A Garden Party in Harrogate, Part I

“Outstanding” Scottish mystery-maker Val McDermid.

By Ali Karim
Saturday, July 23—the third day of this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, North Yorkshire, England. A sunny, warm day, to be sure. As I looked out across the diverse array of attendees gathered on the grounds of the Old Swan Hotel, all of them clutching books, drinking gin, smiling, and chatting, or else browsing the W.H. Smith Book Tent, I realized something I should’ve known from the first: I was home, among friends and colleagues who find comfort and insight at the darkest edges of literature—that is to say, in the crime, mystery, and thriller genre.

The words of a favorite song by the late Ricky Nelson came to mind:

I went to a garden party to reminisce with my old friends
A chance to share old memories and play our songs again …

I had missed taking part in the last couple of these Harrogate gatherings due to diary clashes, as well as my commitment to help organize last year’s Bouchercon in Raleigh, North Carolina. So the 2016 event was eagerly anticipated.

That July 21-24 festival offered far too many engaging episodes (and interesting people to speak and drink with) than I can detail here. But I would like to draw special attention to ThrillerFest executive director Kimberley “K.J.” Howe, who winged her way to Harrogate after capping off her recent duties at ThrillerFest IX in New York City. I’ve known Kim since 2006, when we met at ThrillerFest I in Phoenix, and was pleased to hear that Vicki Mellor of Headline Publishing has picked up her debut thriller, The Freedom Broker, for release in early 2017. It was also great to happen across David Stuart Davies, editor of the British Crime Writers’ Association’s Red Herrings magazine (and something of a renaissance man), who made a flying visit to the conference, as did Philippa Pride, Stephen King’s UK editor.

Those days in Harrogate gave me an opportunity, as well, to spend time with literary agent Judith Murdoch, a very dear friend of longstanding, and to benefit from the assistance of Gaby Young of Michael Joseph Penguin in organizing an interview with the talented Julia Heaberlin (Black Eyed Susans), which I conducted in tandem with New Zealand blogger Craig Sisterson. I found time to catch up with Felix Francis, who has a new horse-racing mystery (Triple Crown) coming out in September—an extension of the legacy he inherited from his famous father (and mother). And it was excellent to meet up with one of my Bouchercon board colleagues, Erin Mitchell, who’d come over from America to visit Ireland and post-Brexit Great Britain.


ThrillerFest executive director K.J. Howe being greeted by Red Herrings editor David Stuart Davies.

* * *

Even before the festival officially commenced, an event took place called Creative Thursday, which was of great interest to writers wishing to turn a storytelling hobby into something professional. On hand to help were authors such as Sarah Hilary, Alex Marwood, Matthew Hall, and William Ryan. They were joined by literary agents, publishing representatives, and the literary journalist Danuta Kean.

Theakstons Harrogate works in part to promote literacy for the local community, and this year’s writer-in-residence was former UK probation officer Mari Hannah (Deadly Deceit).

Things really got started at Harrogate with a Thursday evening reception, followed in close succession by a welcome from both festival director Sharon Canavar and principal sponsor Simon Theakston, the latter of whom came supplied with plenty of his beer-brewing family’s most renowned product, Old Peculier. Then Harrogate regular, broadcaster and author Mark Lawson (The Allegations), took to the podium to begin the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year ceremony. Clare Mackintosh was excited to receive this year’s prize for her debut novel, I Let You Go. And that accolade came backed up with cash—a £3,000 check—plus a handmade engraved oak beer cask (which the author almost left behind on stage). You can see the highlights of that ceremony by clicking here.

Also shortlisted for the prize were Time of Death, by Mark Billingham (Sphere); Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere); Tell No Tales, by Eva Dolan (Harvill Secker); Disclaimer, by Renée Knight (Black Swan); and Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail).

Following the tribute to Mackinstosh, veteran Scottish author Val McDermid was presented with the seventh Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. Previous winners of that same commendation have been Sara Paretsky, Lynda La Plante, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Colin Dexter, and Reginald Hill. After hearing that she would be this year’s recipient, McDermid said: “It’s an honor and a thrill to receive this award. The community of writers and readers at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival is unlike any other in its warmth and generosity and so this means a huge amount to me. This year sees the publication of my 30th novel [Out of Bounds, due for a U.S. release in December from Atlantic Monthly Press] and I can’t think of a better way to celebrate that.”

I should mention that Mark Billingham delivered an exceptional, often funny introduction to McDermid, which you can watch (in a rather “gonzo” video) on YouTube.

With Thursday evening’s festivities done, it was time to uncap a few bottles of gin and share anecdotes, leaving some of us to welcome in the next day’s dawning with a breakfast of aspirin and coffee, accompanied by fragmented memories of the night before.

* * *

Friday started early with an eclectic array of events, and though programming chair Peter James generously passed all the credit to the team behind Harrogate International Festivals, he was obviously one busy bloke, appearing everywhere—almost as if he had cloned himself, like a character from his techno-thriller Perfect People.


Mark Billingham chats up fellow novelist Linwood Barclay.

That day’s first highlight found Canadian wordsmith Linwood Barclay (The Twenty-Three) engaging in a well-attended onstage conversation with Billingham. It turned out to be a wickedly amusing exchange between two crime writers whose dark imaginations were balanced by their surreal sense of humor.

Then it was on to an investigation of real-life crime by Peter James’ writing partner, former Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett, together with authors Sharon Bolton, Mari Hannah, and (straight from Iceland!) Ysra Sigurdardottir. Other Friday events included a panel talk called “The Killer Behind the Front Door,” featuring Julia Crouch, Helen Fitzgerald, Paula Hawkins, Clare Mackintosh, and Alex Marwood; and another one titled “The Golden Age [of Crime Writing],” with Simon Brett, Frances Brody, Ann Granger, Catriona McPherson, and Ruth Ware. There was also a forensics panel and another devoted to stage and screen adaptations of written crime and mystery works.

Because Theakstons Harrogate offers a single track of panel presentations, it is advisable to find a seat at one’s preferred events early, lest there not be room left. The alternative is to sit in some overflow room and observe the proceedings via TV screens.

I thought it was a great innovation this year to have the book sales area and author signing section relegated to a large tent on the lawns overlooking the Old Swan. This prevented the snaking queues to the signings from congesting the hotel itself. When Peter James and Martina Cole began their signings, for instance, the lines were long enough that they might’ve been spotted from the orbit of Mars.

In addition, credit should be given to W.H. Smith, the festival’s official bookseller, whose staff was extremely helpful in moving things along at a good clip. You can watch a short video focusing on the W.H. Smith Book Tent by clicking here.

