CrimeFest 2022 Programme

 

Thursday 12 May 2022

13:30 - 14:20

PARTNERS IN CRIME: CRIME-SOLVING DUOS

Thomas Enger

Stuart Field

Michael Kurland

Russ Thomas

Participating Moderator: Sam Holland

14:40 - 15:30

Panel 1

ALL IN THE PAST: THE ENDURING FASCINATION WITH HISTORICAL CRIME FICTION

Kate Ellis

Mark Ellis

Carolyn Kirby

Leigh Russell

Participating Moderator: Linda Stratmann

Panel 2

BUBBLING UNDER: CREATING TENSION

Brian Price

Leslie Scase

Laura Shepherd-Robinson

Cath Staincliffe

Participating Moderator: Samantha Lee Howe

15:50 - 16:40

Panel 1

TICKING CLOCKS: IS CRIME FICTION A RACE AGAINST TIME?

Steve Cavanagh

Jørn Lier Horst

Tina Orr Munro

Trevor Wood

Participating Moderator: L.F. Robertson

Panel 2

A CHANGE IS AS GOOD AS A REST: WRITING MORE THAN ONE SERIES

M.J. Lee

Douglas Lindsay

Michael Stanley (Stan Trollip)

Robert Wilson

Participating Moderator: Michael Ridpath

17:00 - 17:50

Panel 1

AUTHORS REMEMBERED

Maxim Jakubowski (on Cornell Woolrich)

John Lawton (on Jerzy Kosinsky)

Nick Triplow (on Ted Lewis)

TBC

Participating moderator: Mike Ripley

Panel 2

YOU’RE HAVING A LAUGH: HUMOUR IN CRIME FICTION

Helen Fitzgerald

Dolores Gordon-Smith

Amita Murray

Antti Tuomainen 

Participating Moderator: Nev Fountain

20:00 – 21:30: CRIMEFEST Pub Quiz, with crime writer and critic Peter Guttridge as your quiz inquisitor. Prizes to be won!

LOCATION: TBA.

Friday 13 May 2022

09:00 - 09:50

Panel 1

40 YEARS OF CHANGE: FROM THE DEPRESSED 30s TO THE SWINGING 60s

Tim Glister

Michael Kurland

John Lawton

Niki Mackay

Participating Moderator: Luke McCallin

Panel 2

STICKING TO THE LAW: POLICE PROCEDURALS

Rachael Blok

Stuart Field

Leigh Russell

G.D. Sanders

Participating Moderator: Paul Gitsham

10:10 - 11:00

Panel 1

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS: NOT SO PERFECT LIVES

Tina Baker

L.F. Robertson

Amanda Robson

Catriona Ward

Participating Moderator: Caroline England

Panel 2

SUSPECT EVERYONE: TIGHT KNIT COMMUNITIES, SMALL TOWNS AND LOCKED ROOMS

Rachael Blok

James Delargy

Victoria Dowd

David Hewson

Participating Moderator: Martin Edwards

Panel 3

OUT OF UNIFORM: GIFTED AMATEURS

Elizabeth Mundy

Nell Pattison

Fiona Veitch Smith

Trevor Wood

Participating Moderator: Carolyn Kirby

11:20 – 12:10

Panel 1

THIS IS THE MODERN WORLD: SCIENCE, TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

Simon Conway

Fiona Erskine

Antony Johnston

Eve Smith

Participating Moderator: Christine Poulson

Panel 2

CROOKED PATHS: PLOTS THAT TWIST AND TURN

Simon Brett

Sam Carrington

Michael Ridpath

Simon Toyne

Participating Moderator: Katerina Diamond

Panel 3

A STRANGE BUSINESS? PRIVATE EYES AND PAID SLEUTHS

Mick Finlay

Felix Francis

Cath Staincliffe

Lesley Thomson

Participating Moderator: Cathy Ace

12:30 - 13:20

Panel 1

DIVIDED SOCIETY: HATE CRIMES AND SOCIAL FACTORS

Kia Abdullah

Antony Dunford

Sarah Sultoon

Holly Watt

Participating Moderator: Michael Stanley (Stanley Trollip)

Panel 2

BURYING SECRETS: WHO KNOWS WHAT, WHEN, AND WHY?

