500 Square Foot of History

“His bedroom and his bathroom looked out on a tiny court containing a sundial and a silversmith. Few people who walked down St James’s Street knew of the court’s existence.” – The Human Factor by Graham Greene

One November day, many years ago, I was walking back from a meeting near St James’s Park in London and spotted an intriguing passageway I’d never noticed before. Lined with dark panels, it appeared to lead to a little courtyard and the sign on the wall named it Pickering Place. Peering down the covered passage, what I glimpsed of the courtyard appeared secluded and private, so I carried on my way but, curiosity piqued, I looked it up on the train home.

As a teenager, my father had given me Armistead Maupin’s Tales of the City to read, and, as an already-avid crime fiction fan, the idea of a varied and eccentric community investigating a murder immediately popped into my head. The idea recurred several times over the years, and I even spent a month in San Francisco in my twenties, staying in a Barbary Lane-style courtyard, exploring the city I’d read so much about, but the idea was transient and unfixed, and the exact way in which I could bring these people together in a UK setting eluded me.

Until the day I discovered Pickering Place. Described as the smallest residential square in London – and it really is small, about 500 square feet – it was rich with history. Sometimes, it only takes a word or a phrase to spark an idea for a writer, and ‘the smallest square in London’ was enough for me. The idea for a crime novel set in a London square immediately began to form, and that was before I read the wealth of history in this tiny place. 

Formerly part of Henry VIII’s real tennis courts, it was acquired by builder Thomas Stroud in 1731, who built many of the houses surrounding the square. By 1741 however, William Pickering, a coffee merchant, had taken ownership. He was son-in-law to Widow Bourne, the founder of Berry Bros. & Rudd Ltd, the historic wine merchants who have been operating next door on St James’s Street since 1698.

In the 18th century, Pickering Place became something of a ‘scene’ and, as a secluded, unseen corner of St James’s, attracted all sorts of unsavoury activity from the aristocratic society in the neighbourhood. It gained a reputation for gambling, bear-baiting, cock-fighting, bare-knuckle boxing, and even as a location for illegal duels. One of its most famous duellists was rumoured to be Beau Brummell, famous dandy and inventor of the cravat, whose statue stands in nearby Jermyn Street. It has even been suggested that the last duel in London was fought there, but since pistols were the weapon of choice for duellists by then, the limited square footage would make that unlikely. The words ‘fish’ and ‘barrel’ spring to mind.

The square appeared to clean up its act in the 19th century however, becoming home to the Texan Republic’s legation until Texas joined the United States in 1845, and in 1914 was put to use as a temporary recruitment and sign-up spot for The Royal Fusiliers. The historians at Berry Bros. & Rudd even discovered photographs in their archive from 1922 showing Pickering Place being used as a film set, the film’s title unknown but featuring two duelling, costumed swordsmen. A source of those ‘last duel’ rumours, perhaps. In the 1950s, writer Graham Greene lived there, in a flat above an oyster bar and below General Auchinleck, using the square as inspiration for the living quarters of Colonel Daintry in his novel, The Human Factor. 

Did you know London still had lamplighters? I didn’t, until I went back to Pickering Place to explore. I found that not only was the square truly tiny, it was also very beautiful, with Georgian architecture, iron railings, and an original, still-used Victorian gas lamp. My fictional Marchfield Square sprang fully to life for me that day, albeit on a larger plot and with fewer people, and the story of a special and quite improbable place in London was born.

Sadly, Pickering Place’s gas lamp has now been converted to LED but there are still over 250 left in the area, looked after by a devoted group of skilled engineers. The commitment of others to preserve and document our history also inspired the second book in the Marchfield Mysteries, Murder Like Clockwork, although setting the books in London has provided an embarrassment of riches in that respect.

While the idea for Marchfield Square appeared to download itself to my brain in a single moment – an eclectic residential community in the heart of London, overlooked by a wealthy, somewhat mysterious widow – the rest of the story came in snippets, inspired by the history of the square. The characters include a coffee addicted writer, a military man, and a retired film actor, all part of a community of found family hiding their secrets in the shadows… And then I asked the question: what would happen to that community if the wrong person moved in? 

When I finally sat down to write 10 Marchfield Square it was 2021. Even for me, that was a long time for an idea to percolate, but sometimes, the moment is just right. Publishing was rediscovering the joy of crime novels with heart and humour, and the book flowed easily, and I had a great time planting little references to Pickering Place in its pages.

One thing most writers have in common is our curiosity, our need to look up (and subsequently rabbit-hole) even the idlest of thoughts. And even if that research never makes it into a book, I sure none of us would have it any other way. 

For more in depth history about Pickering Place, do visit the sites of Berry Bros. and Rudd, The London Gasketeers, and The Paris Review.

Murder Like Clockwork by Nicola Whyte. (Bloomsbury Publishing)

An empty house that isn't empty. A victim who vanishes. An impossible crime? Every Thursday at midday Audrey Brooks cleans the Petrov house. Mr Petrov is never home - in fact he seems to use the house purely as storage for his impressive collection of antiques - but that doesn't affect the care with which Audrey mops, polishes, and carefully winds each of the dozens of beautiful clocks that decorate the tall, elegant, empty London mansion. Until the morning she finds a corpse in the back bedroom, the pristine walls and floor covered in blood, and flees the house in panic. Fifteen minutes later, the police arrive... and find nothing. No body. No blood. The only thing slightly out of the ordinary is the clock in that back bedroom, which is now running four minutes slow. With no victim, the police are convinced there was no murder, but Audrey knows better. A man has been killed, and if they won't do anything about it, she - and her annoying friend Lewis - will. Whodunnit is one thing, but this detective duo must also wrestle with when - and where on earth is the body? It's not long since they solved the murder of their neighbour, so they're not rookie sleuths, and at least this time the case has no connection to their home. Does it?

