The return of George Smiley's Circus and stage adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold

Press Release

George Smiley’s ‘Circus’ returns: with The Taper Man the new novel from John le Carré’s son, Nick Harkaway, and the first stage adaptation of The Spy Who Came in from the Cold to London’s West End 

John le Carré’s son, writer Nick Harkaway, announces a new novel, The Taper Man, featuring his father’s iconic spy, George Smiley, for publication in 2026. The new work will continue the plotline explored in Karla’s Choice, Harkaway’s critically acclaimed, Sunday Times bestseller (published in hardback in Oct 2024 and in paperback on 22 May 2025). Simultaneously announced today, le Carré’s The Spy Who Came in From the Cold, will premiere in the West End this autumn. Adapted by award-winning playwright and screenwriter David Eldridge and directed by Jeremy Herrin, this is the first novel by the undisputed master of the modern spy genre to be brought to life on London’s stage. Following a sold out premiere at Chichester Festival Theatre in 2024, the play will be produced by Ink Factory and Second Half Productions in association with Nica Burns. Smiley’s American investigation.

In his new novel, Nick Harkaway will send George Smiley for the first time on an operation to America, pursuing an old communist network across the West Coast. It’s 1965, eighteen months after the events of Karla’s Choice, and within the missing decade between the two instalments in the Smiley Saga, The Spy who Came in from the Cold and of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Against the backdrop of the Civil Rights era and the Vietnam War, Smiley finds himself dealing with a crisis involving the ‘Cousins’, which throws him once again in a struggle to find a path in the dark. To whom does he owe his allegiance? To this investigation in America or to the wider geopolitical gameboard? Viking’s publishing director Harriet Bourton and commissioning editor Edd Kirke acquired UK & Commonwealth rights from Jonny Geller at Curtis Brown and agent to the le Carré estate. Nick Harkaway is represented by Patrick Walsh at Pew Literary.

Harriet Bourton, Viking Publishing Director, says: ‘Karla’s Choice proved to be one of the great espionage novels of recent times and it’s so incredibly exciting to be continuing George Smiley’s story with The Taper Man. The reader couldn’t be in more expert or ingenious hands with Nick. He has taken on a legacy and made it his own, and we are so ambitious about reaching a huge audience with this extraordinary new addition to the iconic literary world of John le Carré.’ 

Nick Harkaway says: ‘It’s an enormous pleasure to be working with George Smiley again, this time following the breadcrumbs of a messy debacle in Helsinki all the way to the US west coast, uncovering the truth of Karla’s 1950s network in California, and pursuing Roy Bland into the USSR. It’s time to meet our American Cousins.’ 

Smiley to be brought to life in West End production 

A global bestseller for over six decades and named one of TIME Magazine’s All-Time 100 Novels, The Spy Who Came in From the Cold will be adapted for the stage @sohoplace, running from 17 November 2025 until 21 February 2026. This production will star Rory Keenan (Somewhere Boy, The Regime) and Screen International Star of Tomorrow Agnes O’Casey (Lies We Tell, Black Doves) playing disillusioned British intelligence officer Alec Leamas and the idealistic, left-wing librarian Liz Gold. John Ramm (King Lear, Wolf Hall/Bring Up The Bodies) and Gunnar Cauthery (Dear England, Mack & Mabel) will take on George Smiley and Hans-Dieter Mundt. 

Clare Cornwell, Director of the John le Carre estate says, ‘The John le Carre estate is delighted to be celebrating the return of the Circus and George Smiley through these two new projects: Nick’s new novel and the first ever stage play of one of John le Carre’s works coming to the West End.’ 

Nick Harkaway Picture - © Ula Soltys

John le Carré picture ©Nadav Kandar

Move Over Marta Hari - Here comes the Middle Aged Spy by M J Robotham

Breathless, the KGB man stumbles onto the crowded train platform, the prickling of his skin signalling that he hasn’t yet escaped the shadowy figures on his tail. He scans rapidly for any likely spooks in the sea of faces: the middle-aged man in a mac, head buried in the evening newspaper; the woman dressed to the nines for an evening date and applying more lipstick with the aid of her compact; the brightly-dressed juggler heading home after a day’s toil in street theatre. Our KGB boy sweats. Experience says it could be any one of them. But which will give the signal to out him as an enemy of the British state and curtail his freedom for good?

Behind all three candidates, a sweet old dear on a bench pack away her knitting into a tired holdall, stands and totters unsteadily across the platform, forcing First-Lieutenant Petrov to remember his ingrained manners and step aside.

‘Thank you, young man,’ the old woman rasps quietly as she passes, ‘but I’m afraid you’ve been made, Alexei.’   

Fact, fiction or somewhere in between? Popular culture would have us believe that female members of the spy world are more often that woman dressed to impress: young, slim, and lithe – think The Avengers feisty Emma Peel, Goldfinger’s Pussy Galore (plus a whole troop of ‘Bond girls’ thereafter), and even Scarlett Johannson’s modern take in Marvel’s Black Widow. They pack a punch but are, first and foremost, sexy and alluring for the screen. In day-to-day espionage, however, I’d argue the leather catsuit has a tendency to stand out a tad. Far better that your furtive member of the Security Service is of average height and weight, with non-descript features and a wardrobe from Marks & Spencer. Someone you wouldn’t glance at twice at, let alone clock their motive or the secret camera tucked in their shopping bag.