Next up on that day’s program was the 2016 Dead Good Reader Awards presentations, hosted again by Mark Lawson, who was helped out this time by international stars Linwood Barclay and Tess Gerritsen. This was a smartly orchestrated affair, with a number of moving parts, including early review-copy giveaways, raffles, and a substantial display from the prolific James Patterson, promoting his BookShots initiative, which turns out crime/thriller novellas for our time-constrained era (and reduced attention spans). Whatever you think of the quality of Patterson’s yarns, it’s hard to argue with his obvious commitment to literacy and the survival of independent bookshops—efforts that will be celebrated during Bouchercon 2019 in Dallas, Texas, at which he’ll be a guest of honor.

We filmed the announcements of the Dead Good Reader Award recipients, with the results embedded below. A full list of 2016 nominees and winners is available at this link.



After a quick bite to eat, I was back to my reportorial duties, attending a couple of evening events. Firstly, we had Val McDermid in conversation with Scottish comedienne Susan Calman, who’s a familiar face on UK shows such as Have I Got News for You and Would I Lie to You? Secondly, I sat through one of my favorite events of the weekend, a presentation titled “The Hard Yards,” which found authors Sophie Hannah, Simon Kernick, Laura Lippman, Martyn Waites, and Laura Wilson all speaking candidly about their journeys up the greasy pole of crime-fiction renown, and how they’ve stayed on top.

In the wake of all this hubbub, I was delighted for an opportunity to visit at dinner with my dear friend, best-selling thriller writer Martina Cole, who had arrived late to Harrogate. Afterwards, she and Kim Howe, together with some people from Headline, retired to the gardens overlooking the Old Swan, while I went inside to organize some gin and tonics. I wound up chatting with thriller writers Graham Smith and Mason Cross (the latter of whom pens the Carter Blake novels, and has apparently forgiven me for the rather tough questions I fired at him during a CrimeFest Criminal Mastermind competition several years ago). Soon after that, I fell into conversation with Linwood Barclay, who—thanks to his increasing stature as a fictionist (can it really have been less than a decade since No Time for Goodbye gave him his big boost?)—drew additional notice from passersby, until we found ourselves at the center of a small crowd. As usual, Barclay was amusing and self-deprecating in equal measures, and generous with his time. It’s characteristic of the Theakstons Crime Writing Festival that its attendees, whether authors, critics, or readers, mix well, with nobody feeling like an outsider.

* * *

After a wee bit of late-night drinking (OK, maybe more than a wee bit), Saturday crept up quickly, and brought with it a series of red-letter offerings. The award-winning Jeffery Deaver was interviewed by the ubiquitous Mark Lawson (you can see the opening of their exchange here). Then there was a rare appearance by onetime journalist and the author of Harry’s Game, Gerald Seymour, who took questions from BBC Radio 2’s Joe Haddow. However, Theakstons Harrogate does not restrict itself to Big-Name Scribblers; McDermid held an audience in thrall on Saturday as she introduced four “New Blood” talents for 2016: Martin Holmen (Clinch), J.S. Law (Tenacity), Beth Lewis (The Wolf Road), and Abir Mukherjee (A Rising Man).


An uncommon sighting of thriller writer Gerald Seymour.

That afternoon boasted of an international flavor, with N.J. Cooper, Paul Mendelson, Deon Meyer, Margie Orford, and “Michael Stanley” (aka Michael Sears and Stanley Trollip) all navigating South Africa’s criminal darkness. Meanwhile, Pierre Lemaitre, Bernard Minier, and S.J. Parris transported their listeners to France, as moderator Barry Forshaw kept his hand gently on the conversational rudder.

A standing-room-only crowd assembled to hear Martina Cole and Peter James in conversation—a truly fascinating session, since James pens his Brighton-based Roy Grace thrillers from a law-enforcement perspective, while Cole focuses instead on the often complicated family relationships between gangsters. (We have archived two sections of their discussion here and here.) Later that day, James talked to a crowded room about the dark side of Brighton; separately, Tess Gerritsen addressed the nuances of writing medical thrillers, a subgenre in which she has gained significant renown.

Closing out that evening was the Theakstons Crime Fiction Quiz. Frankly, I’d rather not dwell overlong on this event. I thought I’d assembled a strong team of Barry Forshaw, Craig Sisterson, literary agent Helen Heller, and Dutch publisher Steven Moat. But thanks in part to my, er, overindulgence in gin, we only earned third place in the competition. The night’s winning team was led by literary agent Jane Gregory, and featured authors Sarah Hilary, Natasha Cooper, Laura Wilson, Harry Bingham, and Mick Herron. You can watch the victors accept their just desserts here.

A very late night on the lawns outside the Old Swan, spent with friends such as Simon Kernick, Stav Sherez, Kevin Wignall and Sarah Pinborough, closed out Saturday, followed by a 2 a.m. pizza delivery … because we can always benefit from a tad more in the way of stomach contents to soak up drink.

* * *

As usual, Sunday came around too fast. With my queasy stomach and sore head, I found comfort (as well as intrigue) in a “Political Corruption” panel discussion involving Charles Cumming, Frank Gardner, the by-now-inevitable Mark Lawson, Kate Rhodes, and Gillian Slovo. Then it was on to this festival’s capper: a presentation by Peter Robinson (When the Music’s Over) and Mark Lawson, who talked about contemporary fictional themes inspired by the notorious Jimmy Saville sexual-abuse scandal. The opening of that event, including Peter James’ introduction, can be enjoyed here.

If I may be allowed a few final words (after so many previous ones), let me begin by noting that the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival was remarkable. Professional management, combined with glorious weather and a collegial atmosphere, will have attendees talking about these doings for quite some time. Should you be interested in participating in next year’s Harrogate festival (July 20-23, 2017), it might be a good idea to book early, as ticket sales are already notably brisk.

Next stop, Bouchercon next month in New Orleans.

(Part II of our belated wrap-up of the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival can be found here.)

Photographs and text © Ali Karim, 2016

An edited version of this report will appear in the August edition of Red Herrings magazine, the official monthly publication for members of the British Crime Writers Association. Click here for details about how to join the CWA; and click here to learn how you can join the affiliated Crime Readers Association.

Mina’s Major Coup

Scottish crime writer Denise Mina’s 2010 novel, The End of the Wasp Season (Orion), has won this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, according to the Euro Crime blog. That commendation was presented this evening during the opening ceremony at England’s Harrogate Crime Writing Festival (July 19-22).

The other five finalists for that same prize were Now You See Me, by S.J. Bolton (Transworld); Where the Bodies Are Buried, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown); The Burning Soul, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton); Black Flowers, by Steve Mosby (Orion); and Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (Transworld).

Eighteen books were on the longlist of contenders for the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, but that list was shortened to half a dozen in early July. An online public balloting process was then launched to help determine the winner.

In addition to Mina’s win, Colin Dexter, author of the Inspector Morse series, was presented with the third Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award.