Mason Cross

Stephen Edger

Gilly MacMillan

Russ Thomas

Participating Moderator: Emily Koch

Panel 3

NETFLIX’ THE STAIRCASE: PLEADING GUILTY TO A CRIME YOU DIDN'T COMMIT?

Steve Cavanagh (Defence)

Imran Mahmood (Prosecution)

Ayo Onatade (The Judge)

13:40 - 14:30

Panel 1

CRIME IN THE CITY: LONDON SET CRIME FICTION

Elle Croft

Biba Pearce

Jeff Dowson

Victoria Selman

Participating Moderator: Linda Mather

Panel 2

HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO?: CHARACTERS AT THE EDGE

Andrew Child

Katerina Diamond

Robert Goddard

Yrsa Sigurdardottir

Participating Moderator: Alex North

Panel 3

LIFE IN THE SHADOWS: SPIES ASSASSINS & COVERT OPERATORS

Antony Johnston

Samantha Lee Howe

Neil Lancaster

Robert Wilson

Participating Moderator: Alex Shaw

14:50 - 15:40

Panel 1

SLEUTHS ABROAD: CRIME IN FOREIGN CLIMES

Peter Hanington

David Hewson

Vaseem Khan

Louise Mangos

Participating Moderator: Barry Forshaw

Panel 2

TRUTH AND REALITY: RESEARCH AND SOURCES

Sue Lawrence

Imran Mahmood

Linda Stratmann

Catriona Ward

Participating Moderator: Janet Laurence

Panel 3

TOXIC: WHEN RELATIONSHIPS TURN BAD

Claire Douglas

Nina Manning

Robin Morgan-Bentley

Rebecca Thornton

Participating Moderator: Amanda Robson

16:00 - 16:50

Panel 1

Ghost of Honour: DICK FRANCIS

Felix Francis

Andrew Hewson

Participating Interviewer: Simon Brett

Panel 2

ITW: THRILLING FOR A LIVING

Alison Bruce

Dugald Bruce-Lockhart

Alex Shaw

Michael Stanley

Participating Moderator: Zoë Sharp

Panel 3

VIOLENCE & GORE: SWEET OLD LADIES & SERIAL KILLERS

Vicki Bradley

Thomas Enger

Nadine Matheson

Alan McDermott

Participating Moderator: Victoria Selman

17:10 – 18:00

Panel 1

PLAYING GAMES: WHEN SOMEONE IS TORMENTING YOUR CHARACTERS

Neil Daws

Chris Ewan

Janice Hallett

Scott Kershaw

Participating Moderator: Jane Shemilt

Panel 2

REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: IN REMEMBRANCE OF MARCEL BERLINS

Barry Forshaw

Maxim Jakubowski

Mike Ripley

Karen Robinson

Participating Moderator: Peter Guttridge

18:30 – 19:30
PALM COURT

CrimeFest hosts the CWA’s Dagger Announcement Reception

The rest of the weekend's programme can be found here.

In The Spotlight - Carolyn Kirby

 

Name :- Carolyn Kirby

Job :- Author

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

Twitter :- @novelcarolyn

Introduction

Carolyn Kirby is the author of two novels. The Conviction of Cora Burns was longlisted for the Historical Writers' Association Debut Crown Award and shortlisted for the Specsavers Debut Crime Fiction Award. Her second book When We Fall, was published in May 2020 and was chosen by The Times as one of the best novels of 2020.

Current book?

Whiskey When We’re Dry by John Larison. It’s a Western told in the striking vernacular of teenage narrator Jessilyn/Jesse. Full of quirky observation (“Your eye pulls the trigger,” “a body is little more than a horse you don’t need to stable”) but driven by a heart-stopping, action-filled plot. Genius.