More information about Nicola Whyte and her books can be found on her website. She can also be found on Facebook. She can also be found on Instagram, X, Bluesky and Threads @nixawhy.

The Earth Weighs Heavily by Alison Joseph

 

credit - Adrian Pope

If you ask a writer ‘when did you decide to become a writer’ you will almost certainly get some kind of mumbled answer about ‘it not really being a decision’- ‘it kind of happened’- ‘I was the sort of kid who sat in a corner in the classroom watching people…’

Or perhaps that’s just me.

But it did just kind of happen. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t tell stories. And then gradually it morphed from a thing I just did, to a thing I might do for a living. There followed short stories, and radio plays. And then came Sister Agnes.

At the time I was doing a lot of adaptation for BBC Radio Drama, and a lot of it was crime fiction. I began to think about writing a detective. I knew I wanted her to be female. And I knew I wouldn’t be able to do justice to a police procedural. But, I wondered, how to write an amateur detective in this age of police expertise, where she has no access to all the tools of police investigations – all the forensic know-how, CCTV footage, mobile phone records. I had also worked out that my detective needed to be in some way set apart from ordinary life, and also not burdened by family, partners, offspring…

A nun, I thought. That solves all those problems.

And so Sister Agnes came into being.

At the time I didn’t know much about nuns. My school was the local comprehensive, and we weren’t a religious family. 

Over the years, I’ve come to learn a lot about religious orders, both closed, and open like Agnes’s. But what I hadn’t predicted was that a literary device for a contemporary amateur detective would become so much more. For Sister Agnes there is the eternal question – how to continue in a faith that preaches forgiveness and redemption when all around her, in urban London, in the world, there is suffering and violence and harm.

The new novel is called The Earth Weighs Heavy. It is about death, of course. Mysterious, or criminal, or in one case just of old age. It is about refugees and exile and how people, uprooted from their home because it’s no longer safe, fight so hard to get somewhere else, to load the cart and start again; and continue to have hope, because once that’s gone you might as well be dead.

The story starts with bones revealed in the convent cellar. Agnes has been working at the charity’s base at the Calais refugee camps, but she’s been ordered to return – and now finds herself at the heart of a possible crime scene.

Meanwhile, her friend Athena has a brush with magic, which raises the question, when does a belief in magic crunch up against religious faith - or is it all the same? As Athena says, quoting her new young magician friend, people who have a sense of wonder are special people. But it’s Agnes, who, in spite of her religious faith, is determinedly rational, and who sticks with the evidence – and so finds herself investigating the story of the bones in the cellar.

It is also, I realise now, a love letter to London. It’s my hometown, born and bred, but like all Londoners, at some point we came here and stayed. The Romans created London as a huge, crowded, chaotic trading city, and even now I sometimes sense the Roman streets beneath. Throughout the centuries, people have ended up as Londoners: sometimes coerced, sometimes welcomed; sometimes, just loading the cart and starting again.

The Earth Weighs Heavy by Alison Joseph ( Joffe Books) Out Now.

Meet Sister Agnes. She's not your typical nun. She loves killer heels, sipping prosecco - and solving baffling mysteries . . . Now an acclaimed BBC Radio Crime series, starring Anne-Marie Duff. Hackney convent - home to Agnes and her sisters - may be a house of God. But what's buried beneath is anything but saintly. After days of brutal storms and lashing rain, the convent's crumbling cellar gives up a terrible secret. The skeleton of a woman. Her identity is a puzzle the police can't solve. Not without a helping hand from sleuthing Sister Agnes. But her search for answers, deep in the convent's chequered past, only leads to more questions. Late one night, Agnes is woken by a gunshot - and the fear that history is about to repeat itself. Someone under this roof knows more than they're saying. And they'll stop at nothing to keep their secrets.

Capital Crime Full Lineup Revealed

The wait is over! The full Capital Crime 2025 programme has landed, and it’s our biggest, boldest lineup yet.

Join us in London on 12th-13th June for an unforgettable festival packed with thrilling conversations, exclusive events, and the chance to meet your literary heroes.

Expect bestselling authors, award-winning storytellers, and crime fiction’s biggest names, including:

Michael Connelly, Steph McGovern, Jeremy Vine, Vaseem Khan, Linwood Barclay, Karin Slaughter, Richard Armitage, Ruth Ware, Lisa Jewell, Clare Mackintosh, Andrew Child and many many more.

Plus, we’ve just announced the Fingerprint Awards shortlists - will your favourite take the prize?

Whether you’re a fan of psychological thrillers, gripping spy fiction, or classic crime stories, there’s something for everyone. 

Weekend & day tickets are selling fast - secure yours now to avoid disappointment.

With an electrifying mix of bestselling authors, expert panels, and thrilling discussions, this year’s festival is set to be truly unforgettable.

