The second annual CRIMEFEST is being held in Bristol from 14th to 17th May .  Guests this year include Anne Zouroudi, Michael Walters, Zoe Sharp, Yrsa Sigurðardóttir, Michael Connelly, Kate Ellis and Maxim Jakubowski, amongst others. 

During a conversation with one of the organisors of Crimefest, I was interested to learn that although it is only the second Crimefest being held in the UK it is the organisors’  third event that they have had a hand in.

In 2006 Left Coast Crime – the massively popular US convention came to the UK for the first time.  It too was held in Bristol as it could retain its title – that of Left Coast Crime.  LCC organisers had spoken to Myles Allfrey and Adrian Muller (current co-hosts of Crimefest) and had their help in arranging this amazing event.  The UK has never seen its like before and it made Myles and Adrian realise that there was a definite niche in the (more…)

Near the start of Edgar-finalist Gardiner‘s solid follow-up to The Dirty Secrets Club, San Francisco forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett examines Ian Kanan, a distressed airline passenger who turns out to be suffering from anterograde amnesia, which makes it impossible for him to form new memories. Kanan, who’s sure that his family has been kidnapped and he’s been poisoned, disappears from the hospital before Beckett can learn more. When she starts digging into his background, Beckett discovers not only that Kanan was a security consultant for Chira-Sayf, a nanotechnology company, but that he may have been exposed to Slick, an experimental bioweapon. Along with her SFPD contact, Lt. Amy Tang, and para-jumper boyfriend, Gabe Quintana, Beckett races to find Kanan before the people he’s pursuing unleash Slick on San Francisco. Gardiner more than compensates for the sometimes implausible plot with her effective use of Kanan’s amnesia and her heroine’s resourcefulness.

Order your signed copy of The Memory Collector by Meg Gardiner from www.vjbooks.com

(rafemcgregor.blogspot.com, Dec 19, 2008)

More news on next year’s CrimeFest (14 – 17 May 2009) from Myles Allfrey and Adrian Muller…
MORE AUTHORS CONFIRMED

We are beyond chuffed to announce that Michael Connelly will be the International Guest of Honour at the next CRIMEFEST (14-17 May, 2009). His participation completes the Featured Guest Author line-up as he joins Simon Brett from the UK and Hakan Nesser from Sweden.

Meg Gardiner is the Toastmistress at the Gala Dinner, and other highlighted authors are John Harvey, Bill James and Andrew Taylor.

Also confirmed: MC Beaton, Stephen Booth, Gyles Brandreth, Martin Edwards, Paul Johnston, Edward Marston, Brian McGilloway, Zoe Sharp and Yrsa (more…)