As a huge fan of spy fiction and a newbie author in this genre with Mrs Spy, I thought long and hard about what the covert world demands. My own creation of MI5 Watcher Maggie Flynn is no spring chicken: 45, slightly squat, and even on a good day would benefit from a visit to the hairdresser. At all times, she lugs around several hats and at least one half-finished knitting project, making her nigh-on invisible amid the kaleidoscopic London of the 1960’s. No-one can recall the dowdy ‘ole biddy click-clacking away in the background.

Maggie is my fiction, but she is not – as it happens - too far from reality. While history and myth have painted the celebrated Mata Hari as the archetypal female spy in her belly-dancing garb, she is in the minority. As far back as the first world war, British intelligence employed a swathe of older women to place themselves next to German railway tracks. While gossiping and knitting, they were quietly logging every troop movement or military carriage in their complex stitch pattern. The subsequent ‘coded’ sweaters were sent back to England for analysis as a bizarre form of Morse. Post-war, the East German secret police – the infamous Stasi – employed thousands of older women as ‘block monitors’, spying on residents while sweeping apartment corridors in a bid to flush out enemies of the communist ideology.

And individually, it seems, dowdy aligns with the devious. Short and stout, Daphne Park was likened by colleagues to Miss Marple and even described herself as ‘a fat missionary-type.’ She was also one of MI6’s most successful overseas spies, running agents in Hanoi, Moscow, Zambia, and the politically incendiary Congo throughout her long career, once hiding a dissident in the boot of her ancient Citroen CV. Her effectiveness was put down to her open and unassuming manner, a million miles from a sultry siren.

Similarly, eighty-seven-year-old Briton Melita Norwood caused a media frenzy when she was exposed as the Soviet’s longest-serving spy in 2017, having passed atomic secrets in the 1930’s and beyond. Later dramatized in the film, Red Joan, Melita’s shocked neighbours in her suburban street admitted they didn’t suspect a thing from the benign-looking grandmother. The list doesn’t end there: ‘mumsy’ American TV cook Julia Childs worked for the CIA, and the US’s illustrious wartime agent Virginia Hall went as far as knocking out several teeth in disguising herself as an old peasant woman, successfully dodging capture in Nazi-occupied France.

Where life leads, fiction often follows among John Le Carre’s most memorable characters in his iconic Smiley series is Connie Sachs, an ageing, eccentric alcoholic, and expert on Soviet intelligence. Brilliantly brought to life on screen by Beryl Reid and Kathy Burke, Sachs is said to be modelled on a real-life MI6 Watcher Millicent Bagot.

Inspired by this army of unassuming spooks, Mrs Spy sees my own Maggie Flynn waging her war against infiltration from both east and west, proving once again that ordinary trumps outlandish in the murky world of espionage.

Take a leaf out of Maggie’s book: if you want to blend in, be more bag lady!

 

Mrs Spy by M J Robotham, is published on May 15th by Aria/Head of Zeus, available in hardback, digital and audio. 

Maggie Flynn isn’t your typical 1960s mum. She’s a spy, an unsuspecting operative for MI5, stalking London’s streets in myriad disguises. Widowed and balancing her clandestine career with raising a Beatles-mad teenage daughter, Maggie finds comfort and purpose in her profession – providing a connection to her late husband, whose own covert past only surfaced after his death. But Maggie’s world spins out of control when a chance encounter with a mysterious Russian agent triggers a chilling revelation: he knew her husband. And what’s worse, the agent suspects someone on home soil betrayed him. As Maggie searches for answers, she’ll question everyone – and everything – she thought she could trust. In the murky and perilous world of espionage, can she outsmart those determined to keep her silenced?

M J Robotham can be found on Instagram @Robothammandy and on X @mandyrobothamuk 

National Crime Reading Month

 

National Crime Reading Month Returns this June 

with Bestselling Authors

Lives of Crime: The Compelling Power of Dark and Twisty Tales

The national charity The Reading Agency and the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) has a cunning plot to get the nation reading.

This June, the partners in crime invite the nation to step into the shadows and discover how crime fiction turns us into voracious readers.

National Crime Reading Month (NCRM) is a month-long festival of reading that takes place every June, hosted by the CWA with The Reading Agency.

This year it opens with an exclusive online panel, The Lives of Crime, featuring bestselling crime authors.

On 4 June at 6pm, the CWA chair and bestselling author, Vaseem Khan, will host authors Fiona Cummins, Adele Parks, and Penny Batchelor in the free online panel event. The authors bring their unique perspectives on crafting addictive mysteries that hook new readers and reel them into the world of reading.

It will kick start over a hundred local author events and talks that run throughout June across the UK and Ireland, which take place in libraries, theatres, bookshops and online.

