Panel 3: Proceed with Caution: 4pm–6pm, Saturday 11 July #BritCrime

BritCrime Panel 3: Proceed with Caution

4pm–6pm UK Time | 11am–1pm EST
Saturday 11 July

Live Q&A with the authors hosted on our Facebook page

♠♠♠ 

Eva Dolan: Tell No Tales

Tensions erupt as Peterborough's Hate Crimes Unit investigates a hit-and-run and a major case with Neo-Nazi overtones...

The car that ploughs into the bus stop early one morning leaves a trail of death and destruction behind it. DS Ferreira and DI Zigic are called in from the Peterborough Hate Crimes Unit to handle the hit-and-run, but with another major case on their hands, one with disturbing Neo-Nazi overtones, they are relieved when there seems to be an obvious suspect.

But the case isn't that simple and with tensions erupting in the town leading to more violence, the media are soon hounding them for answers. Ferreira believes that local politician Richard Shotton, head of a recently established right-wing party, must be involved somehow. Journalists have been quick to acclaim Shotton, with his Brazilian wife and RAF career, as a serious contender for a major political career, despite his extremist views, but is his party a cover for something far more dangerous?

Eva Dolan is an Essex-based copywriter and intermittently successful poker player. Shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association Dagger for unpublished authors when she was just a teenager, Long Way Home is her debut novel and the start of a major new crime series.

♠♠♠

Sarah Hilary: No Other Darkness

For Marnie Rome, investigating the most difficult case of her career, there is no other darkness than this...

From the Richard and Judy bestselling author Sarah Hilary. The phenomenal Marnie Rome returns in the outstanding follow up to the critically acclaimed SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN.

Two young boys. Trapped underground in a bunker. Unable to understand why they are there. Desperate for someone to find them. Slowly realising that no-one will...

Five years later, the boys' bodies are found and the most difficult case of DI Marnie Rome's career begins. Her only focus is the boys. She has to find out who they are and what happened to them. For Marnie, there is no other darkness than this...

Sarah Hilary’s debut novel, SOMEONE ELSE'S SKIN, has been nominated for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and a Macavity Award. It was a Richard & Judy Book Club bestseller, and has been published worldwide. NO OTHER DARKNESS, the second in the series, has been nominated for a Dead Good Reads Award. The Marnie Rome series is being developed for television.

♠♠♠  

Fergus McNeill: Cut Out

What if someone wished their life was more like yours? Exactly like yours. And what if they lived upstairs? 
 
Nigel never meant for it to happen. At first, he just wanted to be Matt's friend.

But when he discovers he can hear what is going on in the flat below him, his fascination with his new neighbour drifts into obsession. Rearranging his furniture to recreate the layout of the rooms downstairs. Buying the same clothes, going through Matt's post, his things. Becoming Matt without him ever knowing. And it would have been all right, if Matt hadn't brought the girl home.

When things spiral out of control, Detective Inspector Harland has to unravel the disturbing truth. But there's far more to the case than meets the eye . . .

As well as writing crime novels, Fergus McNeill has been creating computer games since the early eighties, writing his first interactive fiction titles while still at school. Over the years he has designed, directed and illustrated games for all sorts of systems, including the BBC Micro, the Apple iPad, and almost everything in between. Now running an app development studio, Fergus lives in Hampshire with his wife and teenage son. He is the author of EYE CONTACT, KNIFE EDGE and CUT OUT. 

♠♠♠  

Full programme here: http://britcrime.com/programme 

Facebook page: http://facebook.com/britcrime
Twitter: @britcrime
Keep up to date with Festival news: http://britcrime.com/newsletter 

Panel 2: This is Personal: 2pm–4pm, Saturday 11 July #BritCrime

BritCrime Panel 2: This is Personal...

2pm–4pm UK Time | 9am–11am EST
Saturday 11 July

Live Q&A with the authors hosted on our Facebook page

♠♠♠ 

Steve Cavanagh: The Defence

Nail-biting tension and exhilarating action. Lose this case and he loses everything... 

Eddie Flynn used to be a con artist. Then he became a lawyer. Turned out the two weren't that different. It's been over a year since Eddie vowed never to set foot in a courtroom again. But now he doesn't have a choice.