Favourite book

Oh dear, that’s quite an ask! Forced to choose one title, I will just mention Now We Shall Be Entirely Free by Andrew Miller, a book that should be much better known. It’s a study of PTSD in a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars but it is also the story of a thrilling chase through the length of a vividly realised Regency Britain, as well as a heart-breaking love story. Just read it!

Which two characters would you invite to dinner and why? 

First off is Julian from The Heart’s Invisible Furies by John Boyne, a character who commands your attention with his hair-raisingly hilarious bad behaviour and intoxicating charm. Perhaps a match for him, in more ways than one, would be the super-cool and fearless Martha from the excellent Cold War thriller The Wolves of Leninsky Prospekt by Sarah Armstrong.

How do you relax?

I find writing pretty relaxing to be honest. When your mind is immersed in the imaginary world you are building, it becomes switched off from daily life. But even more absorbing, though I wish I was better at it, is codeword.

What book do you wish you had written and why? 

Nutshell by Ian McEwan. This is such a wacky concept; a whodunnit told by a foetus, yet it works brilliantly. And in a sign of an author at the top of their game, it is laugh-out-loud funny. I am trying to make my own writing funnier and I can tell you that is certainly harder to make readers laugh than it is to make them cry.

What would you say to your younger self if you were just starting out as a writer?

Don’t do it! Or rather, don’t do it yet. I’m glad I didn’t start writing until I was in my mid-forties as I wouldn’t have had enough patience or a tough enough skin to become a novelist as a young person. Writing novels is a solitary way of working too, which might have sent me a bit crazy in my twenties, but now, in my fifties, I love it.

Why do you prefer to write standalone novels as opposed to a series and would you consider writing a series?

I will always write standalones as I need to get excited about a new story by setting it in a world that is entirely new to me and then embarking on a journey of discovery. Much as I love being in each of the settings I have visited (Victorian Birmingham, WW2 Britain and Poland, and more recently the north of England and Scotland in the 18th century) I can’t imagine ever going back to any of them. There are too many other times and places to explore!

Your 2 favourite Oxford books?

An Instance of the Fingerpost by Iain Pears is a brilliant crime novel disguised as a panorama of 17th century thought, politics and religion. It is set in Oxford during the Restoration, a time when the battle between science and superstition for the intellectual upper hand was at its fiercest. 

After Such Kindness by Gaynor Arnold also looks at the influence of religion on society but her re-working of the story of Lewis Carroll and Alice Liddell in 19th century Oxford has a spell-binding focus on the family as a crucible for the doubts and demons of the age.

I shall be saying more about both of these great novels in my talk for the St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend 13th-15th August 2021. Can’t wait!

When We Fall by Carolyn Kirby (Oldcastle Books Ltd)

In England, 1943, British pilot Vee Katchatourian is determined to get her flying Wings, in spite of her sex and foreign name. Meanwhile, in Occupied Poland, Ewa Hartman serves German officers in her father's guest house, while secretly gathering intelligence for the resistance. What neither woman knows is that they are in love with the same man... Stefan Bergel is haunted by a choice he made whilst held in Russian captivity. Now, he's one of the only surviving witnesses of an appalling war crime - a crime that risks going unpunished. Compelled to expose the truth, Stefan asks both women to take enormous risks for him. Their actions could completely change the course of the war... but is he asking too much?

Information about 2021 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend and how to book tckets can be found here.

Oxford: The Capital of Crime Fiction - 28th St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend -

 

Sneek Peek at the St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend 13 -15 August 2021

The 28^th St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend will be co-chaired by Alison Joseph and Jake Kerridge

Friday 13^th August

7:00pm 

Welcome Triona Adams (Weekend Director), Chair- Sarah Hilary

Lucy Atkins: Ghosts of Oxford- revisiting and reworking Oxford and its literary past in Magpie Lane.

