Newcastle Noir!

Saturday 2nd & Sunday 3rd | Newcastle Noir – after such a popular and successful event last year, we have another crime-filled weekend for you. Workshops, walks, talks and panel discussions with some of the best crime writers around. Book early, it’s sure to fill up.

A weekend pass is available for all nine panel discussions for £40/25.

Advance payment essential.

Saturday 2nd May

10-12noon | Writing Workshop with Christiana Gregoriou, Bea Davenport and Barbara Nadel. £25/20 (includes Saturday and Sunday workshops).

11am-12pm Classic Crime Readings with Kay Hepplewhite FREE

11am-1pm Murderous Newcastle Walking Tour with Pat Lowery, Newcastle City Guide. Begins at the Castle Keep, ends at the Lit & Phil. £4.

12.30-1.30pm Panel discussion: Northern Landscapes with authors Howard Linskey, Nick Quantrill and David Mark Craig Robertson, chaired by Luca Veste £5/3

2.30-3.30pm Panel discussion: Writers in Prison with Mari Hannah, Russ Litten and Alexandra Sokoloff, chaired by Louise Ridley £5/3

4.30-5.30pm Panel discussion: Award winning crime-writers Martyn Waites and Mark Billingham in conversation £5/3

6.30-7.30pm Panel discussion: From page to screen to page with Cilla and Rolf Börjlind, Erin Kelly and Christopher Brookmyre £5/3

8.30pm-9.30pm Panel discussion: Gangsters & Gangs with Philip J. Howard, David McCaffery and Steve Wraith, chaired by Charlotte Bilby £5/3

Sunday 3rd May

10-12noon Writing Workshop with Christiana Gregoriou, William Ryan, Bea Davenport and Barbara Nadel. £25/20 (includes Saturday and Sunday workshops).

11am-1pm Murderous Newcastle Walking Tour with Pat Lowery, Newcastle City Guide. Begins at the Castle Keep, ends at the Lit & Phil. £4.

11.30am-12.30pm Panel discussion: Crime in Translation with Dominique Mannotti, Roz Schwartz, Quentin Bates and Ragnar Jónasson, chaired by Jacky Collins £5/3

1.30-2.30pm Panel discussion: Crime Authors/Creative writers with William Ryan, Bea Davenport and Barbara Nadel, chaired by M. J. MacGrath £5/3

3.30-4.30pm Panel discussion: Legal Eagles with Peter Murphy, Steve Cavanagh and Clare Donoghue, chaired by Ayo Onatade £5/3

5.30-6.30pm Victorian Villanies with Gail-Nina Anderson FREE.

7.30-8.30pm Panel discussion: New Blood with Eva Dolan, Susi Holliday, Kati Hiekkapelto and Susan Wilkins, chaired by Sarah Ward £5/3

Newcastle Noir is assisted by a grant from the Northern Rock Foundation and an anonymous donation from a French screw-making company.

To reserve your place:

Please reserve your seat by calling (0191) 232 0192, emailing library@litandphil.org.uk or by calling in.

You can also follow Newcastle Noir on Twitter @NewcastleNoir

Faber Crime Social

On Tuesday 7 May 2013 Faber held the second of their Faber Crime Social Evenings at The Social,  a club along Little Portland Street in London.  On the bill were a number of crime writers (not solely from Faber) who were planning on reading from their work.

First out of the starting block was Faber author Stav Sherez who read from his latest book Eleven Days. Eleven Days is due out on Thursday 9 May 2013.  Stav's previous book Dark Redemption has just been long listed for the Theakston's Old Peculair Crime Novel of the Year.  Stav was followed by R J Ellory who read from his work in progress. Tom Benn took up the mantle after Roger Ellory and read from his lastest novel Chamber Music.

In a brief clip below you can hear Tom Benn reading from his novel.

After a brief break Sophie Hannah read from her latest novel The Carrier and also from her work in progress. Sophie was followed by Russ Litten who read a gritty beating shop scene from Swear Down and it was rounded up by S J Watson reading  from a one time only crime story based around the event taking place.

The next event is due to take place on 3 June 2013.

More information can be found at http://www.fabersocial.co.uk/2013/04/faber-social-presents-crime/

Books To Look Forward to From Serpent's Tail

Detective Inspector Sean Duffy returns for the incendiary sequel to "The Cold Cold Ground".  Sean Duffy knows there's no such thing as a perfect crime.  But a torso in a suitcase pretty close.  Still, one tiny clue is all it takes, and there it is.  A tattoo.  So Duffy, fully fit and back at work after the severe trauma of his last case, is ready to follow the trail of blood - however faint - that always, always connects a body to its killer.  A legendarily stubborn man, Duffy becomes obsessed with this mystery as a distraction from the ruins of his love life, and to push down the seed of self-doubt that he seems to have traded for his youthful arrogance.  So from country lanes to city streets, Duffy works every angle.  And wherever he goes, he smells a rat...  I Hear The Sirens in the Street is by Adrian McKinty and is due to be published in January 2013.

Apocalypse Baby is by Virginie Despentes and is due to be published in June 2013.  This is a fearlessly feminist road trip novel, packed with atmosphere and romance.  Valentine, the troubled daughter of a well-off but dysfunctional Parisian family, vanishes on her way to school.  Inexperienced private detective Lucie Toledo is hired to find the missing teenager, and enlists the help of a formidable agent with a past, known to her friends as the Hyena.  Their quest, from Paris to Barcelona and back, uncovers a rich cast of characters whose paths have crossed Valentine's, leading to an alarming climax.  Part political thriller, part road-movie, part romance, the latest novel by subversive writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes won the Prix Renaudot 2010 for the pitiless gaze it directs at society in the age of the internet.

A young gang leader is found stabbed on a Hackney estate - but two people confess to the murder. Ndekwe, an ambitious, newly promoted Detective Sergeant within a subtly racist police force, believes the more obvious of the two confessions: from McKenzie, a teenager from the estate with a police record of juvenile crime. But why does Jack Shepherdson - an ex-merchant seaman in his sixties - come forward with his own confession? Is he covering for McKenzie, his colleague in the bar they worked at? Or is there more truth in his statement than Ndekwe at first believes?  Swear Down is by Russ Litten and is due to be published in April 2013

Capture is by Roger Smith and is due to be published in February 2013.  The truth won't set you free...In a city where the lines between rich and poor are drawn in blood, the truth is just the lie you believe the most..."Capture" tells the stories of three desperate people.  A father who is broken by grief and guilt.  A son still haunted by the ghosts of his past.  And a mother, desperate to save her child.  In Cape Town, these three are drawn into a spiral of manipulation and murder that leaves them fighting for their sanity and their lives.

This driving, compulsive novel explores human greed and loyalty corrupted by temptation.  Margot is a grifter, making her living preying on the weaknesses of men.  She is an avenging angel, shattering marriages and draining bank accounts.  Exploring what drives her quest to deceive and disarm, "The Face Thief" moves fluidly forward and back in time, drawing vivid portraits of Margot's rocky childhood and her adult victims: an amiable, newly married man enticed into a catastrophic fraud; an esteemed teacher outwitted by his most dangerous student; and a well-meaning New York City cop tripped up by his belief in redemption.  Rich in suspense and psychological depth, "The Face Thief" swirls around predator and prey, creating a landscape where the educated are violent, the beautiful ugly, and the well intentioned hapless, though all are constantly attempting to right their toppled lives.  The Face Thief is by Eli Gottlieb and is due to be published in April 2013.