Recalling “Killing Floor” to “Blue Moon”

Mike Stotter and I were thankful to Publisher / Editor and Literary Raconteur Otto Penzler, for a specific book he’s just released, and we got the opportunity to thank him personally while we were at Bouchercon 2025 in New Orleans.

I first heard of this book during the London Book Fair when I had a meeting with Otto Penzler. As a long time reader of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher novels - I quizzed him about this book during last May’s Crimefest event in Bristol.

The book I am referring to is ‘Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories’ – a book that I was highly anticipating.

So, what are my thoughts once I had a copy in my hands?

This interesting book will not only appeal to readers of the Jack Reacher novels, but also to readers [and writers] who wish to uncover the physical mechanics behind the writing process; the dynamics that powered one of the world’s best-selling thriller series.

Written in a series of short chapters [which were initially short introductions to the limited print run special editions of each Jack Reacher novel solely written by Lee Child] from the first [Killing Floor] to the twenty fourth [Blue Moon], this book is so very interesting.

It opens - On Monday September 5th, 1994, at home, at the dining room table, I sat down to write. An hour later, I gave the first chapter to my wife. I asked, “Should I continue?”

“Yes,” she said. “I like it.”

Child’s self-deprecating, modest and amusing style at times raising a smile, while at others forcing the reader to pause for thought and ponder upon the hand of fate. The combination of the author’s work ethic, built-in self-reliance, positive [and generous] nature - collided many times with the hand of fate as he watched the cards fall, not always in his favour – but he always seemed to play the best possible hand. Case in point – the circumstances of the purchase of his Property in Southern France, as well as its subsequent sale.

Read the full review HERE

After completing this slim tome, including the new Jack Reacher short story “A Better Place” which closes this interesting book – I had a few questions, and thanks to publisher Otto Penzler, who spoke with Lee – I got my answers, which are presented below for our readers.

I closed my review –

“This is the most informative and entertaining book I’ve read so far in 2025. Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories helped recall how much pleasure reading the Lee Child novels had on me, enriching my own life by distracting me from my own [at times] Bad Luck and Trouble.”

I understand the importance of literature - good writing – and the power of stories in helping manage the randomness of life and its challenges.

Stephen King summed this importance in his book “On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft”.

“Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around”

I managed my life through my love of books and reading, so over to a story teller that helped me overcome the challenges that life presented me from 1997’s ‘Killing Floor’ to 2019 and ‘Blue Moon’ – Mr. Lee Child.

Ali: I first heard about ‘Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories’ in March, from Otto Penzler during the London Book Fair. Would you tell us about the book’s genesis and was it your idea or that of Penzler’s Mysterious Press?

Lee: Entirely Otto's idea - both originally and contemporaneously.  Otto did very limited editions of the Reacher books for his collectors, 126 printed per title, and asked for added-value forewords for each, year by year.  I did them as diaries, really - where I was, what I was thinking, etc, while I was writing each book.  Then he wanted to publish them in a single widely-available volume.  Which felt weird, frankly.  I knew collectors rarely even open the book - they shelve them reverentially and worry about cracking their spines.  So I thought no one would read this stuff, so I made the intros quite personal and unguarded.  Transworld picked it up as a subsidiary deal for the UK, Australia and New Zealand.

AK: I see there will be an audio release, will you be narrating / reading it or will Jeff Harding do the honours again? AND what’s your take on the growth of Audio Books, and the Reacher novels in particular?

LC:  I narrated the main part of the audio myself, because it feels a bit autobiographical, like a memoir.  That was the first time ever for me.  Jeff Harding did the non-me parts, including a brand new Reacher short story we put in as bonus content.  Audio is getting huge now - inevitably, I think, because for most of our evolution storytelling has been oral, and we seem to be hardwired for it.  I'm all in favour - I'm a storyteller rather than a writer, so I'm happy for people to get the story any way they want.

AK: I enjoyed the Reacher short story “A Better Place” that closes “Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories”, so after last year’s collection ‘Safe Enough’ and previously ‘No Middle Name’, will we be seeing more short fiction from you?

