Panel 7: Crime in the City: 2pm–4pm, Sunday 12 July #BritCrime

BritCrime Panel 7: Crime in the City

2pm–4pm UK Time | 9am–11am EST
Sunday 12 July

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

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Michael J Malone: Beyond the Rage

Meet Glasgow's answer to Tony Soprano in this intelligent, violent thriller...

Even though he’s a successful criminal, Kenny O’Neill – Glasgow's answer to Tony Soprano – is angry.

 Not only has his high-class escort girlfriend just been attacked, but his father is reaching out to him from the past – despite abandoning Kenny as a child after his mother’s suicide. Kenny is now on a dual mission to hunt down his girl’s attacker and find out the truth about his father... but instead he unravels disturbing family secrets and finds that revenge is not always sweet.

An intelligent, violent thriller shot through with dark humour, Beyond the Rage enthralls and disturbs in equal measure. With an intricate plot, all-too-believable characters and perfectly pitched dialogue, this is a masterclass in psychological crime fiction writing.  

Michael J Malone is the author of two crime novels: Blood Tears, which won the Pitlochry Prize from the Scottish Association of Writers; and A Taste for Malice. Both were hits with crime critics and fans alike. His thriller The Guillotine Choice is the amazing true story of an innocent man's time in the notorious Devil's Island penal colony.

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Alex Marwood: The Killer Next Door

A dark, original and irresistibly compelling thriller...

No. 23 has a secret. In this bedsit-riddled south London wreck, lorded over by a lecherous landlord, something waits to be discovered. Yet all six residents have something to hide.

Collette and Cher are on the run; Thomas is a reluctant loner; while a gorgeous Iranian asylum seeker and a 'quiet man' nobody sees try to stay hidden. And watching over them all is Vesta - or so she thinks.

 In the dead of night, a terrible accident pushes the neighbours into an uneasy alliance. But one of them is a killer, expertly hiding their pastime, all the while closing in on their next victim... As a cloying heatwave suffocates the city, events build to an electrifying climax in this dark, original and irresistibly compelling thriller.  

Alex Marwood is the pseudonym of a journalist who has worked extensively across the British press. Her first book, The Wicked Girls, was a word-of-mouth sensation, won the prestigious Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original in 2014, and was nominated for an International Thriller Writers Award in 2013. Alex lives in south London.

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Nick Quantrill: The Crooked Beat

 Private Investigator Joe Geraghty is drawn by his brother into a murky criminal world around the busy port of Hull...

When Joe Geraghty's brother finds himself in financial trouble, it's only natural that he turns to the Private Investigator for help. But when it relates to a missing consignment of smuggled cigarettes, it's not so easily sorted. Drawn into the murky world of local and international criminals around the busy port of Hull, Geraghty knows the only way to save his brother is to take on the debt himself. As he attempts to find a way out of the situation, the secrets and conspiracies he uncovers are so deeply buried in the past, he knows he's facing people willing to do whatever it takes to keep them that way.

Nick Quantrill was born and raised in Hull, an isolated industrial city in East Yorkshire. His Joe Geraghty crime novels, "Broken Dreams" and "The Late Greats" and "The Crooked Beat" are published by Caffeine Nights. A prolific short story writer, Nick's work has appeared in Volumes Eight, Nine and Ten of "The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime" alongside the genre's most respected names. In 2011, Nick became the first person to hold the role of 'Writer in Residence' at Hull Kingston Rovers, contributing exclusive fiction to the match day programme and assisting with the club's literacy programme. Nick's stories are both entertaining and thought provoking, and although the settings may be local to him, the ideas and issues resonate on a much wider basis. When not writing fiction, Nick contributes reviews and essays to a variety of football and music websites. He lives in Hull with his wife, daughter, cat and the constant fear Hull City will let him down.

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Luca Veste: Blood Stream

Nothing stays secret...

Social media stars Chloe Morrison and Joe Hooper seem to have it all - until their bodies are found following an anonymous phone call to their high-profile agent. Tied and bound to chairs facing each other, their violent deaths cause a media scrum to descend on Liverpool, with DI David Murphy and DS Laura Rossi assigned to the case.

Murphy is dismissive, but the media pressure intensifies when another couple is found in the same manner as the first. Only this time the killer has left a message. A link to a private video on the internet, and the words 'Nothing stays secret'. It quickly becomes clear that more people will die; that the killer believes secrets and lies within relationships should have deadly consequences...

Luca Veste is a writer of Italian and Scouse heritage, married with two young daughters. He studied psychology and criminology at University in Liverpool.

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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 4: Serial Offenders: 6pm–8pm, Saturday 11 July #BritCrime

BritCrime Panel 4: Serial Offenders

6pm–8pm UK Time | 1pm–3pm EST
Saturday 11 July

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

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Graeme Cameron: Normal

Dark, twisted and compelling. An exciting and original thriller...