8:00pm 

Live Screening Whodunnit: The Case of the Cambridge Corpse with Andrew Taylor

Saturday 14^th August 

10:00am to 11:00am - Chair Jake Kerridge

Mick Herron: Oxford Crime: an A-Z

Peter Kemp: Colleges and Corpses: Oxford in Crime Fiction

11:30am to 12:30am - Chair Alison Joseph

Maria Rejt: Remorseless Oxford

Cara Hunter: In The Shadow of Morse: Writing New Crime For The Old City

2:00pm to 3:00pm - Chair Jake Kerridge

Veronica Stallwood: It Depends on What You Mean by “Oxford”

Jean Harker: Michael Innes- Oxford Insider

3:30pm to 4:30pm – Chair Alison Joseph

Val McDermid: Daft, Donnish, Delightful: The Detective Fiction of Edmund Crispin 

Philip Gooden: J C Masterman: King of The Double Cross

5:00pm to 5:45pm - Jake Kerridge

Guillermo Martinez: When Crime Fiction Lives in Crime Fiction

Sunday 15^th August

10:00am to 11:00am - Chair Alison Joseph

Jane Casey: 'Let's Have One Other Gaudy Night': Lord Peter Wimsey's Oxford

Carolyn Kirby: Nightmared Spires: Funding the Gothic in Oxford Novels

11:30am to 12:30pm 

Emma Smith: Shakespearean Sleuths: The Scholar as Detective/ The Detective as Scholar – With Val McDermid

12:30pm

The Case of the Cambridge Corpse – Whodidit revealed, and prize winner announced.

Farewell until 2022.

More information about registering, buying a ticket and about the whole weekend can be found here.

The Dreaming Spires at St Hilda's Crime Fiction Weekend

 

Dear Partners in Crime,

Even in these uncertain times, preparations for the 2021 St Hilda's College Crime Fiction Weekend are in full swing.

As yet we can't say if we will be able to meet in person, but whether on-site or online, we have another compelling line-up for you this August. With the theme of Oxford: the capital of Crime Fiction you can expect old favourites, Morse, Wimsey, and Gervase Fen, as well as the new writers on the beat, Lucy Atkins (Magpie Lane), Cara Hunter (DI Fawley series) and more.

Val McDermid and Mick Herron are back by popular demand.Alison Joseph and Jake Kerridge take the Chair, and we can announce a new mystery from Chief Insp. Andrew Taylor and The Case of the Cambridge Corpse.

Expect Gaudy Nights and Moving Toyshops, sinister scholars and dodgy detectives, and low deeds on High Table.

Details here with booking link to be anounced soon. Meanwhile, save the dates, and sharpen your wits.

Best wishes from the Committee: Triona Adams, Jean Harker, Sarah Hilary, Mick Herron, Alison Joseph, Jake Kerridge, and Carolyn Kirby.

Books to look Forward to from No Exit Press

October 2018

Autumn 1915. World War I is raging across Europe but Woodrow Wilson has kept Americans out of the trenches--though that hasn't stopped young men and women from crossing the Atlantic to volunteer at the front. Christopher "Kit" Cobb, a Chicago reporter with a second job as undercover agent for the U.S. government, is officially in Paris doing a story on American ambulance drivers, but his intelligence handler, James Polk Trask, soon broadens his mission. City-dwelling civilians are meeting death by dynamite in a new string of bombings, and the German-speaking Kit seems just the man to figure out who is behind them--possibly a German operative who has snuck in with the waves of refugees coming in from the provinces and across the border in Belgium. But there are elements in this pursuit that will test Kit Cobb, in all his roles, to the very limits of his principles, wits, and talents for survival.  Paris in the Dark is by Robert Olen Butler

Originally published by Gryphon Books in 1993, Difficult Lives was one of the earliest attempts to track the legacy of original paperback writers such as Jim Thompson, David Goodis and Chester Himes.  The individual essays on these three first appeared in literary magazines.  Difficult Lives visits a rare moment when daylight was showing around the seams of American society and visions quite in contrast to the sanctioned version drifted to the surface in books one bought off racks in drugstores and bus stations -- stark, bonelike, disturbing books.  No Exit Press are to make Difficult Lives available again, doubling our pleasure by pairing it with Hitching Rides, an equal volume of new essays on other crime writers including Derek Raymond, Jean-Patrick Manchette, Patricia Highsmith and Shirley Jackson.  Difficult Lives – Hitching Rides is by James Sallis.