READ MORE: “Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, Day One,” “Day Two,” and “Day Three,” by Ayo Onatade (Shotsmag Confidential); “Harrogate,” by Martin Edwards (‘Do You Write Under Your Own Name?’); “The Harrogate Festival,” by Craig Sisterson (Crime Watch); Euro Crime’s Karen Meek offers several posts from Harrogate; “Final Days of Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, and Reflections,” by Ayo Onatade (Shotsmag Confidential).

“Violence” Brings Victory

British thriller writer R.J. “Roger” Ellory has won the 2010 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for his book A Simple Act of Violence, beating a field of seven other distinguished authors.

As a press release explains, “The Birmingham-born author was presented the prize by broadcaster and regular festival-goer Mark Lawson at the opening night party (Thursday 22nd July) of the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate [England]. He receives a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.”

Simon Theakston, the executive director of T&R Theakston, said: “The standard of the shortlist was particularly high this year and our decision was a tough one. However, R.J. Ellory’s A Simple Act of Violence is a most impressive, fascinating, and surprising book and a worthy winner of this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. A fast-paced thriller, each page seems to bring about a new twist and take you deeper into a world that could only have come from a true master of crime fiction.”

The shortlist of nominees for this commendation can be found here. The original longlist of 20 competitors is posted here.

During the same ceremony, Reginald Hill (The Woodcutter) was given the inaugural Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award.

READ MORE: “R.J. Ellory Wins Crime Novel of the Year Award,” by Alison Flood (The Guardian); “Harrogate,” by Dan Waddell (Murder Is Everywhere).

It’s the Peculier Thing to Do

While Americans continue to swig beer, light fireworks, and bandy about that old platitude “freedom” on this Independence Day, the Brits are busy carrying on with business. The shortlist of nominees for the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was announced late today. The candidates are:

• Now You See Me, by S.J. Bolton (Transworld)
• Where the Bodies Are Buried, by Chris Brookmyre (Little, Brown)
• The Burning Soul, by John Connolly (Hodder & Stoughton)
• The End of the Wasp Season, by Denise Mina (Orion)
• Black Flowers, by Steve Mosby (Orion)
• Before I Go to Sleep, by S.J. Watson (Transworld)

Those six finalists are all that remain from a longlist of 18 titles released in May. A public vote will help select this year’s ultimate winner, with online ballot-casting scheduled to run from July 5 through July 17. Click here to make your preferences known. The victor will be declared on July 19--opening day of the 2012 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. He or she will be rewarded with £3,000 as well as a “handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons brewery.”

As the blog Shotsmag Confidential reports, the same ceremony during which the Crime Novel of the Year Award is dispensed will also bring a special presentation, to Inspector Morse creator Colin Dexter, of the third Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. The two previous recipients of that commendation are P.D. James and Reginald Hill.

A Very Peculier Practice

The shortlist of nominees for the 2011 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was announced yesterday. It pits one debut novelist (William Ryan) against several old hands, all of them male, except for Lancashire-born S.J. Bolton. As the news release passing along these names explained, the Old Peculier Award, “now in its seventh year,” was “created to celebrate the very best in crime writing and is open to British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback between 1st January 2010 and 31st May 2011.”

Without further ado, here are the six finalists:

• From the Dead, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• Blood Harvest, by S. J. Bolton (Bantam Press)
• 61 Hours, by Lee Child (Bantam Press)
• Dark Blood, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)
• The Holy Thief, by William Ryan (Mantle)
• The Anatomy of Ghosts, by Andrew Taylor (Michael Joseph)

That news release goes on to tell that “The winner of the prize will be announced by radio broadcaster and festival regular Mark Lawson on the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate on Thursday 21st July. The winner will receive a £3,000 cash prize, as well as a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.

“On the same night, a special presentation will be made to the winner of the second Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, which this year is presented to P.D. James.”

The longlist of 18 contenders for the 2011 award was publicized in mid-May, and can be found here. Last year’s winner was R.J. Ellory (A Simple Act of Violence).

Hilary Captures Peculier Crown

“Debut author Sarah Hilary has scooped the [2015] Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award for Someone Else’s Skin [Penguin],” according to this report from The Bookseller. “Hilary was presented with the award by title sponsor Simon Theakston and broadcaster Mark Lawson at the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival ... (16th July) in Harrogate [England].”

Hilary’s novel had been up against five other high-profile, shortlisted works in contention for this prize: The Facts of Life and Death, by Belinda Bauer (Black Swan); The Axeman’s Jazz, by Ray Celestin (Mantle); The Outcast Dead, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus); The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson (Hodder & Stoughton); and Entry Island, by Peter May (Quercus). The original longlist of 18 titles, announced this past May, can be found here.

The Bookseller adds that this evening’s awards event also included the presentation, to author Sara Paretsky, of the sixth Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. “When I created V.I. Warshawski,” Paretsky is quoted as saying, “she created a few seismic shockwaves for being a female detective with gumption. I’m proud of that, and today it’s amazing to be recognized for that legacy and to see so many female characters in the genre who are more than just a vamp or victim. This is such a prestigious award, not least because of the previous winners in whose footsteps I follow--P.D. James, Ruth Rendell, Reginald Hill, and Colin Dexter. It’s amazing to be the first American to infiltrate this list.”

READ MORE: “Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award 2015,” by Ayo Onatade (Shotsmag Confidential).

Barking Up the Right Tree

A rather amusing, coincidental, even surreal event took place during last month’s Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Britain--one that might have deserved this soundtrack.

In company with novelist Roger “R.J.” Ellory (The Anniversary Man), I drove to the famous Yorkshire spa town of Harrogate, in Northern England, on the convention’s opening day, Thursday, July 22. Although Roger was not scheduled to participate in any panel discussions, he wanted to attend the Harrogate festival because he had been nominated for the Crime Writers Association’s Dagger in the Library award (given to authors for a body of work, rather than an individual title). His 2008 novel, A Simple Act of Violence, had also been shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award. He said on our way down, though, that he had little chance of winning either commendation, but especially not the Crime Novel of the Year as that shortlist of nominees featured many strong competitors.

(Right) Sharon Canavar, R.J. Ellory, and Simon Theakston at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival.

I tried to reassure him, pointing out that while 80 percent of the vote for the Crime Novel of the Year Award was weighted toward the opinions of a judging panel, the general reading public controlled the remaining 20 percent--and it’s been my experience, when it comes to such literary prizes, that no one knows anything until the winning envelope is opened. But Roger dismissed my eternal optimism, telling me to forget about the awards and just have some good laughs over this weekend. The Harrogate festival is always enjoyable, and I’d prepared to make the most of it, bringing along a liter of gin to keep us fresh.

After unpacking in the hotel room we’d chosen to share, and tipping back a couple of libations, we set off on foot toward the convention hotel. On our way, Roger felt peckish, so we tried to hunt down a cheeseburger, in the course of which we bumped into broadcast journalist Mark Lawson, who was to present that evening’s awards. Lawson is a great champion for crime fiction, and he and his BBC radio show, Front Row, have been permanent fixtures of the Harrogate festival since its start in 2003. Roger hadn’t met him yet, so I did the introductions, and then Lawson wished us luck both in our search for sustenance and in Roger’s pursuit of the Crime Novel of the Year Award.