Readers are asked to keep an eye on the website www.crimereading.com as new events are added throughout the month, as readers are encouraged to #PickUpAPageTurner.

Events have been announced in libraries up and down the country, from Hillingdon Libraries Crime Festival in Ruislip featuring Rev Richard Coles, Nicci French, Elly Griffiths and Mark Billingham, to Blood in t’ Dales with an author panel and Q&A in Leyburn, North Yorkshire, featuring Catherine Yaffe and L.K. Pang.

Karen Napier, CEO, The Reading Agency said: “Through our reading advocacy work, we know how important crime fiction is both for lifelong reading lovers and for those who are just starting out on their reading journey. Thanks to its structured plot-driven narratives, crime fiction often rights wrongs and solves mysteries so we experience a sense of justice and resolution in the pages of a novel, which we often can’t find in the real world. This is part of its huge appeal.”

Regular reading has far-reaching social impacts; improving health, wellbeing, life chances and social connections.

Research from The Reading Agency, who work across the UK to empower people of all ages to read, shows that adults who read for just 30 minutes a week are 20% more likely to report greater life satisfaction. However, only half (50%) of adults now read regularly, and 1 in 10 find reading difficult.

The Lives of Crime panel will explore the genre's universal appeal - from psychological thrillers to cozy mysteries – and how it creates accessible pathways to reading for audiences who might otherwise never discover the joy of books.

Linda Mather, the CWA NCRM Liaison, said: “Crime fiction's straightforward language, compelling characters, and twisting narratives make it an ideal gateway for new readers. This exciting launch panel for NCRM will discuss how these elements combine to create stories that are both intellectually stimulating and accessible to diverse reading experiences and abilities.”

Linda added: “Whether you're a long time crime fiction aficionado or curious about the genre's remarkable ability to create new readers, this event offers insights into how these masters of suspense craft stories that refuse to be put down and welcome everyone to the reading table. The panel will also talk about how crime fiction is evolving as a genre and responding to our rapidly changing world.”

Join online for an evening of murderous inspiration and literary conversation that celebrates how crime fiction breaks down barriers and opens doors to the power of reading.

Admission is free. Register at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/lives-of-crime-the-compelling-power-of-dark-and-twisty-tales-tickets-1328044108679?aff=oddtdtcreator

Ticket to Ride: Seichō Matsumoto

 

Readers of Crime and Mystery Fiction are often restless, always on the lookout for something new, something fresh and thought provoking – far from what we term the “same old, same old.”

I would like to talk about a writer from the past, from Japan – a writer who is making inroads with the critics and now into the mainstream thanks to the efforts of Penguin Classics. They say that one should never judge a book by the cover, however the recent reissues of Seichō Matsumoto’s work comes with extraordinary cover art, imagery that matches the narrative[s] within.

I recall a speech delivered by legendary publisher Christopher MacLehose back in 2008 at a book launch hosted at the Foreign Press Association’s London Offices.

“….MacLehose delivered a very passionate speech about the current, challenging state of publishing, especially the difficulty of bringing international works into English………the job of the publisher is to bring books to the public that they didn’t want; books that they didn’t anticipate; and books that would nonetheless make an impression and challenge their way of thinking….”

“…..He concluded by noting the importance of booksellers, and said he wishes that the larger chains would regain some of the enthusiasm for books they had in the past, as that enthusiasm can be infectious, leading readers to try authors and works with which they aren’t familiar….”

Read More from that press launch HERE

So if you are looking to refresh your palate [crime and mystery], then I would urge you to explore the work of Seichō Matsumoto, both in print [with excellent translations] as well as dynamically read in audiobooks.

In Japan, Matsumoto is as celebrated as Agatha Christie.

I read [and then listened to via Audible] Penguin Classics re-issues of Seichō Matsumoto Tokyo Express and Inspector Imanishi Investigates and am impatiently awaiting release of the next two reissues which I have on pre-order.

Suspicion [first published in 1962 and re-issued in a new translation on 29^th May 2025] is a tense psychological mystery that hinges less on the mechanics of the crime than on the insidious nature of doubt. Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by. When she meets Shirakawa Fukutaro, a rich widower desperate for companionship and unaware of her shady past, the two hit it off and are soon married. But their newlywed bliss is suddenly cut short: one rainy July evening, their car veers off course, plunges into the harbour, and Fukutaro is pulled beneath the waves. Suspected of murder and labelled a femme fatale, Kumako is hounded by the press but stays firm, repeatedly proclaiming her own innocence. As pressure from dogged journalists mounts, the tide of public opinion is rising against her. But when a scrupulous defence lawyer takes on her case, doubt begins to creep in. The book touches on many themes that still resonate today, notably media sensationalism and trial by public opinion, social prejudice and gender roles, and economic hardship and survival.

So, what are these re-issued Japanese Crime Mysteries about?

Tokyo Express [available in paperback]

Seicho Matsumoto [translated into English by Jesse Kirkwood]

In a rocky cove in the bay of Hakata, the bodies of a young and beautiful couple are discovered. Stood in the coast's wind and cold, the police see nothing to investigate: the flush of the couple's cheeks speaks clearly of cyanide, of a lovers' suicide. But in the eyes of two men, Torigai Jutaro, a senior detective, and Kiichi Mihara, a young gun from Tokyo, something is not quite right. Together, they begin to pick at the knot of a unique and calculated crime.