The Lonely Witness is by William Boyle.  Amy was once a party girl, but now she lives a lonely life. Helping the house-bound to receive communion in the Gravesend neighbourhood of Brooklyn, she knows the community well.  When a local woman goes missing, Amy senses something isn’t right.  Tailing the woman’s suspicious son, she winds her way through Brooklyn’s streets. But before she can act, he is dead.  Captivated by the crime she’s witnessed and the murderer himself, Amy doesn’t call the cops. Instead, she collects the weapon from the sidewalk and soon finds herself on the trail of a killer.

November 2018

Death Rope is by Leigh Russell. Mark Abbott is dead. His sister refuses to believe it was suicide, but only Detective Sergeant Geraldine Steel will listen.  When other members of Mark’s family disappear, Geraldine’s suspicions are confirmed.  Taking a risk, Geraldine finds herself confronted by an adversary deadlier than any she has faced before… Her boss Ian is close, but will he arrive in time to save her, or is this the end for Geraldine Steel?

December 2018

One Law For The Rest of Us is by Peter Murphy.  Two generations of abuse... one shocking conspiracy... a woman determined to expose it all.  When Audrey Marshall sends her daughter Emily to the religious boarding school where she herself was educated a generation before, memories return – memories of a culture of child sexual abuse presided over by a highly-regarded priest.  Audrey turns to barrister Ben Schroeder in search of justice for Emily and herself.  But there are powerful men involved, men determined to protect themselves at all costs.

Heart Attacks is California’s last secret spot – the premier mysto surf haunt, the stuff of rumour and legend. The rumours say you must cross Indian land to get there. They tell of hostile locals and shark-infested waters where waves in excess of thirty feet break a mile from shore. For down-and-out photographer Jack Fletcher, the chance to shoot these waves in the company of surfing legend Drew Harmon offers the promise of new beginnings. But Drew is not alone in the northern reaches of the state. His young wife, Kendra, lives there with him. Obsessed with the unsolved murder of a local girl, Kendra has embarked upon a quest of her own, a search for truth – however dark that truth may prove to be.  In this desolate wasteland the search for the perfect wave becomes a quest for survival, as events lead inevitably to their final, tragic climax.  The Dogs of Winter is by Kem Nunn.

January 2019

On leave from Canada's Community Policing department, Esa Khattak is traveling in Iran, reconnecting with his cultural heritage and seeking peace in the country’s beautiful mosques and gardens. But Khattak’s supposed break from work is cut short when he’s approached by a Canadian government agent in Iran, asking him to look into the death of renowned Canadian-Iranian filmmaker Zahra Sobhani. Zahra was murdered at Iran’s notorious Evin prison, where she’d been seeking the release of a well-known political prisoner. Khattak quickly finds himself embroiled in Iran’s tumultuous politics and under surveillance by the regime, but when the trail leads back to Zahra’s family in Canada, Khattak calls on his partner, Detective Rachel Getty, for help.  Rachel uncovers a conspiracy linked to the Shah of Iran and the decades-old murders of a group of Iran’s most famous dissidents. Historic letters, a connection to the Royal Ontario Museum, and a smuggling operation on the Caspian Sea are just some of the threads Rachel and Khattak begin unraveling, while the list of suspects stretches from Tehran to Toronto. But as Khattak gets caught up in the fate of Iran’s political prisoners, Rachel sees through to the heart of the matter: Zahra’s murder may not have been a political crime at all.  Among the Ruins is by Ausma Zehanat Khan.

