Val McDermid
Crime Fiction
Creator of the Tony Hill series — adapted as ITV’s Wire in the Blood — and the Karen Pirie novels. Winner of the CWA Gold Dagger and the Cartier Diamond Dagger for lifetime contribution to crime writing.
Book Now
Mick Herron
Espionage Thriller
Creator of the Slough House series — the darkly comic spy novels that became Apple TV+’s Slow Horses, starring Gary Oldman as the magnificently repellent Jackson Lamb.
Book Now
Elly Griffiths
Archaeological Mystery
Creator of the beloved Ruth Galloway mysteries and the Harbinder Kaur series. Winner of the CWA Dagger in the Library for her body of work.
Book Now
Janice Hallett
Puzzle Mystery
Author of the Sunday Times bestsellers The Appeal, The Twyford Code, and The Mysterious Case of the Alperton Angels. A modern master of the epistolary whodunit.
Book Now
Robert Thorogood
Cosy Crime
Creator of BBC’s Death in Paradise and author of the bestselling Marlow Murder Club series, adapted for U&Drama.
Book Now
Gyles Brandreth
Historical Mystery
Broadcaster, writer, and former MP. Author of the Oscar Wilde Murder Mysteries — a witty Victorian crime series casting Oscar Wilde himself as detective alongside friends Conan Doyle and Bram Stoker.
Book Now
Vaseem Khan
Historical Crime
Author of the Malabar House series set in 1950s Bombay and the Baby Ganesh Agency novels. Winner of the CWA Historical Dagger and chair of the Crime Writers’ Association.
Book Now
Frank Gardner
Spy Thriller
The BBC’s Security Correspondent, OBE, and author of the Luke Carlton spy thrillers — the No.1 bestseller Crisis, Ultimatum, Outbreak, Invasion, and Ballistic — and the acclaimed memoirs Blood and Sand and Far Horizons. Shot six times by al-Qaeda gunmen in Riyadh in 2004, he draws on that insider knowledge in his fiction.
Book Now
Charles Cumming
Espionage Thriller
One of the leading spy novelists of his generation. Author of the BOX 88 series and A Foreign Country, winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger.
Book Now
Roger McGough
Poet & Crhyme
One of Britain’s most celebrated poets and a founding member of The Scaffold. Host of BBC Radio 4’s Poetry Please and a cherished national voice.
Book Now
S.J. Parris
Historical Mystery
Pen name of Stephanie Merritt. Author of the acclaimed Giordano Bruno series of Elizabethan thrillers beginning with Heresy.
Book Now
Martin Edwards
Crime Historian
President of the Detection Club and former Chair of the CWA. Author of the Rachel Savernake series and the landmark history The Life of Crime.
Book Now
Antony Johnston
Spy & Thriller
Bestselling author of The Dog Sitter Detective series and the Brigitte Sharp spy thrillers. Creator of the graphic novel The Coldest City, adapted into the film Atomic Blonde.
Book Now
Samantha Bond
Stage & Screen
Acclaimed stage and screen actress. Four-time Miss Moneypenny in the James Bond films and a beloved fixture of British drama from Downton Abbey to the West End.
Book Now
Graham Bartlett
Police Procedural
Former Brighton & Hove police commander turned crime novelist. Author of Bad for Good and the DSU Jo Howe series, and consultant on many of the country’s best-known crime dramas.
Book Now
Amen Alonge
Action Thriller
Solicitor turned novelist. Author of the explosive Pretty Boy thrillers — A Good Day to Die and A Good Night to Kill.
Book Now
Mark Ellis
Historical Crime
Former barrister and author of the DCI Frank Merlin series of WWII-set detective thrillers, following a half-Spanish Scotland Yard detective through wartime London in The Embassy Murders, In the Shadows of the Blitz, and The French Spy. A CWA member, longlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger.
Book Now
Alec Marsh
Historical Thriller
Journalist and author of the Drabble & Harris series of 1930s adventure thrillers — Rule Britannia, Enemy of the Raj, Ghosts of the West, and After the Flood. A former Daily Telegraph reporter and editor of Spear’s magazine.
Book Now
Sam Blake
Irish Crime
Bestselling crime author and founder of Writing.ie — a driving force behind contemporary Irish crime fiction.
Book Now
Sue Wallman
YA Thriller
Author of taut, twisty teen thrillers including See How They Lie, Dead Popular, and Your Turn to Die. A leading voice in the Young Adult crime space.
Book Now
Victoria Dowd
Cosy Crime
Author of the Smart Woman’s Mystery series — sharp, witty whodunits in the golden-age tradition. Winner of the People’s Book Prize for Fiction.
Book Now
Tom Mead
Locked-Room Mystery
Author of the Joseph Spector mysteries, including Death and the Conjuror and The Murder Wheel. A leading voice in the modern revival of impossible-crime fiction.
Book Now
Alan Bardos
Historical Spy Fiction
Author of the Johnny Swift thrillers — espionage novels set around the First World War and the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, including The Assassins, The Dardanelles Conspiracy, and Enemies & Allies — and the Second World War Daniel Nichols series, beginning with Rising Tide.
Book Now
Alex Gerlis
Historical Spy Fiction
Appearing in conversation with Alan Bardos on Sunday afternoon.
Book Now
Bernard O’Keeffe
Contemporary Crime
Former London English teacher and author of the DI Garibaldi series — The Final Round, Private Lessons, and Every Trick in the Book — contemporary crime with a sharp literary edge.
Book Now
G.J. Williams
Tudor Mystery
Author of the Tudor Rose Murder Mystery series — The Conjuror’s Apprentice, The Wolf’s Shadow, and The Cygnet Prince — atmospheric historical thrillers featuring Tudor astrologer Dr John Dee.
Book Now
Tony White
Literary Procedural
Author of the DS Rex King police procedurals — The Fountain in the Forest and Phantom at the Feast — which fuse Oulipo-inspired experimental structure with a gripping murder investigation. Also known for Foxy-T and Shackleton’s Man Goes South, the first novel published by the Science Museum, where he was writer-in-residence.
Book Now
Tim Sullivan
Police Procedural
Screenwriter and director turned crime novelist. Author of the bestselling DS George Cross series — The Dentist, The Cyclist, The Patient, and The Politician — featuring an autistic detective whose relentless eye for detail makes him Avon & Somerset’s finest. His screen credits include Jack and Sarah and Letters to Juliet.
Book Now