Olek Volchek, the infamous head of the Russian mafia in New York, has strapped a bomb to Eddie's back and kidnapped his ten-year-old daughter, Amy. Eddie only has forty-eight hours to defend Volchek in an impossible murder trial – and win – if he wants to save his daughter. Under the scrutiny of the media and the FBI, Eddie must use his razor-sharp wit and every con-artist trick in the book to defend his 'client' and ensure Amy's safety. With the timer on his back ticking away, can Eddie convince the jury of the impossible? Lose this case and he loses everything.

Steve Cavanagh was born and raised in Belfast and is a practicing lawyer. He holds a certificate in Advanced Advocacy and lectures on various legal subjects (but really he just likes to tell jokes). He is married with two young children. The Defence, has been chosen as one of Amazon's great debuts for 2015, as part of their Amazon Rising Stars programme. In 2015 Steve received the ACES award for Literature from the Northern Ireland Arts Council. Steve writes fast-paced legal thrillers set in New York City featuring series character Eddie Flynn. The Defence is his first novel.

♠♠♠ 

Paul Finch: Hunted

Get hooked on Heck, the maverick detective who knows no boundaries.

A grisly whodunit you won’t be able to put down, perfect for fans of Stuart MacBride and TV series ‘Luther’. Heck needs to watch his back. Because someone’s watching him…

Across the south of England, a series of bizarre but fatal accidents are taking place. So when a local businessman survives a near-drowning but is found burnt alive in his car just weeks later, DS Mark ‘Heck’ Heckenburg is brought in to investigate. Soon it appears that other recent deaths might be linked: two thieves that were bitten to death by poisonous spiders, and a driver impaled through the chest with scaffolding. Accidents do happen but as the body count rises it’s clear that something far more sinister is at play, and it’s coming for Heck too…

Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now turned full-time writer. He cut his literary teeth penning episodes of the British crime drama, The Bill. He is also well known for his work in the thriller and horror fields and is a two-times winner of the British Fantasy Award, and a one-time winner of the International Horror Guild Award. Paul lives in Lancashire, with his wife Catherine and his children, Eleanor and Harry.

♠♠♠

Mel Sherratt: Only the Brave

A deadly game of cat and mouse in this gut-churning thriller...

When one of the notorious Johnson brothers is murdered and a bag of money goes missing, a deadly game of cat and mouse is set in motion. DS Allie Shenton and her team are called in to catch the killer, but the suspects are double-crossing each other and Allie has little time to untangle the web of lies. As she delves deeper into the case, things take a personal turn when Allie realises she is being stalked by the very same person who attacked her sister seventeen years ago and left her for dead.

Set over forty-eight tension-filled hours, Only the Brave is the latest gut-churning book from acclaimed author Mel Sherratt.

Since successfully publishing Taunting the Dead and seeing it soar to the rank of #1 bestselling police procedural in the Amazon Kindle store in 2012, Mel Sherratt has gone on to publish four more books in the critically acclaimed The Estate Series and a psychological thriller, Watching over You. Mel was shortlisted for the Crime Writer’s Association Dagger in the Library Award 2014. She lives in Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, with her husband and her terrier, Dexter (named after the TV serial killer, with some help from her Twitter fans), and makes liberal use of her hometown as a backdrop for her writing.

♠♠♠  

Full programme here: http://britcrime.com/programme 

Facebook page: http://facebook.com/britcrime
Twitter: @britcrime
Keep up to date with Festival news: http://britcrime.com/newsletter 

Panel 1: Serial Killer Thrillers: Midday–2pm, Saturday 11 July #BritCrime

BritCrime Panel 1: Serial Killer Thrillers 

Midday–2pm UK Time | 7am–9am EST
Saturday 11 July

Live Q&A with the authors hosted on our Facebook page

♠♠♠ 

Rebecca Bradley: Shallow Waters

When catching a killer isn't enough, just how far are the team willing to push themselves to save the next girl?

Shallow Waters is written by a retired police detective. When the naked, battered body of an unidentified teenager is found dumped in an alleyway, post-mortem finds evidence of a harrowing series of events. Another teenage death with the same MO pushes DI Hannah Robbins and her team in the Nottingham City division Major Crimes Unit, to their limits, and across county borders. In a race against the clock, they attempt to unpick a thick web of lies and deceit to uncover the truth behind the deaths. But it doesn't stop there. When catching a killer isn't enough, just how far are the team willing to push themselves to save the next girl?

