HARROGATE CRIME FESTIVAL STARTS TONIGHT!

The world class, award winning Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival, now in its 14th year, celebrates the very best in crime fiction at the Old Swan Hotel in Harrogate from the 21st to the 24th of July. The Festival is a prominent date in the literary calendar and has achieved international acclaim for the programming, organisation and atmosphere.

Peter James, author of the Roy Grace series and the Festival’s Programming Chair for this year, has commented: ‘There’s something about crime fiction that makes it truly international. As well as reaching readers in all corners of the world, the writers themselves are often rooted in their homelands, opening up new vistas, street corners and backdrops, always writing themes that are universal, and increasingly so today in our shrinking world in which villains have no boundaries. 2016’s Festival will have a truly international flavour […] There will be the Giants of the Genre we’ve come to expect from a Festival as brilliant as Harrogate, and we’ll be exploring that enticing world of the page turner. Page turners have that magical ability to transport you elsewhere. To keep you hooked, desperate for the next chapter, a little bereft when it’s all over, because you want more. A bit like the Festival really… Prepare to be gripped!’

Peter will discuss the role of real life cases with his friend and advisor, former Chief Superintendent Graham Bartlett, at the panel ‘You Couldn’t Make It Up. Or Could You?’ on Friday at 10.00. He will also participate in the panel ‘Set a Scientist to Catch a Killer’ on Friday at 3.30.

But Peter is not the only Blake Friedmann author who is attending the Festival this year: Deon Meyer will join the conversation on South African’s crime scene at the ‘Murder Out of Africa’ panel on Saturday at 2pm, and Ann Granger will take part in the panel ‘The Golden Age’ on Friday at 2pm. Bestselling authors Paul Finch and Paul Gitsham will also attend the Festival.

Our agents Carole Blake, Julian Friedmann, Isobel Dixon, Juliet Pickering and Tom Witcomb will all be present at the Festival. 

DEATH COMES KNOCKING: Policing Roy Grace’s Brighton published today by Macmillan

DEATH COMES KNOCKING, a non-fiction book from ex-Brighton Police Commander Graham Bartlett and novelist Peter James, is published today by Macmillan.

Fans of Peter James and his bestselling Roy Grace series of crime novels know that his books draw on in-depth research into the lives of Brighton and Hove police and villains and are set in a world every bit as gritty as the real thing. His friend Graham Bartlett was a long-serving high-ranking detective in the city once described as Britain's 'crime capital'. Together, in DEATH COMES KNOCKING, they have written a gripping account of the city's most challenging cases, taking the reader from crime scenes and incident rooms to the morgue, and introducing some of the real-life detectives who inspired Peter James's characters.

Whether it's the murder of a dodgy nightclub owner and his family in Sussex's worst non-terrorist mass murder or the race to find the abductor of a young girl, tracking down the antique trade's most notorious 'knocker boys' or nailing an audacious ring of forgers, hunting for a cold-blooded killer who executed a surfer or catching a pair who kidnapped a businessman, leaving him severely beaten, to die on a hillside, the authors skilfully evoke the dangerous inside story of policing, the personal toll it takes and the dedication of those who risk their lives to keep the public safe. Graham’s memoir of a life spent in the police force touches on many of the cases that inspired the Roy Grace novels.

Peter James’ 12th Roy Grace novel LOVE YOU DEAD was published in May and has remained in the Top 10 Hardback bestseller list ever since, and his ghost story THE HOUSE ON COLD HILL was published in paperback last month and has so far spent 3 weeks in the Paperback Top 10.

Peter James has been twice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and has won many literary awards: as popular internationally as in the UK, he is published in more than 3 dozen languages. Last year he was voted by WH Smith readers as The Best Crime Author Of All Time.  He is currently writing three more Roy Grace novels and two standalones for Macmillan.

Praise for Peter James:

'Peter James is one of the best crime writers in the business.' – Karin Slaughter

'Exceptional, knock-your-socks-off.' – Washington Post

‘Sinister and riveting… Peter James is one of the best British crime writers, and therefore one of the best in the world.’ – Lee Child

Find out more about Peter James at Blake Friedmann's, Pan Macmillan's and Peter’s websites and follow him on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

Follow Graham Bartlett on Facebook and Twitter. 

UNDER A CORNISH SKY by Liz Fenwick published tomorrow in paperback!

UNDER A CORNISH SKY by Liz Fenwick is published in paperback tomorrow by Orion. This is the fourth novel by Liz to be published by Orion, who have already commissioned her next two books. Her previous novel, A CORNISH STRANGER, was published in paperback in April 2015.