It turned out that all of the restaurants on our way were closed, so we had to settle for drinks at the convention hotel, when we finally reached it. Afterward, we located the Harrogate opening night party, and then found seats in the hotel’s grand hall for the awards ceremony.

This year’s festival was officially opened by Harrogate operations director Sharon Canavar. Principal sponsor Simon Theakston delivered his own welcome, and incited a huge and appreciative cheer when he announced that his company, Theakston Brewery, will be extending its support of the Harrogate convention for another five years.

Without further ado, Mark Lawson then welcomed onto the stage the authors whose works had been shortlisted for the 2010 Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award. The first funny moment came when “Tania Carver” walked up to shake hands with Lawson. It was The Rap Sheet that broke the news last month that Carver, who wrote 2009’s The Surrogate, is actually two people--husband-and-wife wordsmiths Linda and Martyn Waites using a pseudonym.

Before he opened a golden envelope containing the winner’s name, Lawson asked his audience to remember recent news stories about Paul, the German psychic octopus that had successfully predicted the results of this year’s World Cup championship. Lawson went on to wonder aloud whether his own family’s pet dog, “Mystic Fred,” might possess

similar supernatural powers. He then showed on a big screen photographs of Fred sniffing around copies of all the Crime Novel of the Year contenders. Lawson finally said that the book Fred thought would win was ... and he brought up a photo of the dog sniffing at Roger Ellory’s A Simple Act of Violence. After explaining that he hadn’t sat on the judging panel, so really had no clue as to who the winner might be, Lawson tore open the envelope and exclaimed, “The winner is Roger Ellory, also known as R.J. Ellory, which is most surreal as I bumped into Roger an hour ago, while he and Ali where hunting down a cheeseburger.” Lawson then pulled out a mobile phone, explaining, “Now I must phone home and see if Mystic Fred can tell us next week’s lottery numbers ...”

A huge round of applause followed that statement. Roger stepped onto the stage to accept his award, visibly shocked to have won. I managed to capture--on video--the end of his acceptance speech, which was very good considering that he was totally unprepared. (That video has been embedded above, left.) In his own remarks, Simon Theakston called A Simple Act of Violence “a most impressive, fascinating and surprising book, and a worthy winner.” He added that “each page seems to bring about a new twist and take you deeper into a world that could only have come from a true master of crime fiction.”

Following this presentation, Roger and I went around to congratulate the other shortlisted authors. I also cornered Mark Lawson, who admitted to being shocked that his dog guessed the winning novel. (In an aside, Roger said to me that he wished to send Mystic Fred a thank-you of sorts, so I gave him Lawson’s address. Subsequently, Lawson’s wife sent Roger a photograph, displayed at right, showing that the dog received his well-deserved gift hamper.)

Later that night, after he had absorbed his unexpected win, Roger remembered to pass me an advance reading copy of his next novel, Saints of New York (Orion), which is due out in Britain this September (with a U.S. edition slated for publication in February 2011). Based on this author’s success so far, it’s to be expected that Saints will collect fans, as well. The book’s publisher synopsizes its plot this way:

The death of a young heroin dealer causes no great concern for NYPD Detective Frank Parrish--Danny Lange is just another casualty of the drug war. But when Danny’s teenage sister winds up dead, questions are raised that have no clear answers. Parrish, already under investigation by Internal Affairs for repeatedly challenging his superiors, is committed to daily interviews with a Police Department counselor. As the homicides continue--and a disturbing pattern emerges--Frank tries desperately to make some sense of the deaths, while battling with his own demons. Trying to live up to the reputation of his father, John--not only a legendary NYPD detective, but also one of the original “Saints of New York,” the men charged with the responsibility of ridding New York of the final vestiges of Mafia control in the 1980s--Parrish struggles to come to terms with the broken pieces of his own life. But, as the murders escalate, he must discover the truth behind them before there are further innocent victims. Dark and intense, Saints of New York is a novel of corruption and redemption, of the relentless persistence required to find the truth, and of one man’s search for meaning amidst the ghosts of his own conscience.

I’ll surely have a chance to read and digest Roger Ellory’s new book well in advance of our next trip together, when we fly to San Francisco for Bouchercon in October. It doesn’t take Mystic Fred to predict that we will have a good time there, too. See you at the bar!

(Photo of Mystic Fred with Roger Ellory’s thank-you basket © 2010 Sarah Lawson. Photo of Sharon Canavar, R.J. Ellory, and Simon Theakston with the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award © 2010 Ali Karim.)

READ MORE: “Harrogate: Liver Poached in Wine But No Fava Beans,” by Mark Billingham (BookBrunch).

Harrogate Crawls Onto the Web

I enjoyed seeing Sharon Canavar and Erica Morris, from the Theakstons Old Peculiar Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, at Bouchercon in San Francisco last month. I’ve been attending that wonderful English event ever since its inception in 2003, and have seen it blossom into a truly international affair. Now the Harrogate team has introduced a new Internet resource for mystery-fiction enthusiasts. Called You’re Booked, it welcomes visitors with this note:

A crime writers and readers Web site with a difference: it’s the online crime community with links to the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival--the ultimate celebration of crime fiction. Maybe it’s the symbiotic mix of great books and great beer, but let’s face it, one long weekend a year simply isn’t enough. You’re Booked aims to make the world’s best crime wave something you can experience every day, no matter where you are in the world.

You have the right to remain silent, but that would be exceedingly dull. Get involved. Contact us with your own book reviews, articles and blog posts, or tell us what else you’d like to see on the site.

You’re Booked has already posted interviews with Harrogate authors such as Lee Child, Tom Cain, Lee Weeks, Martin Edwards, and N.J. Cooper. You’ll also find there a writing blog to help aspiring crime novelists; tips from industry figures; a glimpse into what books appear on crime writers’ bookshelves; book reviews; and a section titled The Joy of Reading. In a surreal twist, You’re Booked put me at a microphone’s “furry end” for the first time, as I was quizzed about my obsessive fascination with the crime-fiction genre. Here’s an excerpt from that interview:

What has reading so much crime [fiction] and talking to so many authors taught you about the genre?

I love what I learn about life and the human condition, and yes, that sounds rather worthy I know, but books have enriched my life, made me understand some of the mad things that happen around me. They have also made me a tad paranoid, always reading about the worst excesses of human nature. Though from a positive angle, they have distracted me when life throws really difficult problems at me. They also put things in perspective. I recall having a very tough time around the time I discovered Dennis Lehane. When I put down Darkness Take My Hand--a very dark and brutal novel, but wonderful in terms of murky morality-- ... I realized, my problems compared to what was thrown at Lehane’s private investigators, Patrick and Angie, where minuscule.