Inspector Imanishi Investigates [available in paperback]

Seicho Matsumoto [translated into English by Beth Cary]

Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man’s body is found on the tracks. With only two leads – a distinctive accent and a single word, ‘kameda’ – senior inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to solve the puzzle.

Setting aside his beloved bonsai and haikus, he must cross Japan in search of answers, from Osaka to Akita, accompanied by junior detective Yoshimura. At each new town, they encounter traces of the avant-garde Nouveau Group – young Tokyo artists who are bringing new ideas from the West. What to make of this modern collective? And how to stop another mysterious death occurring? Inspector Imanishi investigates.

Suspicion [available for pre-order – Paperback to be published 29 May 2025]

Seicho Matsumoto [translated into English by Jesse Kirkwood]

Onizuka Kumako is a fierce woman: tall, beautiful, and not afraid to speak her mind. In Tokyo bars, she seduces customers and commits petty crime, using her connections to the local yakuza to get by. When she meets Shirakawa Fukutaro, a rich widower desperate for companionship and unaware of her shady past, the two hit it off and are soon married. But their newlywed bliss is suddenly cut short: one rainy July evening, their car veers off course, plunges into the harbour and Fukutaro is pulled beneath the waves.

Suspected of murder and labelled a femme fatale, Kumako is hounded by the press, but stays firm, repeatedly proclaiming her own innocence. As pressure from dogged journalists mounts, the tide of public opinion is rising against her. But when a scrupulous defence lawyer takes on her case, doubt begins to creep in .

A Quiet Place [available for pre-order – Paperback to be published on 7 Aug. 2025]

Seicho Matsumoto [Translated into English by Louise Heal Kawai]

While on a business trip to Kobe, Tsuneo Asai receives the news that his wife Eiko has died of a heart attack. Eiko had a heart condition so the news of her death wasn't totally unexpected. But the circumstances of her demise left Tsuneo, a softly spoken government bureaucrat, perplexed. How did it come about that his wife, who was shy and withdrawn, and only left their house twice a week to go to haiku meetings ended up dead in a small shop in a shady Tokyo neighbourhood?

When Tsuneo goes to apologize to the boutique owner for the trouble caused by his wife's death he discovers the villa Tachibana nearby, a house known to be a meeting place for secret lovers. As he digs deeper into his wife's recent past, he must eventually conclude that she led a double life.

About Seichō Matsumoto [December 21, 1909 – August 4, 1992]; born Kiyoharu Matsumoto) was a Japanese writer, credited with popularizing detective fiction in Japan.

Matsumoto's works broke new ground by incorporating elements of human psychology and ordinary life. His works often reflect a wider social context and post-war nihilism that expanded the scope and further darkened the atmosphere of the genre. His exposé of corruption among police officials and criminals was a new addition to the field. The subject of investigation was not just the crime but also the society affected.

Although Matsumoto was a self-educated prolific author, his first book was not printed until he was in his forties. In the following 40 years, he published more than 450 works. Matsumoto's work included historical novels and non-fiction, but it was his mystery and detective fiction that solidified his reputation as a writer internationally.

Credited with popularizing the genre among readers in his country, Matsumoto became Japan's best-selling and highest earning author in the 1960s. His most acclaimed detective novels, including Ten to sen (1958; Points and Lines, 1970); Suna no utsuwa (1961; Inspector Imanishi Investigates, 1989) and Kiri no hata (1961; Pro Bono, 2012), have been translated into a number of languages, including English. He received the Akutagawa Prize in 1952, the Kikuchi Kan Prize in 1970, and the Mystery Writers of Japan Award in 1957. He served as president of the Mystery Writers of Japan from 1963 to 1971.

Matsumoto wrote short fiction while simultaneously producing multiple novels, at one point as many as five concurrently, in the form of magazine serials. Many of his crime stories debuted in periodicals, among them "Harikomi" (The Chase), in which a woman reunites with her fugitive lover while police close in on them.

For his literary accomplishments, Matsumoto received the Mystery Writers of Japan Prize, Kikuchi Kan Prize, and the Yoshikawa Eiji Prize for Literature. In 1952 he was awarded the Akutagawa Prize for "The Legend of the Kokura-Diary”.

In 1977, Matsumoto met Ellery Queen when they visited Japan. In 1987, he was invited by French mystery writers to talk about his sense of mystery at Grenoble.

More information on the life of and work of Seichō Matsumoto HERE

More information on these reissues from Penguin Classics HERE

Shots Magazine would like to thank Fiona Livesey of Penguin Random House for assistance in alerting our readers about the work of Seichō Matsumoto.

 

2025 Edgar Award Winners

Mystery Writers of America have announced the winners of the 2025 Edgar Allan Poe Awards, honouring the best in mystery fiction, nonfiction and television published or produced in 2024. 