LC: I'm sure I'll do short stories now and then.  There's always someone asking.  If I'm around long enough, there could be enough to make another collection.

AK: As a fellow bibliophile - I was amused when you mentioned about renovating the manor house in Sussex, including building a library “…for the first time in my life, I had more shelves than books….though that moment did not last long…” So tell us about your own book collecting over the years, and what is the state of your book collection currently?

LC: I'm not a collector per se - I have probably ten thousand books here and there, but fewer than twenty are actual valuable volumes.  I have a Kelmscott Chaucer - folio size, hand-printed by William Morris, illustrated by Edward Burne-Jones, often called the most beautiful book in the world, and a first edition, first printing of The Catcher in the Rye, and a signed first of The Silence of the Lambs.  Plus a couple of James Bonds.  Stuff like that.  But most of my books have little resale value, except they're much loved by me.

AK: Naturally, there is little mention of the Amazon series REACHER due to the time frame [Killing Floor to Blue Moon] – so what can you tell us about Season Four – and is it based on your novel “Gone Tomorrow”? And what about the spin off series “Neagely”?

LC: Yes, the TV seasons post-date the forewords in the book.  Reacher season four is almost done - yes, Gone Tomorrow - and the Neagley spin-off is almost through post-production. 

All good.  I'm enjoying the process.

AK: Can you tell us a little about the ‘Lee Child Archive’ held at the University of East Anglia [UEA] in Norwich?

LC: Like the memoir book [Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories], the archive is another thing I never expected.  UEA is very much "the writers' university", a bit like Iowa State in the U.S., and I know Henry Sutton, who teaches there.  He asked for my archive.  I wasn't sure I had one, as such - just a bunch of old boxes with all kinds of stuff thrown in.  But they have made wonderful sense of it - it has turned out to be beautifully curated and quite impressive.  I started long enough ago that plenty of it is on physical paper, not just electronic.

AK: And tell us a little about why you enjoy attending festivals that celebrate writing, as you [and Brother & Co-Writer] Andrew attended both Crimefest and Theakston’s Harrogate and you are a guest author at the the inaugural Whitby Literature Festival this November.

LC: I love festivals, and go to as many as I can fit in.  Readers and writers are like my family, and it's great to see them periodically.  I like to meet the new writers - such passion, energy, and ideas - and such great books! And yes, I'll be there on November 8th, at 7pm at Whitby in November. 

Now I'm back in the UK, I decided to do stuff I had to miss before.  I like Whitby - I had a nice holiday there once.  And it's a new festival, so I wanted to help launch it.

AK: Mike Stotter and I attended Bouchercon 2025 in New Orleans, and enjoyed a film on Saturday Night following the Anthony Awards entitled “If Jack Reacher Could Sing” featuring a band called Naked Blue – would you are to comment?

LC: By an outrageous coincidence, unknown to each other, I was their fan and they were mine, and eventually we met.  Obviously we immediately pledged to make an album together - I would write the lyrics, they would write the music.  It took us fifteen years to get it done, but we did it.  A real high point in my life.  Total fun, with two lovely people.

AK: Thank you for your time, and the trip down memory lane with Reacher: The Stories behind the Stories. Your work has always been important to so many readers.

LC: My pleasure as ever.

Shots Magazine would like to pass our thanks to Otto Penzler of The Mysterious Press / Penzler Publishers and Patsy Irwin of PenguinRandomHouse for helping organise this short interview and of course to Lee Child for his time.

5 Min video Below: Lee Child and Andrew Grant at Crimefest May 2025 Bristol UK recorded in Gonzo-Vision. 

Quentin Bates talks to Shots Magazine

 

We were delighted to recently bump into the Renaissance Man of Mystery Quentin Bates at both Crimefest Bristol as well as Capital Crime.

Quentin is a prolific author, a Publisher, Translator, Fisherman, and generally an all-round interesting bloke, with an interesting life. He recently founded a publishing company called Corylus Books.

Their first acquisition ‘Broken’ by Jón Atli Jónasson caught our eye.