You can read that whole exchange here.

So, while you’re making plans to attend the Theakstons Harrogate Crime Writing Festival next summer (hint, hint), point your mouse over to the growing You’re Booked site to see what insights it might offer.

Have You Had Your Say Yet?

Just a reminder, that you have only three days left to vote online for your favorite nominee among the half-dozen works shortlisted for the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award. As mentioned in a previous post, the nominees are:

• Time of Death, by Mark Billingham (Sphere)
• Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
• Tell No Tales, by Eva Dolan (Harvill Secker)
• Disclaimer, by Renée Knight (Black Swan)
• I Let You Go, by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere)
• Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)

Click here to make your preference known. You have until this coming Friday, July 15, to cast a ballot.

As contest organizers have explained, “The overall winner will be decided by a panel of judges, alongside the public vote.” An announcement of this year’s Crime Novel of the Year prize recipient will be made on July 21, the opening night of the 14th Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.

* * *

Also, if you have not yet voted on behalf of your favorite nominees in the 2016 Dead Good Reader Awards competition, you can still do so here. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the winners are set to be declared during a special event on Friday, July 22, during the Theakstons Harrogate festival.

Most Peculier

The longlist of 20 nominees for the 2010 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award was announced this morning. In contention are:

• In the Dark, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• If It Bleeds, by Duncan Campbell (Headline)
• The Surrogate, by Tania Carver (Little, Brown)
• The Business, by Martina Cole (Headline)
• A Simple Act of Violence, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)
• Until It’s Over, by Nicci French (Penguin)
• The Crossing Places, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Cold in Hand, by John Harvey (Arrow)
• Skin, by Mo Hayder (Transworld)
• Vows of Silence, by Susan Hill (Vintage)
• The Dying Breed, by Declan Hughes (John Murray)
• Dead Tomorrow, by Peter James (Pan Books)
• Target, by Simon Kernick (Transworld)
• A Darker Domain, by Val McDermid (HarperCollins)
• Gallows Lane, by Brian McGilloway (Pan Macmillan)
• Geezer Girls, by Dreda Say Mitchell (Hodder)
• Singing to the Dead, by Caro Ramsay (Penguin)
• Doors Open, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• All The Colors of Darkness, by Peter Robinson (Hodder)
• Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (Simon & Schuster)

Between now and Friday, June 11, readers may vote online for their favorite book. Click here to do so.

The top eight vote-getters from this first poll will be announced on Thursday, July 1, at which time members of the public will be asked to vote once more. A single winner will finally be declared on the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, Thursday, July 22. The victor will receive £3,000 in cash, plus a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.

Theakstons Trims Its Top Picks

Earlier today I posted the news about this year’s shortlisted nominees for three Dagger Awards, to be given out by the Crime Writers’ Association. But I didn’t realize, until reading Karen Meek’s Euro Crime blog, that another prize announcement had been made. Here, then, are the finalists for the 2015 Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year:

• The Facts of Life and Death, by Belinda Bauer (Black Swan)
• The Axeman’s Jazz, by Ray Celestin (Mantle)
• The Outcast Dead, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Someone Else’s Skin, by Sarah Hilary (Headline)
• The Devil in the Marshalsea, by Antonia Hodgson
(Hodder & Stoughton)
• Entry Island, by Peter May (Quercus)

In addition, Sara Paretsky will be given the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. Past winners of that commendation include Denise Mina, Lee Child, Val McDermid, and Mark Billingham.

The Crime Novel of the Year winner will be declared during the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England, July 16-19. The longlist of nominees can be found here.

Mina on Their Minds

For the second time in a row, Scottish author Denise Mina has won the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award, on this occasion for her novel Gods and Beasts (Orion), the third entry in Mina’s Alex Morrow series. The announcement came during this week’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.

A news release quotes Mina’s response to the news: “I’m really quite flabbergasted. This was such a hard book. I really love this book and it means a lot other people appreciate it as it could have crashed and burned. I’m so delighted and so glad to have another gigantic ostentatious award in the shape of a Theakstons beer barrel that I don’t have room for on my mantelpiece!”

Gods and Beasts was one of six works shortlisted for this prize. The others were Rush of Blood, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown); Safe House, by Chris Ewan (Faber and Faber); The Lewis Man, by Peter May (Quercus); Stolen Souls, by Stuart Neville (Vintage); and A Dark Redemption, by Stav Sherez (Faber and Faber).

Congratulations to all of the nominees.

(Hat tip to Crime Fiction Lover.)

A Highly Peculier Assortment

Notable new crime-fiction authors join a clutch of old hands in the competition for this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. The longlist of rivals, posted today in Shotsmag Confidential, looks like this:

• Time of Death, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail)
• Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere)
• Black-Eyed Susans, by Julia Heaberlin (Michael Joseph)
• Disclaimer, by Renée Knight (Black Swan)
• I Let You Go, by Clare Mackintosh (Sphere)
• The Moth Catcher, by Ann Cleeves (Pan)
• Tell No Tales, by Eva Dolan (Harvill Secker)
• The Ghost Fields, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• The Missing and the Dead, by Stuart MacBride (HarperCollins)
• Every Night I Dream of Hell, by Malcolm Mackay (Mantle)
• Splinter the Silence, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)
• The Glorious Heresies, by Lisa McInerney (John Murray)
• The Nightmare Place, by Steve Mosby (Orion)
• The Final Silence, by Stuart Neville (Harvill Secker)
• In a Dark, Dark Wood, by Ruth Ware (Harvill Secker)
• Death Is a Welcome Guest, by Louise Welsh (John Murray)
• Stasi Child, by David Young (Twenty7)

As Shotsmag explains, these 18 titles were “selected by an academy of crime-writing authors, agents, editors, reviewers, members of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival Programming Committee, and representatives from T&R Theakston Ltd. and [bookseller] W.H. Smith.” A shortlist of just half a dozen titles will be announced on May 31. A public online vote, conducted between July 1 and 15, will help determine this contest’s ultimate winner. The name of that book and author will be declared on July 21 during opening-night festivities at this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival (July 21-24 in Harrogate, England).

Mackintosh Prevails

British freelance journalist and author Clare Mackintosh has won the 2016 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year award for her thriller I Let You Go (Sphere). That announcement was made this evening during a special opening-night event at the 14th Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England.

Also shortlisted for that prize were Time of Death, by Mark Billingham (Sphere); Career of Evil, by Robert Galbraith (Sphere); Tell No Tales, by Eva Dolan (Harvill Secker); Disclaimer, by Renée Knight (Black Swan); and Rain Dogs, by Adrian McKinty (Serpent’s Tail).

The original, longlist of 18 contenders is here.