Rebecca Bradley lives in Nottinghamshire with her family and her one-year-old Cockerpoo Alfie, who keeps her company while she writes. Rebecca needs to drink copious amounts of tea to function throughout the day and if she could, she would survive on a diet of tea and cake while committing murder on a regular basis, in her writing of course.

♠♠♠ 

Steven Dunne: A Killing Moon

DI Brook is confronted with kidnap, torture and murder in this intricately plotted crime thriller.

For the young woman kidnapped on her way home from the pub, the nightmare is about to begin....

Weeks after Caitlin Kinnear goes missing, the police are unable to break her case. Worse they are not even certain harm has come to her. But determined to pursue all leads, DI Damen Brook and his team begin to trawl through the murky world of cheap migrant labour. Convinced that the answers lie hidden within its depths, Brook soon begins to realise Caitlin is in terrible danger. When the body of another young girl turns up it becomes clear that Caitlin's abduction might not be an isolated incident and the race is on to save her. But with time running out, can Brook put the pieces together and find Caitlin before it's too late?
  
Steven Dunne was born in Bradford. After years in teaching, he moved to Derby, self-publishing his first crime novel, Reaper, in 2007. The book was optioned by Harper Collins and released in 2009. The Disciple followed in 2010. Headline released Deity (2012), The Unquiet Grave (2013) and A Killing Moon (2015).

♠♠♠

Jane Isaac: Before It’s Too Late:

Can Detective Inspector Jackman track down the kidnapper before it’s too late?

I concentrated hard, desperately listening for something familiar, the sound of life. I heard nothing. Just my own breaths and the wind, whistling through branches above… The thought made me shiver. I am buried alive.

Following an argument with her British boyfriend, Chinese student Min Li is abducted whilst walking the dark streets of picturesque Stratford-upon-Avon alone. Trapped in a dark pit, Min is at the mercy of her captor. Detective Inspector Will Jackman is tasked with solving the case and in his search for answers discovers that the truth is buried deeper than he ever expected. But, as another student vanishes and Min grows ever weaker, time is running out. Can Jackman track down the kidnapper, before it’s too late?

Jane Isaac studied creative writing with The Writers Bureau and the London School of Journalism. She was runner up Writer of the Year 2013 with The Writers Bureau. Jane lives in rural Northamptonshire with her husband, daughter and dog, Bollo. Jane s short stories have appeared in several crime fiction anthologies. Her short story, Perilous Truths , was selected from over 200 entries to appear in Bridge House Publishing s Crime After Crime anthology released in November 2012. Her first novel with Legend Press was the bestselling title The Truth Will Out.

♠♠♠ 

Craig Robertson: Random

As the police, the press and a threatening figure from Glasgow's underworld begin to close in on a serial killer nicknamed The Cutter, his carefully-laid plans threaten to unravel...

Glasgow is being terrorised by a serial killer the media have nicknamed The Cutter. The murders have left the police baffled. There seems to be neither rhyme nor reason behind the killings; no kind of pattern or motive; an entirely different method of murder each time, and nothing that connects the victims except for the fact that the little fingers of their right hands have been severed.

If DS Rachel Narey could only work out the key to the seemingly random murders, how and why the killer selects his victims, she would be well on her way to catching him. But as the police, the press and a threatening figure from Glasgow's underworld begin to close in on The Cutter, his carefully-laid plans threaten to unravel - with horrifying consequences.

During his 20-year career with a Scottish Sunday newspaper, Craig Robertson interviewed three Prime Ministers; attended major stories including 9/11, Dunblane, the Omagh bombing and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann; was pilloried on breakfast television, beat Oprah Winfrey to a major scoop, spent time on Death Row in the USA and dispensed polio drops in the backstreets of India. 

♠♠♠  

Full programme here: http://britcrime.com/programme 

Facebook page: http://facebook.com/britcrime
Twitter: @britcrime
Keep up to date with Festival news: http://britcrime.com/newsletter