From the publisher -

Two broken cops.

One irretrievably damaged and the other an outcast.

Dóra struggles to cope with life after taking a bullet to the head. Rado is the child of refugees, his career shunted off the tracks due to his family connections to an organised crime gang. But they’re the only ones available when a troubled teenager vanishes from a school trip, and the trail gets darker the further they pursue it.

Broken takes place in a side of Reykjavík no visitor would ever want to see, as the mismatched pair tread on all the wrong toes in the search for the missing youngster. This takes place against the backdrop of a vicious vendetta and price on Dóra’s head. A brutal turf war embroils Rado’s family as he and Dóra follow the threads of corruption higher and higher, to the top of the exclusive apartment block on the outskirts of the city.

The first novel by award-winning screenwriter Jón Atli Jónasson to appear in English, Broken is the first of a razor-edged crime trilogy shot through with black humour and characters who leap off the page.

We reviewed Broken on its Hardcover release earlier this month, writing at the time -

This extraordinary crime novel debuted 2022 in the authors’ native Iceland, but is now finally available in an English Language translation.  Broken is a deeply thought-provoking narrative, written in an urgent present-tense style making the reader pause to collate and evaluate the proceedings as well as to take a breath. Written from multiple viewpoints, terse dialogue with deftly placed social commentary - its narrative pace is measured, but zings along with the velocity of the bullet that impacts Dora’s head in Broken’s opening chapter.

Dora works for the police in Reykjavík, shielded from ‘real’ police work by her boss Ellioi, instead she’s left to manage administration / office work, though she longs to return to working on the street. Ellioi hides his guilt [from the assignment they shared and which left fragments of a bullet lodged in Dora’s skull], by keeping her in the office, deskbound on minor cases - and away from further danger. The cranial injury still causes Dora physical pain, constant operations, and strict regime of medication - affecting her cognition and distorting her personality.

Read the Full Review HERE

So on the eve of Broken’s Paperback release in August, we decided to have a chat with Quentin for our readers.

A Karim: Could you tell us a little about yourself and where the fascination for Iceland and Icelandic culture / literature stemmed [and stems] from?

Q Bates: It’s a long story… I had the opportunity for a gap year, and a friend of my Dad’s said I could come and work in his net loft in Iceland for a few months. The 17-year-old me couldn’t shake off English suburbia fast enough. It didn’t quite work out as planned, as my A level results were pretty poor. So I just stayed in Iceland and the gap year became a gap decade. During that time I did several different jobs, went to college and started a family, so some very deep roots were put down there. We relocated to England after a while, for a variety of reasons. These days my wife and I try to split our time between the south of England and the north of Iceland, as we have children and grandchildren on each side of the ocean.

It was while I was at college that I started reading Icelandic properly, and the book scene was very different back then. There was practically no crime fiction other than translated mostly from English, and Icelandic literature was mostly very literary, plus there were loads of worthy biographies of captains of industry, political figures and whatnot, as well as nautical stuff – I’ll come back to that further on.

AK: And reading, did you come from a bookish family or was it your schooling?

QB: There were always books at home and my parents didn’t push us in particular directions, at least, we were never discouraged from reading anything. We were just encouraged to read whatever we wanted. Dad gave me two Asterix books for my (I think) eighth birthday, and that was probably a pivotal moment. I just fell in love with the village of Indomitable Gauls. One of those two books was Asterix in Britain, and I still think it’s the best one, gently and affectionately skewering the foibles of the Rosbifs across the Channel with their warm beer and terrible weather. It was much, much later that I figured out that the translator was the brilliant Anthea Bell.