Also receiving recognition tonight was Scottish writer Val McDermid, who—as Crime Fiction Lover reports—“becomes the seventh winner of the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award, following Sara Paretsky, Lynda La Plante, Ruth Rendell, P.D. James, Colin Dexter, and Reginald Hill. Well known for her Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, as well as her fine standalone novels, her books have sold over 10 million copies in more than 30 languages. Her 30th novel, Out of Bounds, is due out in September.”

READ MORE: “Feeling Old and Peculier in Harrogate,” by Craig Sisterson (Crime Watch).

Theakstons Old Peculier Longlist Announced

Now in its ninth year, the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award is open to British and Irish authors whose novels were published in paperback over the previous 12 months.

The longlist below will be whittled down to six finalists, and those contenders are to be announced on July 1. From there, readers can cast their votes to determine who among the six shortlisted authors should take home the prize. Votes can be cast online here.

The result of the online vote will be counted alongside the votes of the expert judging panel, the members of which include Val McDermid, David Swillman, the fiction head of co-sponsor WHSmith, and Simon Theakston, executive director of title sponsor T&R Theakston. The winner will receive a cash prize of £3,000 and a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.

Here’s the 2013 longlist:

The Guilty One, by Lisa Ballantyne (Piatkus)

Finders Keepers, by Belinda Bauer (Transworld)

Rush of Blood, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)

Dead Scared, by S.J. Bolton (Corgi)

The Affair, by Lee Child (Transworld)

A Foreign Country, by Charles Cumming (HarperCollins)

Safe House, by Chris Ewan (Faber and Faber)

Not Dead Yet, by Peter James (Macmillan)

Siege, by Simon Kernick (Bantam Press)

Prague Fatale, by Philip Kerr (Quercus)

The Rage, by Gene Kerrigan (Vintage)

Birthdays for the Dead, by Stuart MacBride (Harper)

The Dark Winter, by David Mark (Quercus)

The Lewis Man, by Peter May (Quercus)

Gods and Beasts, by Denise Mina (Orion)

Stolen Souls, by Stuart Neville (Vintage)

Sacrilege, by S.J. Parris (Harper)

A Dark Redemption, by Stav Sherez (Faber and Faber)

Second Elimination Round

Back in May, we brought you the longlist of 20 nominees for the 2010 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Readers were invited to vote online for their favorites, and today comes an announcement of the eight finalists. They are:

• In the Dark, by Mark Billingham (Little, Brown)
• The Surrogate, by Tania Carver (Little, Brown)
• A Simple Act of Violence, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)
• The Crossing Places, by Elly Griffiths (Quercus)
• Dead Tomorrow, by Peter James (Pan Books)
• Gallows Lane, by Brian McGilloway (Pan Macmillan)
• Doors Open, by Ian Rankin (Orion)
• Child 44, by Tom Rob Smith (Simon & Schuster)

From this shortlist, readers are now being asked once more to state their preferences. Click here to cast your ballot.

According to press materials, “The eventual winner will be decided by combining the result of this public vote with the votes of a panel of expert judges.” We’ll learn that name of the victorious novel on Thursday, July 22--the opening night of the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate, England. Its author will receive £3,000 in cash, plus a handmade, engraved beer barrel provided by Theakstons Old Peculier.

That Old Peculier Criminal Brew

Authors Val McDermid and Denise Mina at Harrogate

(Editor’s note: Below we present British correspondent Ali Karim’s somewhat delayed report from last month’s Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival, which was held in Harrogate, England.)

I was delighted to hear from Harrogate’s chief executive, Sharon Canavar, that in its ninth year, the Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival broke another record, selling more than 9,000 tickets. I’m not really surprised, as this year the festival had a truly remarkable line-up of events, managed by London author Dreda Say Mitchell.

My family and I enjoy our annual excursion to the heart of Yorkshire, where I can share my passion for crime and thriller novels with all of them, and my wife can share her equally strong passion ... for shopping in the spa town of Harrogate. With us went Ayo Onatade and Kirstie Long from Shots, and Chris Simmons and his Crime Squad gang--Michael Malone, Keith Walters and Graham Smith. Mike Stotter, the editor-in-chief of Shots, had wanted to attend too, but he had a scheduling conflict.

Thursday, July 21. This year the festival returned to the Old Swan Hotel, made famous by Agatha Christie’s vanishing act back in 1926. One joy of Harrogate as a venue is that there’s a wide selection of hotels available for every budget, and most of them are located within a 10-minute walk of the Old Swan.

The festival opened with the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year Award presentation. The BBC’s Mark Lawson was on hand to welcome the shortlisted authors, but first there were opening welcomes from Sharon Canavar as well as principal sponsor Simon Theakston, who announced that this year his brewers had developed a limited-edition ale in celebration of crime fiction. Then Lawson welcomed Scottish author Val McDermid to the stage. It was her job, in turn, to introduce Baroness Phyllis Dorothy “P.D.” James as the recipient of this year’s award for Outstanding Contribution to the Crime Fiction Genre. McDermid’s speech was a very moving and insightful piece of oratory, especially when she said that Baroness James was living proof that no author should ever complain about not having enough time to write. After all, as a young mother, James lost her husband and had no livelihood to fall back upon, so she took up writing in order to secure an income, and then managed to bring up her young children with very little support. After that, a standing ovation welcomed Baroness James to the stage. She said how much she loved the Theakstons Crime Writing Festival, so this commendation meant a great deal to her. That set the crowd to clapping at a truly frenzied pace.

(Left) Baroness James congratulated by Simon Theakston

After Baroness James stepped down, Mark Lawson welcomed all six of this year’s Crime Novel of the Year nominees to the stage: Mark Billingham, S. J. Bolton, Lee Child, Stuart MacBride, William Ryan, and Andrew Taylor. And when the envelope containing the winner’s name was opened, another huge cheer went up, for festival favorite Child had picked up the award for his 2010 novel, 61 Hours. Child looked a bit shocked that he’d won, as he has been denied this prize in previous years. But he was gracious in accepting it this time around, saying how moved he was to follow P.D. James onto the stage at Harrogate.

By this point, most people were well clapped out and ready to settle into the nearest bar. But the Karim family took Ayo Onatade out for a Chinese dinner, instead, in part to pay her back for helping after our elder daughter, Sophia, had a bit too much to drink during the CrimeFest Gala Dinner in Bristol in May. (An event, by the way, that had led my wife to remark, while looking at me pointedly, “The acorn doesn’t stray far from the oak tree, does she?”)

Friday, July 22. The weather had turned glorious, so after a hearty breakfast it was back to the Old Swan to listen to best-selling London-based crime writer Martina Cole in conversation with programming chair Mitchell. When I saw Cole arrive on Thursday, she said she couldn’t have the sort of late-night drinking session we have enjoyed in the past, as her panel was to begin 9 a.m. Despite that early start, the room was full and vibrant. Again, though, maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised: The Harrogate single-track presentation system does ensure full houses at most events.

