A Garden Party in Harrogate, Part II

(Editor’s note: Yesterday we brought you Ali Karim’s colorful recap of the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, which was held late last month in Harrogate, England. Today we’re following up with a selection of Ali’s photos from those four days of literary revelry—a dozen shots designed to give you a better sense of the sights and literary stars that made this year’s festival so memorable.)


Author Felix Francis, son of the late Dick Francis, looks like a getaway driver, employing his own idea of “horse power.”


Next time, hire these guys as doormen: Rap Sheet correspondent Ali Karim with New Zealand blogger Craig Sisterson.


British author Zoë Sharp with U.S. star Jeffery Deaver.


Left to right: Sophie Portas, head of publicity for UK publisher Faber and Faber; Faber and Faber editorial director Angus Cargill; and American novelist Laura Lippman.


Val McDermid and Tess Gerritsen attend the 2016 Dead Good Reader Awards presentation.


Critic and author Barry Forshaw signs copies of his growing “Noir” series of guides to modern crime and thriller fiction.


Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip, who write the Detective Kubu series under the joint pseudonym “Michael Stanley.”


Literary agent Jane Gregory with best-seller Martina Cole.


Retired Sussex police officer Graham Bartlett and police procedural writer Peter James, the co-authors of Death Comes Knocking: Policing Roy Grace’s Brighton (Pan).


Festival sponsor Simon Theakston toasts Val McDermid’s success.


Left to right: authors Alison Joseph, Martin Edwards, Leigh Russell, and Stav Sherez, plus American marketeer Erin Mitchell.


Ever-helpful Ali Karim insists on doing some of the heavy lifting for James Patterson’s BookShots initiative.

(Photographs © Ali Karim, 2016)