BEST NOVEL

The In Crowd by Charlotte Vassell (Penguin Random House – Doubleday)

BEST FIRST NOVEL BY AN AMERICAN AUTHOR

Holy City by Henry Wise (Grove Atlantic – Atlantic Monthly Press)

BEST PAPERBACK ORIGINAL 

The Paris Widow by Kimberly Belle (Harlequin Trade Publishing – Park Row Books)
 
BEST FACT CRIME

The Infernal Machine: A True Story of Dynamite, Terror, and the Rise of the Modern Detective by Steven Johnson (Penguin Random House - Crown)
 
BEST CRITICAL/BIOGRAPHICAL
James Sallis: A Companion to the Mystery Fiction by Nathan Ashman (McFarland Publishing)
 
 BEST SHORT STORY
"Eat My Moose," Conjunctions: 82, Works & Days by Erika Krouse (Bard College)

BEST JUVENILE
Mysteries of Trash and Treasure: The Stolen Key by Margaret Peterson Haddix HarperCollins – Quill Tree Books)
 
BEST YOUNG ADULT

49 Miles Alone by Natalie D. Richards (Sourcebooks – Sourcebooks Fire)

BEST TELEVISION EPISODE TELEPLAY
“Episode One” – Monsieur Spade, Written by Tom Fontana & Scott Frank (AMC)
 

OTHER AWARDS

 
ROBERT L. FISH MEMORIAL AWARD – Endowed by the family of Robert L. Fish.
“The Jews on Elm Street,” Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, September-October 2024 by Anna Stolley Persky (Dell Magazines)
 
THE SIMON & SCHUSTER MARY HIGGINS CLARK AWARD – Presented on behalf of Simon & Schuster
The Mystery Writer by Sulari Gentill (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)

THE G.P. PUTNAM’S SONS SUE GRAFTON MEMORIAL AWARD – Presented on behalf of G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 
The Comfort of Ghosts by Jacqueline Winspear (Soho Press – Soho Crime)
 
THE LILIAN JACKSON BRAUN MEMORIAL AWARD – Endowed by the estate of Lilian Jackson Braun.
The Murders in Great Diddling by Katarina Bivald (Sourcebooks – Poisoned Pen Press)
 

SPECIAL AWARDS

GRAND MASTER

Laura Lippman
John Sandford
 
RAVEN AWARD
Face in a Book Bookstore & Gifts, El Dorado Hills, CA
 
ELLERY QUEEN AWARD
Peter Wolverton, St. Martin’s Press

Congratulations to all the winners and nominated authors.

Shortlist Announced for Final 2025 CrimeFest Awards

 

CrimeFest, one of Europe’s leading crime writing conventions, has announced the shortlists for its final annual awards.

The awards began 17 years ago when CrimeFest launched in 2008; they honour the best crime fiction and non-fiction books released in the UK in the last year.

2025 will be the final awards as organisers announced this year CrimeFest will come to an end.

The awards feature the hotly-contended Specsavers Debut Crime Novel Award, which offers a £1,000 cash prize. 

Authors in contention for the £1k prize are Tom Baragwanath for his New Zealand small-town mystery Paper Cage, Cosmo’s Thriller of the Year Love Letters to a Serial Killer by Tasha Coryell, and the cosy crime caper The Antique Hunter’s Guide to Murder, by C.L. Miller.

Also making the Specsavers shortlist are Akira Otani with the gripping Japanese cult thriller The Night of Baba Yaga, Tracey Sierra’s Richard and Judy Book Club pick, Nightwatching, and Scotland’s Claire Wilson with her debut, Five by Five. 

Adrian Muller, Co-host of CrimeFest, said: “The Specsavers Debut Novel Award has become one of the most highly anticipated awards of the genre over the years, and we’d like to thank Specsavers for their on-going support in celebrating new talent.”

The shortlist for the CrimeFest H.R.F. Keating Award for the best biographical or critical book features icon of the genre Lynda La Plante with her memoir, Getting Away with Murder. 

The category also includes an exploration of Agatha Christie, with Mark Aldridge’s Agatha Christie’s Marple: Expert on Wickedness, Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 by Ashley Bowden, and Sara Lodge’s The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Detective. Jem Bloomfield is also in contention for Allusion in Detective Fiction, as are Dan Coxon and Richard V Hirst for Writing the Murder: Essays on Crafting Crime Fiction.

CrimeFest’s Last Laugh Award for best humorous crime novel sees returning favourites authors Mike Ripley, Orlando Murrin, and Antti Tuomainen. It also welcomes Cathy Ace with The Case of the Secretive Secretary, Bella Mackie for What a Way to Go, and DG Coutinho for The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin.

DG Coutinho received the 2025 bursary for a crime fiction writer of colour to attend and feature on a panel at the final CrimeFest for their first novel, a darkly comic thriller set in a toxic office culture.

Bella Mackie is also nominated for the best crime fiction e-book published in 2024; What a Way to Go is shortlisted for the E-Dunnit Award. She’s up against stalwart of the genre Martin Edwards with Hemlock Bay, Laurie R. King for The Lantern's Dance, the American novelist and playwright Jean Hanff Korelitz with The Sequel, Liz Moore’s The God of the Woods and Peter Swanson’s A Talent for Murder.