Finally, after their own late breakfast, my family arrived for the 10:30 True Crime panel, moderated by novelist-journalist Duncan Campbell and featuring real-life ex-convicts who had turned their hands to writing. Although Noel “Razor” Smith was unable to attend, ex-Member of Parliament (MP) Jonathan Aitken, former football hooligan Cass Pennant, and former lifer (for murder) Erwin James together presented a insightful, if grueling hour’s entertainment. We learned that Aitken had been punched a few times by frustrated inmates, while Pennant explained that he had turned his life around after a fellow prisoner said, “I’m the free-est man in this prison.” When Pennant asked him to explain, his cellmate passed him a book and told him, “No four walls can hold my mind when I am reading, because reading is freedom.” Pennant told the audience that he was  soon thereafter referred to as the “Bookman,” due to his persistent reading--though he also told us about more harrowing experiences such as his having witnessed rape, and about the brutal violence that goes on behind prison walls. When asked what books were the post popular behind bars, we were told that Papillon (1969), by Henri Charrière, ranks as No. 1, while The Judas Pig (2004), by Horace Silver, has become a cult favorite in prisons due to Silver having been a criminal figure who changed his name after fleeing the underworld. This caused me to sink down into my chair a bit, as I had interviewed Silver for Shots back in 2004. I’d had my doubts at the time about whether Horace Silver was really a criminal, but Cass Pennant tells me he was, and that there are people still trying to find out where he’s been hiding himself.


Author Lee Child (right) with the Karim family

After that event, as after all other panels, there was a formal book-signing adjacent to the Waterstones bookshop, with the queues well managed and reasonably patient.

At noon, I attended the “Wrong ’Uns” panel, which found James Twining exploring the attraction of anti-heroes with fellow authors Mandasue Heller, Denise Mina, Craig Robertson, and Alex Wheatle. I was interested to see Mina again, as her latest novel, The End of the Wasp Season, has been broadly talked up, and I enjoyed her company last year during the Orion Publishing dinner at Bouchercon in San Francisco.

After a quick lunch, my family wandered off into Harrogate, while I looked forward to Martyn Waites’ “Old Blood” panel, which gave a new spin to the familiar “New Blood” panels focused on freshman authors. Waites’ intention was to look at writers who had broken through, and were now on their third or fourth novels--people such as Allan Guthrie, Cathi Unsworth, Mark Mills, and Nick Stone (who, after a few years in the wilderness, is back with another Max Mingus thriller, Voodoo Eyes.) The majority opinion among the panelists was that second and third novels are harder to write than debut works, due to the expectations of agents and publishers, as well as to the fact that they’re usually written to deadline--business-like--rather than as works driven by the author’s passion to finally get published.

Since I have much association with journalists, I was interested to hear Daily Mirror writer Henry Sutton (who, under the joint pseudonym “James Henry” concocted the Inspector Jack Frost prequel, First Frost) engage in a debate with fellow newsies Belinda Bauer, Stav Sherez, and Tony Thompson. They were joined by the tallest man in the room, former Secret Intelligence Service (SIS) recruit and spy novelist Charles Cumming. Their debate was wide-ranging, with key points being that they all used journalism as a door through with to enter fiction writing as a profession. Soon enough, though, their discussion moved on to the News International phone-hacking scandal. Oddly, the majority opinion seemed to be that this story has been exaggerated, and that all legitimate (and legal) tools need to be available to journos who are serious about reporting the news. That qualification “legal,” of course, is where things might go awry for Rupert Murdoch’s media empire.

Then it was time to rejoin my family for a quick dinner before moving on to the ITV3/Specsavers/Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) Dagger Awards in the Old Swan’s Wedgewood Room. During my walk back to our own hotel to change, I bumped into former drug dealer, now crime writer Howard Marks. This was a total delight, as I’d loved his memoir, Mr. Nice (which was recently made into a movie). I think of Marks as a genuine, if rather odd character, and we had a hilarious chat about his debut novel, Sympathy for the Devil. This year’s Theakstons Harrogate event was certainly notable for its true-crime elements, both in terms of panelists and subjects. The ability to talk with ex-convicts such as Marks and Pennant in convivial surroundings made this convention special.

(Right) Co-interviewees Lisa Gardner and Linwood Barclay

The evening’s main event--the presentation of the first five Dagger Awards of 2011--was bristling with renowned novelists such as Philip Kerr, Lee Child, Joseph Finder, and Linwood Barclay. Presentations included video montages and featured CWA chair Peter James along with former chairs such as Natasha (N.J.) Cooper, publishers, authors, and bloggers announcing the awards and shortlists. Emma Tennant and Amanda Ross were the television hosts. James, Tennant, and Ross all spoke of the importance of crime fiction as a genre for the TV audience ... and we must not overlook the commercial benefits to the writing and publishing community when a work hits the nation’s flat screens. The evening’s award winners are named here.

Friday’s next event was billed as Linwood Barclay in conversation with Lisa Gardner, but when we took our seats, a woman whose name I can’t recall (from the Daily Express) strode onto the stage and announced that she would instead be asking those two best-selling writers questions. Well, I have to say, from the moment she opened her mouth, with her monotonous “one-pitch” voice introducing Barclay and Gardner, the audience members looked at one other, and some giggled, and I heard several whisper “Who the hell is that nut?” I have to give huge credit to Barclay and Gardner for keeping the dialogue amusing and very funny--a stark contrast to their dreadful interviewer, who kept looking at her notes; it was patently obvious that she hadn’t read any of their books and had little background in the genre. Her opening question to Linwood was the groaner, “And where do you get your ideas from?” In a surreal manner, this actually provided great entertainment, but of the cringe-inducing variety. It’s just a guess, but I don’t think we’ll be seeing her back at a Harrogate event anytime soon. Judging by the length of the signing queues after the event, though, we will be seeing a lot more of Linwood Barclay and Lisa Gardner.

As my family heading back to our hotel, I loitered in the bar and noticed coaches of “non-literary” types arrive to fill the Old Swan’s lobby. From their eclectic dress sense, I realized they were coming to see Howard Marks, who was scheduled to be interviewed by Mark Lawson.

By the time I joined the line to see that onstage interview, the queue stretched out into the car park. It was there that I bumped into Marks himself, looking confused. He spotted me and shouted me over, remembering me from earlier in the afternoon. He was swaying a bit and, bizarrely, not a single other person seemed to notice his presence. “Hey, Ali,” he said, “can you help me?” One of the benefits of being a rare black face in the crowd, with an easy name to remember, is that people always seem to remember who I am. “Sure, what’s the problem?” I asked. To which Marks replied, “I’m dying for a piss. You seem to know your way around, where’s the pisser?” This made me laugh, and so I took him off to the nearest toilet. While I waited outside, a concerned Lawson found me and queried, “You haven’t seen Howard Marks, have you? He was right behind me, and then he vanished. We’re on in a couple of minutes.” He was relieved when I told him that Marks was in the toilet.