In this deliciously irresistible tale set in the heart of Cornwall, Demi receives a surprising, puzzling inheritance: half of the beautiful Boscawen Estate. The conflicts that ensue and the discoveries made change her life forever.

Liz Fenwick was born in Massachusetts, now lives in London with her family, and visits her Cornish house as often as possible. Her novels are translated into 11 languages so far.

Praise for UNDER A CORNISH SKY:

'Liz Fenwick has done something very brave: she’s stepped outside the norms of the genre to explore love, ageing and – in a wonderfully unexpected moment – society’s casually unthinking sexism.' – Vulpeslibris.wordpress.com

Praise for Liz Fenwick:

'An intriguing, deeply felt and poignant story, stuffed with insight and observation.' – Elizabeth Buchan

‘Intriguing with a great sense of place. The perfect ‘Cornish’ holiday read.’ – Katie Fforde

SLEEPER'S CASTLE by Barbara Erskine published today

Harper Collins releases SLEEPER’S CASTLE by Barbara Erskine today in a beautiful hardback edition. In this new novel, Sunday Times bestselling author Barbara Erskine returns to Hay in the year that marks the 30th anniversary of her sensational debut bestseller, LADY OF HAY.  SLEEPER’S CASTLE is published on the very day that LADY OF HAY celebrates 30 years in print!

Two women, centuries apart. One endless nightmare tearing Wales apart – and only they can stop it.

Hay-On-Wye, 1400 – War is brewing in the Welsh borders, Catrin is on the brink of womanhood and falling in love for the first time. Her father is a soothsayer, negotiating a dangerous game playing on the mixed loyalties and furious rivalries between Welsh princes and English lords. For two hundred years, the Welsh people have suffered under the English yoke, dreaming of independence. And finally it looks as though the charismatic Owain Glyndwr may be the man legend talks of. In the walls of Sleeper’s Castle, Catrin finds herself caught in the middle of a doomed war as she is called upon to foretell Wales’s destiny… And what she sees, is blood and war coming closer…

Hay, 2015. Miranda has moved to Sleeper’s Castle to escape and grieve. Slowly she feels herself coming to life in the solitude of the mountains. But every time she closes her eyes her dreams become more vivid. And she makes a connection with a young girl, who’s screaming, who’s reaching out… who only Miranda can help. Is she losing herself to time?

Barbara will be at History in the Court at Goldsboro books on Thursday, along with Blake Friedmann authors Elizabeth Chadwick and David Gilman.

Barbara Erskine is the author of 13 novels and 3 volumes of short stories, and her work has been translated into 26 languages.

Praise for Barbara Erskine:

'Barbara Erskine's storytelling talent is undeniable.' - The Times

'The Queen of timeslip epics.' - The Bookseller

Ann Granger's DEAD WOMAN OF DEPTFORD will be published tomorrow by Headline

Ann Granger’s THE DEAD WOMAN OF DEPTFORD will be published on Thursday June 30th by Headline. It is the sixth Inspector Ben Ross mystery set in Victorian London by much-loved crime writer Ann Granger.

On a cold November night in a Deptford yard, dock worker Harry Parker stumbles upon the body of a dead woman. Inspector Ben Ross is summoned from Scotland Yard to this insalubrious part of town, but no witness to the murder of this well-dressed, middle-aged woman can be found. Even Jeb Fisher, the local rag-and-bone man, swears he's seen nothing.

Meanwhile, Ben's wife Lizzie is trying to suppress a scandal: family friend Edgar Wellings has a gambling addiction and no means of repaying his debts. Reluctantly, Lizzie agrees to visit his debt collector's house in Deptford, but when she arrives she finds her husband is investigating the murder of the woman in question. Edgar was the last man to see Mrs Clifford alive and he has good reason to want her dead, but Ben and Lizzie both know that a case like this is rarely as simple as it appears...

Ann Granger is the author of the internationally acclaimed Meredith and Markby and Fran Varady detective series. The first novel in her Victorian crime series, A RARE INTEREST IN CORPSES was published by Headline in 2006. 

Entering the top 5 of the German bestseller list with each novel, she has also contributed to several short story volumes, licensed internationally. Headline has published 29 of her crime novels.

She has worked in British embassies in France, Germany, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia.

Praise for Ann Granger:

'One of the most reliable practioners of the crime fiction genre — her usual impeccable plotting is fully in place.' - Good Book Guide

'You can always count on Ann Granger.' - Kölner Express

 'Fans of Anne Perry's Thomas Pitt series will find much to like.' - Publishers Weekly