Here’s just a taste of what’s in store over two packed days:

FRIDAY:

Thrillers That Go Bump in the Night with Linwood Barclay and Andrew Child & Nadine Matheson

Criminal Minds Throughout History with Conn Iggulden, Kate Williams & Hallie Rubenhold

Espionage for the Modern Reader: Ava Glass, Charles Cumming and Nick Harkaway & Vaseem Khan

The One You Least Suspect: Dilemmas and Decisions with David Goodman, S. M. Govett and Remi Kone & Brian McGilloway

Deception in Crime Fiction - Mark Edwards, Nicci French, Erin Kelly & Claire McGowan 

Found in Translation: Jón Atli Jónasson, Lex Noteboom, Johana Gustawsson, Thomas Enger & Quentin Bates

Terror on and off the page: social injustices in horror and high concept thrillers:  Chris Carter, Erin E. Adams, Jessie Elland & Andrea Carter

Masters of Mystery: a panel of crime writing experts: Dr Duncan Harding (forensic psychologist), Graham Bartlett (police) and Nicola Williams (practising Judge)  in conversation with criminal defence lawyer Ruth Mancini 

Crime to cool you down this summer: Will Dean, Heidi Amsinck, R. O. Thorp & Ed James

SATURDAY: 

Crime Writing Masters discussing craft and creativity: Michael Connelly in conversation with M. W. Craven 

The Appeal of Unlikeable Characters with Richard Armitage, Lisa Jewell and Steph McGovern & Jon Coates

25 Years in the Making: Mark Billingham and Karin Slaughter in conversation with Louise Minchin

Exploring the Human Mind One Thriller at a Time: with Dorothy Koomson, Ruth Ware & Anna Sharpe

From Page to Screen: Bringing crime thrillers to life: with Jane Casey, Michael Connelly andRagnar Jonasson, interviewed by Lisa Howells

Agatha Christie for the ‘Knives Out’ Generation: Kelly Mullen, Ram Murali, Jeremy Vine & Rob Rinder

Silver Anniversary Stories: celebrate 25 books with Adele Parks in conversation with David Headley

Not-so Domestic Bliss: toxic families and friendships with Andrea Mara, Asia Mackay, Claire Douglas, Caz Frear & Heidi Perks 

‘C’ is for creating communities in Crime Fiction: Suk Pannu, Rev Richard Coles, Blake Mara & Tim Sullivan

Making your mark: the different routes to telling your thriller: Barnaby Martin, Jo Callaghan and Dominic Nolan & C. B. Everett

And so much more! With over 30 incredible events, the Fingerprint Awards, surprises throughout the weekend, and the chance to meet your favourite authors, this is one festival you don’t want to miss.

The full schedule can be found here and tickets can be found here.

A Poisoned Chalice: The new Sister Agnes story

Sister Agnes, for those that don’t know her, is a nun; contemporary, in an open order, based in South London.  She is a detective. And, in the archetypal mode of the amateur detective, she finds herself on the outside of things, privy to people’s secrets. In the words of a lovely police officer who has helped me on and off with my research, ‘There’s always someone who knows more than we do.’

In the time of Sherlock Holmes, it was easier for an amateur sleuth to know more than the police.  But now, with CCTV, mobile phone tracking, and highly developed forensic science, the expertise of the amateur detective is distilled into that one central point: being the repository of other people’s secrets.  And, as Sister Agnes works in a hostel for homeless young people, that is exactly what she is.

The new novel starts with a young woman appearing on the hostel doorstep asking if they’ve seen her husband, a young man on the wrong side of the law who has now gone missing. This one simple event widens out into a much bigger mystery, concerning a medieval silver cup known as the Judas chalice, a priceless, possibly stolen, artefact belonging to one of the old catholic families. It is extremely rare due to its depiction of the betrayal of Jesus by Judas Iscariot, the thirteenth apostle – so rare, in fact, that someone is prepared to kill for it.

I’ve always liked the classic detective structure – an all-knowing central character through which the story is told, with a Marple or a Maigret or a Marlowe at the heart of it. It allows a three-way relationship between author, reader and detective, all sharing the fun of engaging with the story together. The challenge is to make sure the reveal comes as a surprise while at the same time allowing the reader to walk hand in hand with the detective in solving the mystery.

But I also try, in my work, to bear witness to the harm that humans do.  People look at Golden Age crime fiction and make the mistake of seeing it as lightweight, as a historical romp in the company of Sayers, Allingham, Christie et al.  But as far she was concerned, Agatha Christie was writing The Modern Novel. And, having lived through a world war, she needed to talk about human pain, human damage, in a very particular way.   For some time, I have circled the idea that as a nun, Sister Agnes will at some point have to tackle the harm of which the church itself is capable, where its huge and powerful influence collides with its dangerous obsession with sex, shame and sin.

Sister Agnes, like many fictional detectives, is a person of contradictions. She has religious faith and yet is constantly beset by doubt; she accepts the unsolvable mystery of a God, and yet the mystery of a killing on her doorstep is there to be solved with careful attention to evidence, to science, to reason.

This new novel, A Poisoned Chalice, is the first of two brand new Sister Agnes novels

A Poisoned Chalice is the eighth in the new series published by Joffe, (with seven of the earlier novels republished under new names).  It has been a delight to be back with her, and also with her two best friends, Athena and Father Julius, who accompany her through the story in their own particular ways, Athena with shopping, clothes, cake and fizzy wine – and Julius with his own particular and difficult challenge.

The problem of evil may be preached from a pulpit, but what happens if that evil is within the church, rather than something external to be fought by the might of the faithful? And how does someone of faith continue within a structure that is so warped, so potentially malign?

Sister Agnes, walking the streets of South London, will find herself wrestling with all these questions.