Drug dealer-turned-author Howard Marks with Ali Karim

After Marks reappeared, I pointed him out to Lawson, and those two went off to the green room, while I grabbed another beer and took my seat for the well-attended interview. Which, I should note, was hilarious. Marks was eloquent, as well as being funny, but he kept losing the thread of the conversation, much to his audience’s amusement.

I ended up later drinking with author Steve Mosby and the Telegraph’s Jake Kerridge until past my bedtime--but not as late as the hollow-legged Simon Kernick, Kevin Wignall, and literary agent Phil Patterson, all of whom enjoyed watching the sunrise through beer-rimmed glasses.

Saturday, July 23. Again the first event was at 9 a.m., this time an interview with Tess Gerritsen by Jenni Murray. And again, the house was packed. Much of their discussion revolved around the TV series based on Gerritsen’s books, Rizzoli & Isles, which is scheduled to air on UK cable this fall (and has already been green-lighted for a third season in the United States). The queue to have Gerritsen sign books was almost as long as the previous evening’s line for Marks’ event.

From there it was on to the “Outer Limits” panel. Chaired by CWA Diamond Dagger winner Andrew Taylor, it explored the supernatural edge of the genre. Guest panelists were Sarah Pinborough, S.J. Bolton, Patricia Duncker, and Phil Rickman. During the signing session afterward, Pinborough mentioned that she’d been standing in line at a local kebab house the night before, at 2 a.m., and seen me. I apologized for not saying hello, but noted that I had been rather drunk. She said that was fine, as she’d been somewhat worse for wear at the time and in desperate need of a kebab, and didn’t have much time for small talk anyway. The other people waiting in the signing queue did not appear to be connoisseurs of the Harrogate kebab scene.

Then came the customary Harrogate “New Blood” panel, chaired this year by the champion of new writing, Val McDermid. Also up front were newbies S.J. Watson (Before I Go to Sleep), Julia Crouch (Cuckoo), Gordon Ferris (Truth Dare Kill), and Melanie “M.J.” McGrath (White Heat). There is no better chair for the new fiction writers panel than McDermid. Despite her international success (and TV series), she remains firmly grounded and asks questions that make the packed audience curious about all these fresh faces in the genre. In these tough times for publishing, McDermid’s efforts must be applauded.

The previous late night, and rushing around this morning, meant that I missed the “Legal Eagles” panel chaired by lawyer-crime writer Martin Edwards, and featuring some fellow writers and colleagues from the bench: Matthew “M.R” Hall, Francis Fyfield, Helen Black, and Peter McCormick. I heard that their discussion was much more amusing than the law would normally allow.

I went with my family in tow to one of the convention’s red-letter events: best-selling American authors Joseph Finder and David Baldacci in conversation. My wife and kids wanted to see this panel, as they had met Finder at previous Harrogate events. The session was lively and humorous, with much mention of the quirks of the writing life and the authors’ often odd brushes with Hollywood.

Then came the Criminal Consequences dinner, during which many crime writers and readers came together to celebrate Harrogate regular M.C. Beaton on her 75th birthday.

This was followed by the sold-out event during which Lee Child was queried about his pet hates by Independent columnist Christina Patterson. We gleaned from Child--“all-round nice guy and down-to-earth supporter of the genre”--that his principal gripes are (a) writers who purport to have inside knowledge of either espionage or FBI credentials, when in reality this is self-imposed delusion; and (b) writers who give sidekicks to their protagonist heroes, so that those heroes don’t have to engage in any morally dubious work that might soil their images. We also heard a bit more about Child’s experiment with an e-book, the new Second Son, which is a prequel of sorts to his famous Jack Reacher series and a companion piece to the forthcoming Reacher novel, The Affair. Altogether, it was an amusing hour.

In the wake of the Child interview came the much-heralded Harrogate Quiz, chaired this time around by Val McDermid and Mark Billingham. I had most of my family participating--wife Muriel, daughter Miriam, and son Alexander--and we added Ayo Onatade and Joe Finder to our ranks. We had a lot of fun, and it was great to see Miriam excited to get the answer to a question right. Muriel and Alex were only on the team as mascots. Joe, Ayo, Miriam, and I were the brains of the outfit. Unfortunately, we were defeated by Jake Kerridge’s team, which also featured Martyn Waites, Elly Griffiths, Jane Wood, and Laura Wilson.

After a long day I turned in early, even as the bar seemed to be teeming with writers and others oblivious to the effects of time and alcohol.


Mark Billingham and Dennis Lehane in conversation

Sunday, July 24. I was thankful to see that the first event of the day started at 10 a.m. and was Laura Wilson’s “No Place Like Home” panel. The topic of discussion was exotic locations for stories. We heard about Anne Zouroudi’s fondness for Greece, where she went when she fell in love with the place--and a man; Chuck “C.J.” Box, who sets his stories in rural Wyoming, which is where he was born; Urban Waite, who uses Seattle, Washington, as his setting; and Elly Griffiths, who employs rural Norfolk in the same manner. I particularly enjoyed Box’s insights into Wyoming, as I lived in Laramie during the 1980s. However, the funniest moment came when Laura Wilson got her words tangled and said to Box that she loves all that rugged Western territory populated by “well-hung cowboys.” She immediately turned traffic-light red, and the audience collapsed in laughter while she tried to recompose herself.

Harrogate’s concluding event for 2011 was sold out, and afterward boasted what had to have been the longest book-signing queue of them all. It found Dennis Lehane in conversation with Mark Billingham. In a rare UK visit, Lehane was in top form, highly amusing and insightful. Billingham, an extremely well-read crime novelist, was ready with a series of questions that allowed Lehane to fully traverse his life in writing, from his humble origins in blue-collar Boston, to his abandoning intentions of “literary writing” in order to pen the Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro private-eye series and such well-received novels as Mystic River, Shutter Island, and The Given Day. I’ve seen Billingham many times, as I have Lehane, but this session was the best I’ve witnessed--and maybe the best of all those I attended during this year’s Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival. In fact, I’d go as far as to say it was the best event in all the previous Harrogate conventions I’ve visited.

So after a round of farewells, especially to people with whom I had spent copious amounts of bar time (such as the very knowledgeable Angus Cargill from publisher Faber & Faber), and some of my American contacts (including agent Ann Rittenberg, the uproarious Christa Faust, and Donna Moore), I managed to thank Sharon Canavar and Erica Morris for their organizational work that made this year’s convention run like clockwork. I also managed to corner the energetic Dreda Say Mitchell, who as programming chair was rarely in one spot for any length of time. And of course my last good-bye was to Simon Theakston, without whose support the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival would never have reached the stature it now enjoys internationally. I look forward to the 2012 convention--Mayan calendar be damned!

Next stop: Bouchercon in St Louis.

(A shorter version of this report will appear in next month’s Red Herrings Magazine from the Crime Writers Association.)