Of course I pillaged the parental book shelves. Dad liked weighty 19th century literature (heavy going!) but that left me with an appreciation of Hardy and others. He also loved Norse mythology, the ancient sagas and Tolkien, and I inherited that. Although I read the Lord of the Rings pretty much every year for a long time, it must be 20 years since I last read it and I’m not sure I dare pick it up now. No, I haven’t seen the movies and don’t want to… Mum’s tastes were broader, and ranged from Ruth Rendell and Ed McBain at one end to Trollope and Maugham at the other. My first brush with Nordic crime fiction was picking Sjöwall & Wahlöö from Mum’s shelf, intrigued by the weird name, and I must have been 13 or 14 then. But there was no more! There was no other Nordic crime fiction in English for another couple of decades! By late teens I was reading George Orwell, Jack Kerouac, Douglas Adams (loved HHGTTG!), Solzhenitsyn, Anthony Burgess, Evelyn Waugh, Robert Graves. After S&W came Maigret, and fortunately there was no shortage of Simenon in English.

I’ve always been the oddball who scours the shelves of a library or bookshop for odd foreign names. So as a teen I was reading writers such as Jerome Weidman and Hans Helmut Kirst, who seem to be pretty much forgotten today. I still have this habit, and given the choice of a safe pair of familiar hands, or the first in a series featuring a crime-busting retired Olympic lady hammer-thrower by an unknown Bulgarian author, I know which way I’ll jump.

AK: And pivotal books that influenced your desire to write your own work?

QB: Maybe it’s more about the breadth than any particular author…? But, while I was living in Iceland, English books weren’t always easy to get hold of. I think I was at sea one time and had a few books with me, including a major bestseller by an author whose name I’ll keep to myself. It was terrible, a truly dreadful book. That brought home to me then than if that’s the kind of stuff that could get published, then I might be in with a chance after all.

Much later on… it was the books of the brilliant French author Dominique Manotti that showed me just how sharp, incisive, smart and politically aware crime fiction can be at its best. I don’t think she’s writing now, as she must be quite elderly. I got to meet her and shared a panel with her at a festival, and I was like a star-struck schoolboy.

AK: I read your first published book was a nonfiction work about fishing in the North Sea?

QB: That was fun! I was working as a journalist, writing about maritime stuff, and mainly to do with fishing – as that’s my professional background. I did trips on five different boats and that book contains those accounts. One was supposed to be four days on a Scottish mackerel boat that turned into twelve, another was a four-day trip from Newlyn and the others were easier, just one-day trips to sea. It was great fun, but the small publisher went out of business about half an hour after the book appeared. So it was never going to be a bestseller! I also wrote a book with the skipper of the Gaul – a trawler that disappeared off the Norwegian coast in 1974. He had been on a trip off when the ship sank – and I got to know him well. There had been all kinds of rumours of the Gaul having been a spy ship, none of which held water. That was a labour of love… The book took ten years, during which the wreck of the Gaul was located, surveyed and an inquiry was held, so all that had to be built into the narrative. That was quite an adventure. That book is now virtually impossible to find and second-hand copies go for 100+ quid!

AK: And what made you write fiction? And why Crime thrillers?

QB: It had always been at the back of my mind, along with the thought that fiction was a mug’s game, the chances of being published so slim that it was hardly worth trying. So I had to give it a go. That first book came out of a creative writing course I took as a way of getting a weekly afternoon off work… I later on found out that the deputy editor and the advertising manager were also working on novels of their own, but that’s another story. I expected to come out of the course working on non-fiction. But one of the tutors was a serious Noir aficionado, and so Sam North was very encouraging, and bears much responsibility for the decision to give crime fiction a try – and it was obvious that it would be nuts to not make use of all that knowledge of Iceland. Gunnhildur grew out of that – seven novels and two novellas.

AK: And how did you start working in translating Icelandic work into English?

QB: I had translated a book while I was at college in Iceland – one of the set texts. That was a seafaring tale, and the author (Guðlaugur Arason) became a very dear friend. Working on a nautical trade magazine, I worked a lot with material from other languages in one way or another, so I found myself translating a lot of technical and news material. It was at one of the first Iceland Noir festivals that Karen Sullivan of the then-brand-new Orenda Books was considering the unknown Ragnar Jónasson and asked if I could translate Snowblind. So I did… And then others came along looking for translation, so I’ve been pretty busy with that over the last few years.

AK: Please tell us about how you discovered Jon Atli Jonasson and deciding to not only translate his debut novel BROKEN, but also to venture into publishing?