 A Poisoned Chalice by Alison Joseph (Joffe Books) Out Now

Meet Sister Agnes. She’s not your typical nun. She loves killer shoes, sipping prosecco — and solving mysteries . . . A holy grail . . . or a poisoned chalice?
Agnes has never met Jay Sorrell. But she knows his type. Tall, dark and dangerously magnetic. A Catholic boy turned petty criminal, he’s not one to play by the rules. Now he’s vanished, leaving his wife to hunt for him at Agnes’s homeless shelter. But the search ends in tragedy. Late one night, Agnes wakes to the sound of sirens — and the acrid smell of smoke. St Bruno’s church is burning. Agnes races to the scene, in time to see a body being pulled from the smoking ruins. This is no random John Doe. It’s Jay. Whoever lit the fatal match must have known . . . Down in the ruined crypt, a safe gapes open. Was this the hiding place of the fabled Judas chalice? A priceless heirloom that’s been missing for decades. Some would kill to lay hands on this prize. And if Jay happened to be standing in the way of that . . . ? Agnes won’t stop until she uncovers the truth about Jay’s death and the missing treasure. But once she’s sipped from this deadly cup, there’s no going back . . 

You can find more about Alison Joseph and her books on her website. You can also follow her on X @AlisonJoseph1

Photograph of Alison Joseph ©Hugo Glendinning

Vengeance is Whose? by Paul Finch

Conventional wisdom holds that to seek revenge is one of the most self-destructive impulses in human nature. Possibly this is the reason why so many of us frequently feel a need for revenge and yet never act on it. It seems that a good proportion of society has an in-built brake with which to prevent violence. Others meanwhile resist it through plain common sense.

Because to exact vengeance – real vengeance – is a huge step to take.

Even something relatively innocuous, like retaliating to a foul on the football field, can be transformational. Not least because it may exacerbate the situation, turning a one-off slight into an ongoing feud, but mostly because it casts you, the victim, as another aggressor, denying you the moral high ground.

‘He did it to me first,’ is a flabby explanation if the other guy is lying unconscious, or worse.

And yet the urge to take revenge can be potent, especially when justice appears to be absent. And it doesn’t just have to be revenge for yourself. How do any of us feel when we hear about disgraced politicians being hounded out of office and yet continuing to lead gold-plated lifestyles, or about organised crime bosses who remain untouchable by the courts, or even petty criminals, whose offences are not victimless, being left alone by an overworked, understaffed police force? If justice has seemingly quit the field, what else is there?

‘Vengeance is mine!’ A quote attributed to God himself in Deuteronomy.

We all hope it’s true, whether we’re religiously minded or not, but we see scant evidence of it on Earth. And so, what other course is there apart from taking the law into our own hands?

This is the ethical dilemma at the heart of my new novel, ROGUE, which sees a low-ranking police detective – DS Mark Heckenburg, who some readers will already be familiar with – embark on an off-the-grid mission to avenge a whole bunch of former colleagues, 26 in total, who were mown down in a gun attack on a police party.

I won’t say any more about the synopsis, except to add that while Heck has played fast and loose with the rules before, often using trickery and coercion in his dealings with the underworld, he has never taken that final step into out-and-out criminality. But then, never before has he been cut as deeply as this.

But in truth, in a civilised society, is there any excuse for revenge? We all love an antihero. Someone who gets straight to it and deals with the matter hands-on. But would a real-life vigilante really be so reassuring? What if he decides he doesn’t like us either? What if we ourselves were to short-cut our way past the law, and then suddenly find that we have need of it too?  

Of course, I’m not the first thriller writer to analyse this complex issue. Many great crime novelists have gone there ahead of me, tackling the question of ‘revenge or justice’ from a range of different angles.

MAN ON FIRE by AJ Quinnell, aka Phil Nicholson (1980)

A former Foreign Legionnaire turned drunken bodyguard is devastated when his charge, the sparky young daughter of an Italian businessman, is kidnapped, raped and murdered. His only recourse is to wipe out the Mafia clan responsible. Atonement through violence is the message here, though it comes at a huge cost.

THE EXECUTIONERS by John D MacDonald (1957)

The army lawyer responsible for jailing a GI rapist is tormented in later years when the criminal is released and commences to harass and terrify his family. Vengeance as viewed from the victim’s perspective, normal life massively disrupted by the obsessive, malign behaviour of someone who just can’t forgive or forget.  

THE HUNTER by Richard Stark, aka Donald Westlake (1962)

A professional robber is double-crossed during a major heist and left for dead. Later learning that his share of the haul was used by a former associate to buy entry to a crime syndicate, he goes to war with the syndicate itself. Solid actioner, this one, featuring lots of immoral people violently intermingling in a grubby, immoral world. Even so, it’s a thrill a minute.

DEATH WISH by Brian Garfield (1972)

When muggers brutalise the family of a liberal-minded businessman, he buys a gun and embarks on a mission to annihilate the city’s criminal elements, becoming a cult figure as he does. A study in human darkness, the vengeance-seeker hitting random targets he’s got no personal beef with and enjoying the support of his whole community. Let’s not pretend it couldn’t happen.

A TIME TO KILL by John Grisham (1989)

When a black child is raped by white supremacists, her enraged father guns the two hoodlums down even though they’re in police custody, his legal team soon fighting an uphill battle to keep him from the gas chamber. Probably the most adult take of all, the parent’s understandable reaction squared off against the price society pays if everyone assumes the role of judge, jury and executioner, the race factor only deepening the question of discriminative justice.

ROGUE is published by Brentwood Press in both ebook and paperback on October 24.