February 2019

Jack Harper isn’t a bad man, but he’s stuck in a loveless marriage with a mediocre job just trying to keep sober. The only good thing in his life is his son. When an old college friend introduces him to a new extramarital dating website, he tentatively reaches out to find a distraction from his misery. But when he goes to meet up with his steamy online date, he quickly realises it was a dire choice.  Soon, Jack finds himself desperately trying to prove his innocence for crimes he did not commit, and the life he once had – unhappy as it was – is nothing but a dream. Now, he’s living his worst nightmare. . .  Too Far is by Jason Starr.

Fade to Grey is by John Lincoln.  Gethin Grey is the man you call when there’s nowhere else to turn. His Last Resort Legals team investigates miscarriages of justice. But Gethin is running out of options himself: his gambling is out of control, his marriage is falling apart and there’s no money left to pay the wages…  Izma M was sent down years ago for the brutal murder of a young woman. In jail he’s written a bestseller and become a cult hero, and now the charismatic fading-film-star Amelia Laverne wants to bankroll Gethin to prove Izma's innocence. For Gethin – low on luck and cash – the job is heaven sent. But is Izma M really as blameless as his fans believe?  This seemingly cold case is about to turn very hot indeed…

March 2019

The Conviction of Cora Burns is by Carolyn Kirby.  Birmingham, 1885.  Born in a gaol and raised in a workhouse, Cora Burns has always struggled to control the violence inside her.  Haunted by memories of a terrible crime, she seeks a new life working as a servant in the house of scientist Thomas Jerwood.  Here, Cora befriends a young girl, Violet, who seems to be the subject of a living experiment. But is Jerwood also secretly studying Cora…?

After Brooklyn mob widow Rena Ruggiero hits her eighty-year-old neighbour Enzio in the head with an ashtray when he makes an unwanted move on her, she retreats to the Bronx home of her estranged daughter, Adrienne, and her granddaughter, Lucia, only to be turned away at the door. Their neighbour, Lacey “Wolfie” Wolfstein, a one-time Golden Age porn star and retired Florida Suncoast grifter, takes Rena in and befriends her. When Lucia discovers that Adrienne is planning to hit the road with her ex-boyfriend, she figures Rena is her only way out of a life on the run with a mother she can’t stand. The stage is set for an explosion that will propel Rena, Wolfie, and Lucia down a strange path, each woman running from their demons, no matter what the cost. A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself is by William Boyle.

 

Iconic, tough-but-tender Boston PI Spenser delves into the black market art scene to investigate a decades-long unsolved crime of dangerous proportions.  The heist was legendary, still talked about twenty years after the priceless paintings disappeared from one of Boston's premier art museums. Most thought the art was lost forever, buried deep, sold off overseas, or, worse, destroyed as incriminating evidence. But when paint chips from the most valuable piece stolen, Gentlemen in Black by a Spanish master, arrives at the desk of a Boston journalist, the museum finds hope and enlists Spenser's help.  Soon the cold art case thrusts Spenser into the shady world of black market art dealers, aged Mafia bosses, and old vendettas. A five-million-dollar-reward by the museum's top benefactor, an aged, unlikable Boston socialite, sets Spenser and pals Vinnie Morris and Hawk onto a trail of hidden secrets, jailhouse confessions, murder, and double crosses.  Robert B Parker’s Old Black Magic is by Ace Atkins.

May 2019

Ungentlemanly Warfare is by Howard Linskey. A soldier and a spy, an officer but not quite a gentleman, Captain Harry Walsh is SOE’s secret weapon.  Loathed by his own commanding officer, haunted by the death of his closest friend and trapped in a loveless marriage, Harry Walsh is close to burn out when he is ordered to assassinate the man behind the ME 163 Komet, Hitler’s miracle jet fighter. If Walsh fails, there is no prospect of allied victory in Europe.  Harry Walsh is ruthless, unorthodox and ungentlemanly. He is about to wreak havoc.