QB: Corylus is me, translator Marina Sofia and Romanian publisher and author Bogdan Hrib. We wanted to publish some new voices, authors we could see who weren’t getting translation and publishing deals. It has been quite a learning curve! Some of our authors – Sólveig Pálsdóttir, Óskar Guðmundsson and Stella Blómkvist – have done well, while others have unfortunately done less well. We have published a couple of absolute crackers, fantastic books that have sold just a few dozen copies… All the same, I’m intensely proud of publishing Jérôme Leroy and Elsa Drucaroff in English. Their books are amazing, even if we may have caught a bit of a financial cold there!

I knew about Jón Atli’s book, and had translated an excerpt for the Icelandic publisher, and I think that was even before it had appeared in Icelandic. It was a real surprise when Jón Atli’s agent David Headley offered us the book – as Corylus is a publishing midget. So I got to work. I have to say, David is very shrewd and his faith in Corylus to do well for his author feels like a seal of approval that we’re doing the right things.

AK: Did Jon Atli Jonasson’s screenplay for THE DEEP and your own background in North Sea fishing resonate?

QB: I haven’t seen The Deep. I was working as a fisherman in 1984 in Iceland when Hellisey was lost and Guðlaugur Friðthórsson performed that astonishing feat of endurance to swim to land. When a boat is lost, especially when there’s a loss of life, the whole fleet (and the whole country) feels it, takes it personally, as it could have been any one of us in the water. I think every fisherman has a brown-trouser moment or two – I know I do…  At that time we all hung on the radio. It was the first question when you came on watch – ‘any news?’ So I’ve never been able to bring myself to watch it.

I’ll tell you something that does resonate – Among the books I picked up when I was starting to read Icelandic were seafaring tales by Ásgeir Jakobsson and by Jónas Guðmundsson. Today Ásgeir Jak’s son Jakob publishes my books in Icelandic – and Jónas Guðmundsson’s son is Jón Atli. So I had read practically everything by Jón Atli’s Dad, and didn’t realise the connection until we first met, by which time I had finished the first draft of the Broken translation. His father’s books were so pivotal for me 40 or so years ago that it genuinely made me shiver when I realised who he was.

AK: And what’s next for [a] Quentin Bates and [b] Jon Atli Jonasson [c] Corylus Books

QB: Well to answer sequentially -

[a] Translation has tailed off a bit. There are a few more translators at work now, and it seems that larger publishers are becoming more reluctant to commission translations, especially for new authors. Then there’s the whole AI thing, but let’s not go into that here… The upshot is that I’ve had some much-needed elbow room to get back to my own stuff, and I have a new lead character and a cast of supporting characters in something new that’s now coming to completion, plus draft outlines for what could become a series. I don’t want to jinx it by saying too much, except that the setting is Nordic and the lead character was once a cop...

[b] There’s a sequel to Broken, Venom, which I’m reading at the moment, and it’s every bit as meaty as Broken. From what Jón Atli has told me, this is a trilogy and he’s at work on the third novel now – although I’ve a feeling this could turn into a trilogy in four, five or more parts. This is powerful stuff with such strong characters, so I hope it does. We have UK & Commonwealth (excluding Canada) rights to Broken, so it’s sadly not available to readers in North America. We’ve tried to find a partner publisher on the other side of the Atlantic, but none of the ones we’ve approached has bitten. So if there’s an interested publisher in the US or Canada, please step this way…!

[c] We have a third novel (Murder Tide) by the mysterious Stella Blómkvist coming out this summer, and the translation of the fourth (title not yet finalised) is complete, so that’ll be out next year. And we need to have a chat with David Headley about Venom for next year! Sólveig Pálsdóttir is hard at work, so her next one could be for next year. We also have a second novel by Catalan author Teresa Solana for next year. We’re weighing up options for authors from other countries… We see so many proposals for what look to be fabulous books from around the world and it genuinely hurts to have to turn them away. But Corylus is a tiny, tiny publisher and there’s only so much we can do.