They shot everyone. His friends, his colleagues, the woman he loved. But they made one critical mistake. They didn’t shoot him. Detective Sergeant Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg has a reputation for bending the rules, but when a ruthless gun attack on a North London pub leaves 26 of his closest workmates dead, he throws the rulebook away. Devastated beyond recovery, he goes rogue. But Heck himself is a suspect. Suspended from duty and watched day and night, it isn’t just a matter of eluding the surveillance net in London. When he makes his move, he becomes a fugitive, an outlaw now infamous across the whole of the UK. And yet that’s the least of his problems. Because as Heck tracks the killers north through the wintry badlands of industrial England, and from there into the mountainous wilds of Scotland, they too have made plans, and some deadly and deranged individuals are lying in wait …

More information about Paul Finch and his work can be found on his blog. You can follow him on X @paulfinchauthor and on Facebook

2024 Fingerprint Award Winners

 

Capital Crime Festival have announced the winners of their 2024 Fingerprint Award Winners - 

Overall Best Crime Book of the Year:

None of This Is True, by Lisa Jewell (Century)

Thriller Book of the Year:

The Only Suspect, by Louise Candlish (Simon & Schuster UK)

Historical Crime Book of the Year:

The House of Whispers, by Anna Mazzola (Orion)

Genre-Busting Book of the Year:

Killing Jericho, by William Hussey (Zaffre)

Debut Crime Book of the Year

Death of a Bookseller, by Alice Slater (Hodder & Stoughton)

True Crime Book of the Year: 

No Ordinary Day: Espionage, Betrayal, Terrorism and Corruption—the Truth Behind the Murder of WPC Yvonne Fletcher, by Matt Johnson (Ad Lib)

Audiobook of the Year: 

Over My Dead Body, by Maz Evans, narrated by Maz Evans (Headline)

Thalia Procter Lifetime Achievement Award: 

Lynda La Plante 

Congratulations to the winners and nominated authors.

Joe Thomas on writing about one's past within Red Menace

I was born in Hackney in 1977 and for 25 years I wanted to leave. Now, it’s an aspirational address, gentrified and expensive. I was born in Hackney Mothers’ Hospital on Lower Clapton Road which was later to become known as ‘Murder Mile’. I lived on Mildenhall Road, just down from Clapton Pond. I wrote White Riot to try and better understand the Hackney I grew up in, the time and place, and how the borough, it seems to me, is something of a lightning rod for the political and social currents of the country. I wrote Red Menace to extend the geographical focus, to widen it to other areas of east and north London.

Red Menace is a historical, social crime novel about police corruption, institutional racism, the devastating effects of Thatcherism, and the counter-cultural movement of the ‘80’s. The novel takes in Live Aid, the Broadwater Farm uprising, the Wapping Dispute and, like White Riot, is rooted in the Hackney experience of the 1980s. Mark Sanderson, writing in the Times, called White Riot, ‘a love letter to London, seething with outrage’. In Red Menace, the love is still there, but I think the outrage is intensified.

I remember the Hackney Show on Hackney Downs, the Labour Club in Dalston, steel bands and heavy reggae, kids in I Love ILEA and GLC t-shirts, Granny’s takeaway and Chimes nightclub, where, for a period, serious violence was a regular occurrence. 

In the novel, I write about the Hackney Show of 1986, one I went to, and the fictionalising of it is an insight into how I accessed sensual memories, sights and sounds, smells and tastes to try to recreate – and reimagine, resurrect – Hackney in the 1980s.

Here’s an edited extract from the novel that I think is instructive:

Over the weekend, the football season safely finished for another year, there’d been the festival up on Hackney Downs, the Hackney Show. Fairground games and food, Jean Breeze and Dennis Bovell, the London All Stars Steels and the Perpetual Beauty Carnival Club, stunts, stalls and side shows –

Across the park, on the north side, a little bit away from the festivities, a tent emitting pounding reggae, pulsating dub.

He and the boy had wandered over towards it, the towers of the Nightingale Estate to their right, Hackney Downs School to their left –

The tent shook with the soundsystem, the sides flapping, the roof lifting and falling, one or two men dancing on their own just outside it, shirts off and bare feet, eyes red, eyes wild –

Jon felt the bass tearing through him. The boy slowed down a touch as they approached.

Jon shook his head and put a hand on his shoulder. The boy close, like when he was a shy toddler, wrapping himself around Jon’s leg, pouting.

The volume and depth of the music made the lights shake and flash.

Air thick with smoke –

Jon seeing the boy’s eyes start to water, not a great deal else.

They stayed about fifteen minutes, Jon recognising a Steel Pulse track that had been stripped right down and then powered right up, an MC over the top of it, that was enough.

On the way out, one of the Rastas winked at the boy, grinned.

‘Welcome to Jamaica,’ he said.

All of this is true, all of this happened, but how much more is there that I can’t remember? 

Writing about your own past in the context of a transparently political novel, a novel unashamedly interrogating society, does something to your own history; if you can get that right, then it’s a good start.

Red Menace by Joe Thomas (Quercus) Out Now

Live Aid, July 1985. The great and the good of the music scene converge to save the world. But the TV glitz cannot disguise ugly truths about Thatcher's Britain. Jon Davies and Suzi Scialfa have moved on since the inquest into the death of Colin Roach, but they're about to be drawn back into the struggle - Jon by his restless curiosity and Suzi by the reappearance of DC Patrick Noble. Noble's other asset, the salaried spycop Parker, is a pawn in a game he only dimly comprehends. First, he's ordered to infiltrate the Broadwater Farm Estate in Tottenham; next will come Wapping, ground zero of a plot to smash the print unions. But who is Noble working for, and how far can he be trusted? The Iron Lady is reforging the nation, and London with it. Right to Buy may secure her votes, but who really stands to benefit? Corruption is endemic and the gap between rich and poor grows wider by the day. Insurrection seems imminent - all that's needed is a spark.