He lives on your street, in a nice house with a tidy garden. He shops at your local supermarket. He drives beside you, waving to let you into the lane ahead of him. He also has an elaborate cage in a secret basement under his garage. The food he’s carefully shopping for is to feed a young woman he’s holding there against her will – one in a string of many, unaware of the fate that awaits her. This is how it’s been for a long time. It’s normal…and it works. Perfectly. But this time it’s different…

Graeme Cameron is a former fighter pilot, detective, racing driver and shark tamer who now tells lies for a living. A keen photographer with a day job in motorsport, Graeme was born and lives in Norfolk, has four children and likes chocolate but not chocolate-flavoured things.

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Mason Cross: The Samaritan

A skilled manhunter is on the track of a serial killer in this fast paced thriller...

When the mutilated body of a young woman is discovered in the Santa Monica Mountains, LAPD Detective Jessica Allen knows she's seen this MO before - two and a half years ago on the other side of the country. A sadistic serial killer has been operating undetected for a decade, preying on lone female drivers who have broken down.

The press dub the killer 'the Samaritan', but with no leads and a killer who leaves no traces, the police investigation quickly grinds to a halt. That's when Carter Blake shows up to volunteer his services. He's a skilled manhunter with an uncanny ability to predict the Samaritan's next moves. At first, Allen and her colleagues are suspicious. After all, their new ally shares some uncomfortable similarities to the man they're tracking. But as the Samaritan takes his slaughter to the next level, Blake must find a way to stop him ... even if it means bringing his own past crashing down on top of him.

Mason Cross lives in Glasgow. He studied English at the University of Stirling and has worked as a tax officer, project manager and pizza delivery boy. His story 'A Living' was shortlisted for the Get Britain Reading Award, and Ellery Queen published 'Expiry Date'. The Killing Season is his first novel. 

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Emma Kavanagh: Hidden

A gripping psychological thriller by a former police psychologist: As time ticks down, no one knows who the gunman's next target will be...

HE'S WATCHING: A gunman is stalking the wards of a local hospital. He's unidentified and dangerous, and has to be located. Urgently. Police Firearms Officer Aden McCarthy is tasked with tracking him down. Still troubled by the shooting of a schoolboy, Aden is determined to make amends by finding the gunman - before it's too late. 

SHE'S WAITING: To psychologist Imogen, hospital should be a place of healing and safety - both for her, and her young niece who's been recently admitted. She's heard about the gunman, but he has little to do with her. Or has he? As time ticks down, no one knows who the gunman's next target will be. But he's there. Hiding in plain sight. Far closer than anyone thinks... 

Emma is a police and military psychologist with a PhD from Cardiff. She is lucky enough to write psychological thrillers and has so far had two books published with Arrow - Falling (2014) and Hidden (2015). She lives in South Wales with her husband and two young sons. 

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Alexandra Sokoloff: Huntress Moon

An FBI agent on the trail of a female serial killer in the first book of a riveting new series...

FBI Special Agent Matthew Roarke is closing in on a bust of a major criminal organization in San Francisco when he witnesses an undercover member of his team killed right in front of him on a busy street, an accident Roarke can’t believe is coincidental. 

His suspicions put him on the trail of a mysterious young woman who appears to have been present at each scene of a years-long string of “accidents” and murders, and who may well be that most rare of killers: a female serial. 

Roarke’s hunt for her takes him across three states...while in a small coastal town, a young father and his five-year old son, both wounded from a recent divorce, encounter a lost and compelling young woman on the beach and strike up an unlikely friendship without realizing how deadly she may be. 

As Roarke uncovers the shocking truth of her background, he realizes she is on a mission of her own, and must race to capture her before more blood is shed.  

Alexandra Sokoloff is the Thriller Award-winning and Bram Stoker, Anthony, and Black Quill Award-nominated author of the supernatural thrillers The Harrowing, The Price, The Unseen, Book of Shadows, The Shifters, and The Space Between, and the Thriller Award-nominated, Amazon bestselling Huntress FBI thriller series (Huntress Moon, Blood Moon). The New York Times Book Review has called her a "daughter of Mary Shelley," and her books "Some of the most original and freshly unnerving work in the genre." As a screenwriter she has sold original horror and thriller scripts and adapted novels for numerous Hollywood studios. She has also written two non-fiction workbooks: Screenwriting Tricks for Authors and Writing Love, based on her internationally acclaimed workshops and blog (ScreenwritingTricks.com), and has served on the Board of Directors of the WGA, west (the screenwriters union) and the board of the Mystery Writers of America. 

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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

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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.

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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).

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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.

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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. 

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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