BTW, Corylus believes very firmly in artisanal translation by human translators with passion for language, nuance and idiom. We’ll shut the shop before we resort to AI translation.

AK Good for you - let’s keep literature human not AI Technology - and thank you for your time.

More information about Quentin’s publishing venture – Click HERE and about his writing Click HERE

Icon of Genre Announced for Final CrimeFest

 CrimeFest has announced an icon of the genre, Lee Child, will take part in its final convention in May 2025.

One of the UK’s leading crime fiction conventions, which is hosted in Bristol supported by title sponsor Specsavers, CrimeFest announced 2025 will be its final event after 16 years.

Organisers have said they are putting all their energy into making the final event one to remember.

The celebratory finale features a record number of Diamond Dagger recipients in attendance.

Alongside Lee, fellow Diamond Dagger recipients confirmed are Peter Lovesey, Simon Brett, Lindsey Davis, Martin Edwards, and John Harvey, as well as in spirit, John le Carré (with his two sons) and Dick Francis (as represented by his son, the crime writer Felix Francis). 

Le Carré’s sons are the film producer Simon Cornwell, who is behind adaptations of his father’s work, including The Night Manager for the BBC starring Tom Hiddleston and Olivia Colman; and Nick Harkaway who, to much acclaim, recently brought back his father’s famous literary creation, George Smiley, with his novel, Karla’s Choice.

John Harvey has written over 100 books, including his series of jazz-influenced Charlie Resnick novels. Harvey has a number of short stories due for publication this year, including his story Criss-Cross in Playing Dead, a new collection of stories written by members of the Detection Club, edited by Martin Edwards, and published in March. Also out in March is his new poetry collection, Blue in Green, published by Shoestring Press.

Also confirmed is the Icelandic author known as the Queen of Nordic thrillers, Yrsa Sigurdardottir, who is also a regular face at CrimeFest and will return to help celebrate CrimeFest’s sixteen years.

Also attending is the award-winning author Barbara Nadel, author of the much-loved Inspector Cetin Ikmen series, adapted for TV as The Turkish Detective starring Haluk Bilginer, which aired on BBC2 in June 2024. Trained as an actress, Barbara Nadel used to work in mental health services. She now writes full time and has been a visitor to Turkey for over twenty years. The latest in her Cetin Ikmen series, The Wooden Library, is out in May. She also has a new title in her Hakim and Arnold series, The East Ham Golem, out this February.

Adrian Muller, co-host of CrimeFest, said: “Lee Child, alongside American author Jeffery Deaver, has played a very special role in our history. Both were special guests at our very first CrimeFest, they were there for our fifth anniversary, and for our tenth anniversary. Jeffery has prior commitments; however, we’re working on him participating in CrimeFest remotely, and we're thrilled Lee will be there in person to help celebrate our final year.”

The Jack Reacher creator, whose books have been adapted to the big and small screen by Tom Cruise and for Amazon Prime, will attend with his brother and co-writer, Andrew, who has taken over writing the series. 

Lee Child said: "Sadly all good things come to an end - and Adrian Muller's Bristol CrimeFest is one of the very best things ever. It is 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."

Already announced for the long-weekend [15 – 18 May] at Bristol’s Mercure Grand Hotel is the author and CWA chair, Vaseem Khan, who will be Toastmaster at the CrimeFest Awards night. Vaseem is author of the Malabar House historical crime series set in Bombay. Upcoming is his continuation of the James Bond franchise with Quantum of Menace, the first in a series featuring Q.

2025 also welcomes the return of author Cathy Ace, who will close the Gala Dinner event. 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.

CrimeFest was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention, and CrimeFest runs on the US model. The first CrimeFest was organised in June 2008. 

Unlike other major crime fiction events in the UK, any commercially published author who signs up can feature on a panel. In this way, CrimeFest has provided many authors with a platform they would not have been offered elsewhere in the UK. 

Donna Moore, author and co-host of CrimeFest, said: “We’re proud to be a unique and perhaps the most democratic crime fiction event in the UK. Readers have discovered and met writers they otherwise may never have heard of. All delegates – be they authors, readers, from the book trade, or aspiring writers – come together as equals to celebrate the genre they love. We very much appreciate the talent and ongoing support of much-loved regulars, along with first-time attendees.”