Capital Crime Individual tickets on sale

INDIVIDUAL EVENT TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE
& WE'RE DELIGHTED TO WELCOME SHARI LAPENA, CLARE MACKINSTOCH, BEN AARONOVITCH & PETER JAMES TO OUR LINEUP!

There's only one place to be from 31st August - 2nd September 2023 and that's the Leonardo Royal St Paul's Hotel, where we will be celebrating the best genre in town.

We believe that every reader and crime fiction fan should be able to celebrate and enjoy a weekend's worth of entertaining and engaging conversations from some of the world's finest creative minds! With only four weeks to go until we're opening our doors, we're swinging them wide open with our individual event tickets that will suit every budget.

Get ready to mingle with crime fictions biggest stars and latest chart toppers as we're honoured to welcome Richard Osman, Lisa Jewell, Joanne Harris, Kate Atkinson, "Happy Valley" creator Sally Wainwright, Dorothy Koomson, Chris Carter, Peter James, Ben Aaronovitch Liz Nugent, Imran Mahmood, Will Dean, Nicola Williams, Richard Armitage, Yomi Adegoke, Mark Billingham, M W Craven, Steve Cavanagh, Adele Parks and many more of your favourite authors to Capital Crime this year! 

For our full line-up and schedule head to our website!

Tickets can be brought here.

Capital Crime Launched!

CAPITAL CRIME RETURNS END OF AUGUST WITH RICHARD OSMAN, KATE ATKINSON, RICHARD ARMITAGE, DOROTHY KOOMSON AND HAPPY VALLEY CREATOR SALLY WAINWRIGHT TO HEADLINE

Richard Armitage, Peter James, Richard Osman, Yomi Adegoke, Joanne Harris, Imran Mahmood, Liz Nugent and Nicola Williams are amongst the authors confirmed for Capital Crime, London’s largest celebration of crime and thriller writing, which returns 31st August – 2nd September.

In the Leonardo Royal London, the festival’s exciting new home, over 140 leading voices from crime fiction will be speaking about everything from horror and history in crime to the legacies of Marple, Chandler and Bond, alongside Capital Crime’s social outreach programme which has been in place since 2019, and the second year of the Fingerprint Awards, voted for by readers. Taking place in the shadow of St Paul’s Cathedral and with a Goldsboro Books pop-up bookshop, it promises to be a brilliantly entertaining and insightful weekend for crime fiction enthusiasts.

 Now in its third year, Capital Crime is proud to be a part of and contributor to the vibrant culture scene with the city, and has quickly established itself as one of the biggest festivals in the UK, with a reputation for originality, innovation, and a focus on creating an incredible reader experience with creatively curated and inclusive panels. Co-founded by Goldsboro Books MD David Headley, it has welcomed readers from around the country to see British authors such as Robert Harris, Anthony Horowitz and Paula Hawkins appearing alongside international talent including Icelandic Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and US bestsellers Jeffrey Deaver and Chris Carter.

 Headley and his team at Goldsboro Books have helped launch the careers of so many authors since it opened almost 25 years ago, by uniting incredible writing with their loyal, ever-growing community of passionate readers. Renowned for their thoughtful and impactful new initiatives to engage communities of readers, Capital Crime is a brilliant extension of this vision with an outstanding programme of over 40 entertaining, accessible events that explore all corners of the genre, and the opportunity to meet your literary heroes. 

 On the first day of the festival (Thursday 31st August), the afternoon will start with the Future Generations Afternoon Takeover, a series of events dedicated to Capital Crime’s social outreach programme. This sees sixth form students and their teachers from schools in South London invited to meet authors and publishing professionals, with the aim of demystifying the industry and opening it up to attract new and diverse young voices into publishing. There will also be an industry panel, with Amy Baxter, Christina Demosthenous and Leodora Darlington talking to Manpreet Grewal about their journey in publishing and their goals for future.

The afternoon will also see a discussion on the moral dilemmas of crime writing with Yomi Adegoke, Jack Jordan, Lia Middleton, Nicola Williams and Nadine Matheson; and a panel on the legacy of Miss Marple with Elly Griffiths, Dreda Say Mitchell, Ruth Ware and Lucy Foley. Moderated by Ayo Onatade, Charlie Higson, Bonnie McBird, Katherine Bradley will what it’s like to continue the legacies of James Bond, Sherlock Holmes and 1984, and writing their iconic characters for a modern audience.

The evening will conclude with The Fingerprint Awards, the Capital Crime awards ceremony which allows crime and thriller lovers to select the winner of five categories, including Crime Novel of the Year; Thriller Novel of the Year; and Historical Crime Novel of the Year. 

Friday will see international bestseller Kate Atkinson interviewed by festival co-founder David Headley; top ten bestsellers Lisa Jewell and Adele Parks in conversation with Sarah Shaffi; Louise Candlish and Dorothy Koomson speaking with Lisa Howells and Happy Valley creator Sally Wainwright interviewed by Amy Raphael. 