The nominees for the CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children (aged 8 - 12) include Sufiya Ahmed for her World War Two adventure set in Cairo, Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker, M. G. Leonard for Feather (The Twitchers) from the bestselling birdwatching detective series, and the magical murder mystery, The Floating Witch Mystery by Nicki Thornton. They’re joined by fellow children’s authors Natasha Farrant, A.M. Howell, and Beth Lincoln.

Adrian Muller said: “We are proud to be one of the few genre awards that recognise and celebrate children, and young adult crime fiction. This category has really boomed in recent years. It’s a fitting legacy that over the years we’ve gifted thousands of free children’s and young adult books to inner city schools in Bristol as part of our outreach and charitable work. The genre is a fantastic gateway into reading, so the hope these books have inspired new generations of readers and writers.”

Leading British crime fiction reviewers and reviewers of fiction for children and young adults, alongside the members of the School Library Association (SLA), form the CrimeFest judging panels.

The Best Crime Fiction for Young Adults (aged 12-16) features H.F Askwith’s A Cruel Twist of Fate, Denise Brown’s It All Started with A Lie, and A.J Clack’s dark reality-TV based Young Adult thriller, Lie or Die.

Also in contention are the razor-sharp romantasy All The Hidden Monsters by Annie Jordan, the sequel to the Waterstone’s prize winning Thieves’ Gambit, Heist Royale by Kayvion Lewis and Such Charming Liars by Karen M. McManus. 

This year also features the Thalia Proctor Memorial Award for Best Adapted TV Crime Drama, which celebrate dramas based on a book screened in 2024. 

Eligible titles were collated from the Radio Times and CrimeFest readers established the shortlist and the winning title. The award is named in honour of Thalia, who worked with many crime writers in publishing and was a much-loved and valued member of the CrimeFest team.

Shortlisted shows include Apple TV’s Bad Monkey, based on the book by Carl Hiaasen, P.D. James Dalgliesh (Channel 5, series 3), Laura Lippman’s Lady in the Lake adapted by Apple TV, Moonflower Murders on the BBC based on the books by Anthony Horowitz, Apple TV’s Slow Horses (series 4) from Mick Herron’s Slough House books and the BBC’s The Turkish Detective based on the Inspector Ikmen books by Barbara Nadel.

The winners of the 2025 CrimeFest Awards will be announced at a gala dinner hosted during CrimeFest on Saturday 17 May at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel, compered by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) chair and author, Vaseem Khan.

Hosted in Bristol, CrimeFest is the biggest crime fiction convention in the UK, and one of the most popular dates in the international crime fiction calendar, with circa 60 panel events and 150 authors attending over four days, from 15-18 May. 

2025’s CrimeFest promises to be bigger than ever as long-standing friends of the event gather for a celebratory finale, including blockbuster author, Lee Child who will be attending with his brother and co-Reacher author, Andrew Child.

CrimeFest was created following the hugely successful one-off visit to Bristol in 2006 of the American Left Coast Crime convention. Established in 2008, it follows the egalitarian format of most US conventions, making it open to all commercially published authors and readers alike.

All category winners will receive a Bristol Blue Glass commemorative award. Eligible titles were submitted by publishers, and a team of British crime fiction reviewers voted to establish the shortlist and the winning title.

The 2025 CrimeFest Award Shortlists in full:

SPECSAVERS DEBUT CRIME NOVEL AWARD

Tom Baragwanath for Paper Cage (Baskerville)

Tasha Coryell for Love Letters to a Serial Killer (Orion Fiction)

C. L. Miller for The Antique Hunter's Guide to Murder (Pan Macmillan)

Akira Otani (and translator Sam Bett) for The Night of Baba Yaga (Faber & Faber)

Tracy Sierra for Nightwatching (Viking)

Claire Wilson for Five by Five (Michael Joseph)

eDUNNIT AWARD 

Martin Edwards for Hemlock Bay (Head of Zeus)

Laurie R. King for The Lantern's Dance (Allison & Busby)

Jean Hanff Korelitz for The Sequel (Faber & Faber)

Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)

 Liz Moore for The God of the Woods (The Borough Press)

Peter Swanson for A Talent for Murder (Faber)

H.R.F. KEATING AWARD

Mark Aldridge for Agatha Christie's Marple: Expert on Wickedness (HarperCollins)

Jem Bloomfield for Allusion in Detective Fiction (Palgrave Macmillan)

Ashley Bowden for Female Detectives in Early Crime Fiction 1841-1920 (Fabula Mysterium Press)

Dan Coxon & Richard V. Hirst for Writing the Murder: Essays on Crafting Crime Fiction (Dead Ink)

Sara Lodge for The Mysterious Case of the Victorian Detective (Yale University Press)

Lynda La Plante for Getting Away With Murder: My Unexpected Life on Page, Stage and Screen (Zaffre)

LAST LAUGH AWARD

Cathy Ace for The Case of the Secretive Secretary (Four Tails Publishing Ltd.)

