Theakstons on Friday
Harrogate is upon us! Taking place in the lush grounds of the Old Swan Hotel where the Queen of Crime Agatha Christie used as her bolt hole when she escaped from her life for a while – what better place to celebrate all that is great about the crime fiction world!
Fantastic panels are guaranteed and here’s a round up of things to come over the next few days:starting with Friday
The Chair/Hostess with the Mostess
Elly Griffith BookTrails
Elly is keeping all the authors in check this year but she’s also a top crime writer herself – author of the Ruth Galloway novels no less. She’s also hosting the event called The Dark Side on Friday 21st July
The Dark Side panel will include James Oswald – McLean novels set in Edinburgh
Special Guest – Lee Child
Lots of locations with Jack Reacher and the way he either flits through them or dives down back alleys, you’ll never see them in the same way again. Paris, The Middle East, London and in the middle of the American Midwest? Jack Reacher has been there and seen it all. Appearing Friday 21 July at 9am
Ashes to Ashes – novels set in the past
Antonia Hodgson – The Devil in the Marshalsea and more
Graeme Macrae Burnet – His Bloody Project
Endearing Monsters
Sabine Durrant’s Lie With Me – Remember this slimy lead protagonist?
Stav Sherez’s The Intrusions – “A Silence of the Lambs for the Internet Age”
Julia Crouch – now this lady has created more than a few monster characters in her time!
Shari Lapena – The Couple Next Door
Mick Herron – “Crime fiction’s Falstaff”
The Grantchester Novels
Well who can resist a lovely summer’s evening reading or watching about the exploits of a certain vicar and his policeman sidekick or is that the other way around? They’re pretty much a double act in every sense of the word and if you watch the TV show and then read the books you’ll definately be picturing Robson Green and James Norton as the main characters?
Then at 8.30 the Queen of Forensics is on stage – not digging up or carving up any bodies and bones hopefully – that would be a completely different kind of panel! The Theakstons brochure mentions she teaches FBI agents how to recover human remains and separate commingled body parts. The level of detail in her novels is fascinating and no wonder!
Kathy Reichs booktrails
And let’s not forget the lovely Mari Hannah is hosting the Readers Book Group at 1pm – the title under discussion this year is the utterly brilliant Black and Blue