 Panel highlights from the day include C J Taylor, Olivia Kiernan and Susi Holliday revealing the locations and relationships that create the perfect home for crime fiction with Sam Brownley; and S J Parris, A J West, K J Maitland and Anna Mazzola debating historical inspiration in crime writing with Vaseem Khan, whilst Rob Scragg, Judith O’Reilly, Chris McGeorge and Fiona Erskine of the Northern Crime Writing Syndicate will be challenged to create a bestseller in one hour. In addition, Liz Nugent, Catherine Ryan Howard and Andrea Carter will be speaking to Jane Casey about Irish crime writing, and Anna Motz, Matt Johnson and Donna Freed will discuss society’s obsession with true crime and its influence on crime fiction with Victoria Selman. 

 The first two rounds of Capital Crime’s fun-filled quiz, ‘Whose Crime Is It Anyway’, will also be taking place, featuring teams of debut authors.                                                                          

Saturday will see Fiona Cummins, Mark Edwards and Kia Abdullah speak to Araminta Hall about fictional good characters who end up doing terrible things; J P Delaney, Leye Adenle and Louise Hare in conversation with H B Lyle to talk about crime fiction across the world; and Will Dean, Louise Swanson and Gillian McAllister speak to S J Watson about high concept ideas in the world of crime-fiction. Bestsellers Joanne Harris and Sarah Pinborough will discuss the role of women and gender in thriller-writing; Gareth Rubin, Janice Hallett and Cara Hunter will dissect the importance of structure and form in crime writing; and Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman will talk about misdirection and illusion in crime fiction. 

The day will finish with Peter James speaking about his famous creation Roy Grace; actor Richard Armitage speaking about his debut crime novel Geneva, and Richard Osman in conversation with Miles Jupp. 

There will also be exciting public events throughout the weekend, including proof parties and launch events forVictoria Selman’s exciting new thriller All the Little Liars and David Fennell’s new serial killer thriller The Silent Man, and dancing until the early hours of Sunday morning at Capital Crime’s closing party Murder on the Dance Floor. 

The full programme can be found here from 10am today (Tuesday 27th June):https://www.capitalcrime.org/capital-crime-schedule

 

 

Why Soho? By Jessie Keane

Well if I am going to talk about Soho, then first I am going to have to give you a little background. I ran away from home when I was sixteen (maybe even fifteen, now I think about it). I walked out of school (I’d hardly ever attended, anyway), walked away from the ruins of my family (the family firm had collapsed, we’d been evicted by the banks, my father had just died of lung cancer) and went to London to stay with my friend Joanna, who had a dirty little flat in Soho near Berwick Street Market. 

I never saw the dirt, of course. A Romany child used to open country, I took one look at the teeming city of London and in particular the steamy streets – Old Compton Street, Frith Street - of Soho and fell utterly, hopelessly in love with surroundings that were so very different to the ones I’d grown up in.

Then I fell in love all over again, with a man we met one night. We came out of Raymond’s Revue Bar and went into the Windmill Theatre and there he was. Sadly, his attention was focused on Joanna, but my attention was focused on him. I’d been scratching away in notebooks ever since I could crawl, writing playlets, westerns, sci-fi fantasies, anything. But the sight of this man knocked me sideways and convinced me that I would have to set him down on paper. The black curling hair. The sapphire-blue eyes. His flashiness, his Savile Row suits, his vicuna coats, his shoes from Lobbs, his latent aura of power. Gorgeous!

Of course, I was a minnow among sharks in 60’s Soho, but my extreme innocence was a sort of protection. I sailed through every obstacle and filled notebooks full of details I noticed as I passed through. That black-haired man with the gangster look about him became, inevitably, set in my mind. He never left it, not even when I came back to my boring existence at home. He stayed with me all through relationships, marriages, moves, everything, until one bleak day I was sitting under a quilt watching a crime DVD. I couldn’t afford to heat the flat, I was too poor for that. I had no education, no money. I’d had a succession of boring low-paid job. Wrapping chips in the local chip shop. Sweeping up in a hairdressers. Slicing bacon in the Co-op. Now I was really on my uppers, but I was still making notes and dreaming of being an actual, proper writer.

Then Annie Bailey – who would later become Annie Carter – strolled into my head and I thought, what fun. A strong Alpha woman and I would place her in among the gangsters and see what she would get up to. 

I sold my wedding dress, bought a typewriter, and set to. Before three months was up, I had finished writing the very first of the Annie Carter novels, Dirty Game. Of course, that gorgeous man I’d met in the Windmill in Soho was in there too, clashing with Annie at every turn. It was the most fun I’d had, ever, writing, that book. People talk about writers ‘finding their voice’ and I had always laughed at that, not understanding what they meant. Suddenly, I did. I’d found my voice with a vengeance.

So off I trotted to the Post Office, clutching six carefully wrapped packages. Each one contained a synopsis and a copy of the book, bound for a variety of agents. At this point, my partner took pity on me.

‘You’re bright,’ he said. ‘Maybe it’s time to stop all this dreaming. Get a proper job.’

Which made me dig my heels in all the more. I posted the manuscripts off, and waited. Rejection slips soon poured through the door. Four of them. But two out of the six were interested, and one said she might have someone who would like this book, but not to get my hopes up, and why hadn’t I numbered the pages? I was that inexperienced, that much of a numpty!

That agent invited me to London, talked me through a few alterations. I was so happy to get back to the Smoke, I was ecstatic. Even if nothing ever came of this, at least I’d got to the first fence.

I went home, rewrote. Sent the thing back to her. It was August Bank Holiday, nothing was happening, publishing was empty of workers, she told me. Just hold on. Don’t get your hopes up.

I didn’t.

Then two days later she phoned me again.

