founder and managing director David Headley, has announced its first confirmed headlining authors, attending in June 2026. The programme features authors at all stages of their careers, from much anticipated debut novelists to global sensations from around the world.

Capital Crime will also be Going All In on the National Year of Reading, a nationwide campaign designed to help people rediscover the joy of reading, and the biggest reading initiative the UK has ever seen. The festival has agreed a partnership with The Reading Agency, a UK charity that inspires social and personal change through the proven power of reading, and the organisation behind Quick Reads. This partnership will be a step change for Capital Crime’s Social Outreach initiative, a cornerstone of the festival since it launched in 2019, which has seen schoolchildren from all around London invited to meet, hear and engage with publishing representatives and authors, in order to demystify the industry; encourage a diverse range of people to consider a future career in books; and grow its community of readers by inspiring a lifelong love of reading. As part of the partnership, Capital Crime will host a panel with Quick Reads authors from 2026 and previous years, chaired by Debbie Hicks MBE, a founding member of The Reading Agency. Goldsboro Books and Capital Crime have been committed to creating reader communities since the bookshop’s inception, and the team firmly believes that crime fiction can be the most brilliantly accessible route into a lifelong love of reading.

The festival returns to the Leonardo Royal Hotel in St Paul’s, and confirmed authors and speakers so far include: 

• Lee Child, creator of the globally famous Jack Reacher novels, and his brother Andrew, who has taken up the baton, will be in conversation with author and journalist Stig Abell
• Jane Harper, the international #1 bestselling Australian author of The Dry
• Andrea Mara, million copy bestselling author of All Her Fault
• Actor, comedian and novelist Ardal O’Hanlon
• Bestselling creator of Maeve Kerrigan Jane Casey
• Award-winning psychological suspense writer Liz Nugent

Also confirmed to be taking part are Sunday Times bestselling thriller writer Claire Douglas; Andi Osho, stand-up comedian and thriller writer; multi-award-winning bestseller Clare Mackintosh; creator of Roy Grace Peter James; bestselling creator of The Guest List and The Paris Apartment Lucy Foley; and the author of Reece’s Book Club selected Broken Countries, Clare Leslie Hall.

Audiences will also hear from CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of Wyndham and Bannerjee novels Abir Mukherjee; Sunday Times bestselling Anatomy of a Scandal writer Sarah Vaughan; Sophie Hannah, #1 bestselling author of Poirot continuations; former barrister and Traitors star Harriet Tyce; and Lucy Rose, author of 2025’s debut sensation The Lamb.

The festival will also be welcoming some of the most critically acclaimed and eagerly anticipated debut novelists of 2026, including Yemi Dipeolu, launching psychological thriller Kiss Marry Kill; Ellie Levenson, author of the heart-stopping suspense Room 706; and renowned wine writer Olly Smith, launching the first in The Bottle Bank Mysteries series.

Also returning are the Fingerprint Awards, this year to be presented on Thursday 18th by Ryan Tubridy, and sponsored by the festival’s official international cultural partner, the Sharjah International Book Fair. This year the shortlist in each category will be chosen by the Capital Crime Tastemakers – an independent committee of bloggers, journalists and readers. The award winners will, as always, be voted for by the readers and fans who make this genre the best in the world.

Last year the eagerly anticipated awards received over 6,000 votes from the public and winners included bestsellers Vaseem Khan and M.W. Craven, for the Historical Book of the Year and the Overall Best Crime Book of the Year respectively.

Finally, on Thursday 18th, Capital Crime is thrilled to open its doors to aspiring, unpublished writers ready to take the next step towards securing literary representation. Agents from DHH Literary Agency who are actively searching for the next standout voice in crime fiction will be available for an open afternoon with all ticketholders. If you’ve written a gripping thriller, a twist-filled mystery, or a page-turning police procedural, this could be your opportunity to get your work in front of top industry talent. Festival ticketholders will be invited to submit ahead of the festival, and will be given a meeting slot with their agent of choice.

Capital Crime co-founder and Goldsboro Books managing director David Headley, said:

“I set up Capital Crime because I wanted to create a festival that brought together crime writers, readers, and industry professionals in a way that was welcoming to both established and emerging authors. It has been a joy to see the festival go from strength to strength, and our community of crime fans and writers grow. In this, the National Year of Reading, I’m delighted to announce our partnership with The Reading Agency. Crime is one of the most engaging and accessible genres of writing, and the perfect way to help people rediscover a love of reading. As well as our Quick Reads panel, we have panels for every reader, from discussions about AI to ‘property noir’, and courtroom dramas to comedy in crime.”

Capital Crime Festival Director Lizzie Curle, said:

“I’m thrilled with how our programme is shaping up, with some of the best crime writers in the world joining us, such as international sensations Lee Child, Jane Harper and comedy legend Ardal O’Hanlon and fan favourites like Lisa Jewell and Peter James. As always, I’m also delighted by the extremely exciting new voices we’ll be welcoming this year, including Lucy Rose, Olly Smith, Yemi Dipeolu and Ellie Levenson.”

The full line-up will be announced at the end of March.

Headley and his team at Goldsboro Books have helped launch the careers of so many authors since it opened over 25 years ago, by uniting incredible writing with their loyal, ever-growing community of passionate readers. Capital Crime is a brilliant extension of that vision, having become an unmissable fixture in the literary calendar, one of the largest crime fiction festivals in the UK, and the only one to be owned by an independent bookshop. With a line-up which fully reflects the vibrant and culturally diverse city that it calls home, Capital Crime’s goal is to create a year-round home for crime and thriller readers and authors, celebrating books and stories, and nurturing the next generation of talent and book enthusiasts. The festival attracts authors from around the world, to create a unique, innovative and entertaining programme, pairing debuts with household names. The festival welcomes more than 1,000 attendees, the majority purchasing full weekend passes, and previous attendees have included Ian Rankin, Irvine Welsh, Dorothy Koomson, Abir Mukherjee and Kate Atkinson.