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/

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.

 

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/

 

Even More Killer Puzzles – The Further Return of Murdle

For all you puzzle enthusiasts that fell in love with volume 1 and volume 2 of Murdle you will be pleased to know that there will be a third volume of these exceedingly fiendish puzzles being released in May 2024.

G T Karber will be appearing this year at CrimeFest where he will be hosting a special Murdle event on CrimeFest's opening night. 

He will also take part in a panel on Columbo, alongside fellow aficionados of the iconic TV show, Laura Lippman, and Vaseem Khan, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA)

There will also be another X competition taking place to celebrate the launch of the third volume so do look out for a tweet about the competition on X.

G.T Karber’s third instalment, Murdle: Even More Killer Puzzles is published on 9 May by Souvenir Press.

CrimeFest Announce 2024 Programme

 

CrimeFest, the UK's leading crime fiction convention hosted at Bristol’s Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel has announced its full programme, with tickets now on sale.

As well as the Full CrimeFest pass, which gives access to the entire event, a limited number of Day Passes for the Friday and Saturday of the four-day convention, have now gone on sale.

CrimeFest, which runs from 9-12 May, opens with a special Murdle live event, hosted by the creator of the international crime puzzle series hit, G.T. Karber, in one of just a handful of UK appearances.

The opening day also sees panels on topics including pace and tension, landscape and setting, plotting, and the appeal of the genre to all ages.

Thursday’s panels feature authors including Ajay Chowdhury, whose first novel in the acclaimed series featuring Detective Kamil Rahman, The Waiter, is being adapted for television, the Welsh-Canadian mystery writer Cathy Ace, the international bestselling author Alex North, and the award-winning, Kate Ellis.

Friday then welcomes 25 author panels, including 2024’s featured guests: Laura Lippman, Denise Mina, and G.T. Karber.

Lippman is best known for her novels set in Baltimore featuring reporter turned investigator, Tess Monaghan. Her novel Lady in the Lake was adapted into a series for Apple. She will appear on a panel of superfans of the iconic TV series, Columbo, alongside chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, Vaseem Khan, and Murdle’s G.T. Karber.

Friday also sees the bestselling authors Holly Jackson and Abir Mukherjee discussing books that take readers on a ‘road trip,’ and former detective turned crime author, Graham Bartlett, exploring misconduct in crime fiction.

There will also be a panel celebrating Alfred Hitchcock moderated by Doctor Who writer, and author of the Hitchcock Murders, Gavin Collinson. He’ll be joined by the seminal Scottish author Denise Mina, and Barry Ryan, MD of Free@LastTV which created the TV hit series, Agatha Raisin.

A homage to PD James will feature the author Frances Fyfield, the Sunday Times chief fiction critic Peter Kemp, playwright and crime author, Simon Brett, and PD James’ granddaughter, Dr Beatrice Groves.

On Saturday 11 May, featured guest events include Denise Mina interviewed by Abir

Mukherjee, Laura Lippman interviewed by Ayo Onatade, Lynda La Plante interviewed by Maxim Jakubowski, and James Lee Burke in a live Zoom interview with Vaseem Khan.

Saturday also features panels on debut authors, an exploration of ‘partners in crime’ with Ruth Dudley Edwards, and a focus on historical fiction with Martin Edwards and Abir Mukherjee.

The CrimeFest Awards are also announced at a gala dinner event on Saturday evening.

On Sunday, highlights include an interview with the Welsh-Canadian author Cathy Ace by Free@Last TV’s Barry Ryan, who is currently adapting her Cait Morgan Mysteries for television. It also features the annual Criminal Mastermind quiz, conducted by the literary polymath, Maxim Jakubowski.

Sponsored by Specsavers, CrimeFest has been hosted in buzzing Bristol, which topped Time Out’s Best Places to Visit, since it began in 2008.

For Full Pass, Friday, or Saturday Pass tickets, visit crimefest.com