DG Coutinho for The Light and Shade of Ellen Swithin (Harvill Secker)

Bella Mackie for What A Way To Go (The Borough Press)

Orlando Murrin for Knife Skills for Beginners (Transworld)

Mike Ripley for Mr Campion's Christmas (Severn House)

Antti Tuomainen (and translator David Hackston) for The Burning Stones (Orenda Books)

BEST CRIME FICTION AWARD FOR CHILDREN (aged 8-12)

Sufiya Ahmed for Rosie Raja: Undercover Codebreaker (Bloomsbury Education)

Natasha Farrant for The Secret of Golden Island (Faber & Faber)

A.M. Howell for Mysteries at Sea: The Hollywood Kidnap Case (Usborne Publishing)

M. G. Leonard for The Twitchers: Feather (Walker Books)

Beth Lincoln for The Swifts: A Gallery of Rogues (Penguin Random House Children's UK)

Nicki Thornton for The Floating Witch Mystery (Faber & Faber)

BEST CRIME FICTION AWARD FOR YOUNG ADULTS (aged 12-16)

H.F. Askwith for A Cruel Twist of Fate (Penguin Random House Children's UK)

Denise Brown for It All Started With a Lie (Hashtag Press)

A.J. Clack for Lie or Die (Firefly Press)

Amie Jordan for All the Hidden Monsters (Chicken House)

Kayvion Lewis for Heist Royale (Simon & Schuster Children's Books)

Karen M. McManus for Such Charming Liars (Penguin Random House Children's UK)

THALIA PROCTOR MEMORIAL AWARD FOR BEST ADAPTED TV CRIME DRAMA

Bad Monkey, based on the book by Carl Hiaasen (Apple TV+)

Dalgliesh (series 3), based on the Inspector Dalgliesh books by P.D. James (Channel 5)

Lady in the Lake based on the book by Laura Lippman (Apple TV+)

Moonflower Murders based on the book by Anthony Horowitz (BBC)

Slow Horses (series 4), based on the Slough House books by Mick Herron (Apple TV+)

The Turkish Detective, based on the Inspector Ikmen books by Barbara Nadel (BBC)

When Inspiration Strikes by Jenna Satterthwaite.

There’s a reason we have the phrase “inspiration strikes.” It really does feel like lightning–something unexpected and powerful–and in the case of my debut novel, Made for You, that’s exactly how the original idea came about.

I was taking a walk during my work break, along the Chicago river, in March 2022. I’d been watching the new season of Love is Blind on Netflix and I’d just finished reading The Ones We’re Meant to Find by Joan He (highly recommend) which had put Bots that are indistinguishable from humans on my mind. As I walked, ideas collided, and I thought “oooh, what if a robot that looked exactly like a human competed on a reality TV show?” It was a no brainer to add murder.

I took my first notes that very night, without knowing who the victim would be, and who the killer–but the idea felt so compelling to me that I was determined to figure it out.

I wrote the book in a kind of fever, and the first draft was complete in 7 weeks. Though it started as ‘just’ a fun idea, writing it quickly became an incredibly cathartic experience. My youngest sister was dying of cancer as I wrote it (she died right as the book was going out on submission to editors, summer 2022), and this book became a place for me to process my grief, my questions about purpose and pain and the isolation that intense suffering brings. During the cancer years leading up to writing Made for You, I was deconstructing a lot of the assumptions I’d made about life/existence/God from the Christian point of view, and that definitely came out as I explored the main character Julia’s relationship to Andy, her creator.

This started as a fun book—and I think it IS a fun book still—but it’s also my grief book and does go to some dark places. But in a light way! Kind of. I keep describing it as “suspense candy,” and I think that in spite of the heavy themes, it’s still mostly a frothy, light, murdery page-turner.

Of course, other questions snuck their way in that were less personal and more heady–like, what makes identity? Is it a core essence that’s inalterable, or is it our choices that shape us and define us? Social issues I care deeply about also started weaving their way in–the way our culture objectifies women, the toxic dynamics of the patriarchy, and the dark side of the narrative often woven around romance that we are ‘made for each other.’ Add to that an examination of social media, our obsession with image, the pressure of ‘relatability,’ and the ethics of Artificial Intelligence as it starts to encroach on ‘human’ jobs. In short, that original lightning strike sparked in many, many directions, and I had an incredible time 

Will you find answers about any of the above issues in this novel? (*laughs to self*) No. We fiction writers are lucky because, unlike our non fiction counterparts, we don’t have to actually answer the questions we pose. Our job is to just turn the prism on the issues we’re highlighting and show as many facets of a question as we can—which, for me, is the fun part.

The answers are up to you.

Made for You by Jenna Satterthwaite (Verve Books) Out now.

Hi. My name is Julia. I'm a Synth. And I'm here to find love... Julia Walden - a Synth - was designed for one reason: to compete on The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairy-tale ending when Josh gets down on one knee. Fast-forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia's life is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder. With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking point - and isn't that where a person's true nature is revealed? That is... if Julia truly is a person.