‘I’ve got you a three book deal,’ she said. ‘For a six figure sum.’

I couldn’t help but think I had Soho, my time there as a wet-behind-the-ears, my meeting that beautiful black-haired stranger, to thank for this miracle. So don’t ask me why Soho. Ask me why not Soho. It may be changed these days – a little tamer, a little more polished – but anytime I go back there now the magic, for me, remains. 

This is the place where I found my inspiration and became a professional writer, this is the place that inspired Dirty Game, the very first of the Annie Carter novels and now I am launching the seventh novel about her and her dangerous, glamorous life and her love/hate relationship with Max. She had come a long way, baby! And so have I. Dirty Game shot straight into the Heatseekers chart at number one, and all my books have been in the Sunday Times Top Twenty chart. So I have a lot to thank Annie for. And Soho, bless it!

Never Go Back by Jessie Keane is published 2^nd February 2023 in Hardback by Hodder, priced £16.99

The Carter women don't follow the rules: They make them.Gangster Max Carter and his ex-wife Annie Carter are leading separate lives in separate countries: past hurts and broken promises cannot be resolved. But then a summons to Majorca and a tragic death makes Max question all that has happened to him over many years. He had two brothers - both are now dead. His closest friend has been found hanging from a London bridge. As the police wrestle with a seemingly unsolvable case, Max is forced to revisit his painful past to find answers to a mystery that seems to make no sense at all. Who is targeting his family and why? Annie Carter is at a crossroads in life. She has a luxurious lifestyle but no one to share it with, and Max clearly thinks she is in danger too. Her daughter, Layla, has left her mafia lover Alberto Barolli and is back in London, stumbling into the police investigation and making waves. You should never go back, so the old saying goes. But then, the Carter women don't follow the rules, they make them. And when the truth of what's been happening is finally revealed, will the Carter family stand together - or will it finish them for good?

More information about Jessie Keane can be found on her Facebook page. You can also follow her on Twitter @realjessiekeane

Why Hackney? By Joe Thomas

When I was a boy, an Irish woman called Lil would clean our house from time to time. Her son, Tony, was older than me, Hackney-born. He became a builder, started off working with our next-door neighbour, Harry, which meant a fair few lunchtimes in the public bar of the Prince of Wales trying to keep up with the older labourers. He’d do odd bits and pieces at ours, too. I was fourteen, I think, when he suggested we go for lunch at a caff on Chatsworth Road. I got in his car – I remember it was very low to the ground – and we drove off. Just past Rushmore, my old school, there were a couple of blokes about Tony’s age waving at him and he pulled over. There was also a young lad with them, younger than me. Wait here, Tony told me, and he got out. I watched the three older blokes in animated conference. When they were finished, Tony and another fella climbed back in, and the other one and the young one got into another car. I remember we drove around for about five minutes before coming to a sudden stop, a teenage boy panicking on the pavement. Engine running, Tony and the bloke jumped out, grabbed the kid, and then pinned him against the wall. The other one and the young one got out of the other car and went over. They were carrying a baseball bat. I could see the young one answering questions, nodding. The teenager handed over a watch, crying. Nothing happened for a moment, and I waited, nervous. What would be the punishment? Clearly this bigger kid had nicked this younger kid’s watch, and the younger kid had got his big brother to sort it out, which he had. Let’s have lunch, then, I was thinking. Then I watched as the teenager was force-fed the watch. He was eating the watch, I realised, eating it. Punishment fitting the crime and all that. In the caff, over bacon, egg, chips, and beans, no one really talked about it, and I certainly never told anyone.

I wanted to write about where I grew up, Hackney, in the late-seventies and eighties. Although White Riot is very much a political novel, it is also hugely personal: I accessed the sights, sounds, and smells of my childhood to try and recreate the sensual experience of it. I thought about how the place changed, who moved away, who stayed, why, who had power, who was disenfranchised, and why.

I’ve never wanted to write a whodunnit; I’ve always wanted to write about place, about fiction based on fact. My fiction addresses the discourses of power and the specificity of crime, why something happened precisely where it did, and is an attempt to illuminate the reasons why. You can strip away the layers of city in a crime narrative.

In the author’s note to her epic French Revolution novel, A Place of Greater Safety, Hilary Mantel writes: ‘The reader may ask how to tell fact from fiction. A rough guide: anything that seems particularly unlikely is probably true.’ 

In White Riot, the more outlandish political events, the most shocking violence, the most brazen corruption scams are all real, or based very closely on real-life incidents. It has always seemed to me that real life offers the best structural and societal models around which to thread a fictional narrative. Crime is political, I think, and more politics is criminal than we’d care to admit. 

There’s that old adage: ‘You couldn’t make it up.’ 

More and more, I’m beginning to think that you shouldn’t.

White Riot by Joe Thomas (Quercus Books) Out Now

1978:The National Front is gaining ground in Hackney. To counter their influence, anti-fascist groups launch the Carnival Against Racism in Victoria Park. Observing the event is Detective Constable Patrick Noble, charged with investigating racist attacks in the area and running Spycops in both far-right and left wing groups. As Noble's superiors are drawn further into political meddling, he's inveigled into a plot against the embattled Labour government. 1983: Under a disciplinary cloud after a Spycops op ended in tragedy, Noble is offered a reprieve by an old mentor. He is dispatched in the early hours to Stoke Newington police station, where a young black man has died in suspicious circumstances. This is Thatcher's Britain now, a new world that Noble unwittingly helped to usher in, where racial tensions are weaponised by those in power.

Photo credit: Oliver Holms