Jenna Satterthwaite's debut novel MADE FOR YOU (published by VERVE Books) is a page-turning, twisty debut that skilfully merges artificial intelligence, psychological thriller and reality TV.

More information about the author can be found on her website. You can also find her on X @jennaSchmenna and on Facebook.

The reader knows best (even if the writer knows better) by Becky C. Brynolf

Did you hear about that influencer who found a dead body and filmed it?

Back in 2017, a YouTuber named Logan Paul uploaded a video of a man who had died by suicide. He’d found the man while exploring with friends in Aokigahara, Japan, an area known locally as “suicide forest” due to its notoriety as a place to complete suicide. The video was viewed 6.3 million times inside 24 hours. Paul was derided and denounced, but it didn’t hurt him. He has since made a career out of controversy, forever getting cancelled and returning unscathed, before finally leaning all the way into his controversial image and becoming a heel in the world of professional wrestling. 

While Logan Paul’s Aokigahara trip is maybe the most notable and controversial example, people have been literally and figuratively pointing cameras at bodies for entertainment for some time now. We pass endless true crime podcast and Netflix documentary recommendations between each other like good books. Tiktokkers investigated the site of Nicola Bulley’s disappearance until the police had to issue a statement to discourage the internet sleuths from dropping by. Social media was awash with theories about what had really happened to Gene Hackman before the tragic truth was revealed. If the OJ Simpson trial had taken place today, the Reddit and Tattle Life servers would be straining under the pressure of the discourse.

I know all of this, not through active research, but rather osmosis. Celebrity culture and true crime have been bedfellows for a long time, as covered to extremely good effect even as far back as 1975’s musical Chicago, based on the real-life murderesses of the jazz age. It’s an easy topic in which to find inspiration – truth is stranger than fiction, etc etc, and don’t we all just love a good whodunnit?

The very first draft of my debut novel, I Found A Body, in which an influencer films a dead body and broadcasts it to the world, was very different to the version you’ll find on shelves today. Our antagonist, influencer Kylie May, originally made the very deliberate decision to point her phone at the body while live streaming. When I shared that opening chapter with my writing group, the feedback was unanimous: "Kylie is a great character, but that would never happen.”

I could have easily pushed back on the group’s feedback. I could have defended the original opening, presented the podcasts and the documentaries and the controversies as proof that it absolutely could happen. I could have even gone so far as to invoke the great Margaret Atwood and remind the group that everything that happens in A Handmaid’s Tale was inspired by real events in the darkest chapters of human history. Not that I’m comparing my writing to Atwood’s in the slightest – I’m inspired by her work but by no means a peer.

What I chose to do instead was ignore my ego, and rewrite the opening scene into the version you’ll find in the book today. Kylie May still broadcasts a dead body from her phone and goes viral, but her thought process is more ambiguous. It’s feasible to the reader that Kylie isn’t in total control of her faculties in the moment; she’s led more by shock than driven by grim curiosity. But why did I bend to the feedback so easily when I had all that evidence and research to back myself? I did it because, ultimately, the book would have suffered if I’d stuck to my guns.

Firstly, if a reader can’t suspend their disbelief, they’re not going to stick around, and I can’t force every unconvinced reader to look up Logan Paul on Wikipedia. Secondly, the changes lead to a much better novel. Kylie May was only supposed to be the reader’s vehicle into the story. A one-chapter-and-done kind of character. An interesting way to setting up the case before we get on with the classic detective story. However, the feedback prompted me to really flesh her character out until she practically had equal billing with the story’s main character, Detective Mona Hendricks. With Kylie May taking up more space in the story, I had to work hard to justify her actions, both to herself and the reader. She inspired a whole new twisty plot with dual timelines and dual POVs. Influencer Kylie and Detective Mona became each other’s foils as they both attempted to solve the mystery. The story ended up being a love letter/lament to this strange digital age we’re in.

I Found A Body is my first novel. I’m very proud of the work, and I must thank my writing group for the blunt, instructive critique that took the book from a fairly bog standard crime novel, and made the book what it is. They knew best (even if I technically knew better).

I Found A Body by Becky Brynolf ( Black & White Publishing) Out now.

An influencer, a dead body and a live stream . . . Mona Hendricks may have just met her match. Detective Sergeant Mona Hendricks has a lot on her plate. Divorce, bills, an obnoxious teenager. But she has no idea what's coming . . . 'Mum, I need to show you something'  A video. Big red letters in the corner.  @MaybeKylie is LIVE Alerts slide over the screen. One after another after another. The viewing numbers soar. Her daughter's favourite influencer, Kylie May, has just found a dead body and is streaming it to the world. Two dueling investigations begin as a rivalry between seasoned detective and ambitious influencer grows: one using good old-fashioned police work whilst the other's sensational tactics hog the spotlight. Nine years later and the murder remains unsolved. But comment sections never forget, forcing the notoriously self-interested Kylie to make Detective Hendricks an offer she can't refuse . . .

You can follow the author on Instagram @beckycbrynolfwrites and on X @beckycbrynolf