Events
Want to know where these and other Crime Writers are appearing? Then consult our Events page.
Members' web sites
Want to know more about individual Crime Writers? There's a full list of CWA members' web sites on our Links page.
Want to know where these and other Crime Writers are appearing? Then consult our Events page.
Want to know more about individual Crime Writers? There's a full list of CWA members' web sites on our Links page.
Do you need a speaker or speakers for your organization, club, library, writers' group?
Across the country there are crime writers who have joined together into groups who would be delighted to come and speak to you. These groups are:
Femmes Fatales
Hazard Warning
Ladykillers
Lethal Ladies
The Medieval Murderers
Murder Squad
Oxblood
The Secrets of Crime Writing
The Unusual Suspects
Click on any of the names above to learn more about them.
Femmes Fatales are ~ three Scottish women crime writers ready to talk about the darker aspects of their work:
Alanna Knight
Lin Anderson
Alex Gray
Read more about them on their web site or .
Weaving together their different styles, three highly acclaimed novelists mix performance and presentation to create an unforgettable evening's entertainment.
Hazard Warning began in 2003 when Clare Littleford, Rod Duncan and Sally Spedding were brought together to tour the East Midlands. Their performance included three inter-connected monologues that follow a Halloween journey from urban Nottingham to rural Northants, crossing county and literary borders on the way.
"Well-conceived and brilliantly performed"
"Totally absorbing and gripping. I did not want it to stop."
"Had it been a late evening performance, we'd have first been uneasy - then frightened - then quite unwilling to leave the hall."
Following the success of the regional tour, Arts Council England funded a national tour in 2004 and 2005, and Hazard Warning is now established as a collaborative writing and performance group.
To contact the Hazard Warning group, e-mail mail@hazardwarning.net, or see their web site.
They say the female of the species is deadlier than the male. Well, now the LadyKillers are out to prove it.
LadyKillers is the collective name of four up-and-coming British women crime writers. Between them they've committed upwards of sixty murders - all purely in print, of course. Their victims have been shot, stabbed, strangled, garrotted, and disposed of in many more gruesome and ingenious ways. On the odd rare occasion, people have even died of natural causes, but they don't wish to encourage that kind of thing. The LadyKillers are:
The LadyKillers are available as a group or individually for bookshop events, to run workshops for prospective writers, to talk to reading groups, or for conferences and literary festivals.
To contact them: e-mail info@ladykillers.info or visit their website: www.ladykillers.info
Lethal Ladies & Co is a crime writers' performance group headed by Maureen Carter and Sarah Rayne. The lethal ladies provide tailor-made evenings for writers' groups, libraries, bookshops - anyone who loves reading, writing or simply talking about books. Sarah and Maureen offer talks with audience participation, readings, a panel, or a double-whammy of a story-telling evening, complete with sound effects. Whatever you're looking for, Lethal Ladies & Co can work out a programme.
The " & Co" is a coterie of writer friends who'll join Maureen and Sarah when they perform in their area. Strolling players who won't have to stroll too far. "Ladies" is flexible - lethal gentlemen are included! Among the coterie are writers such as Georgie Hale, Sally Spedding, Russell James, and Patrick Redmond.
Sarah Rayne has been a published writer for nearly twenty years, and is the author of a number of acclaimed psychological thrillers, including A Dark Dividing, Spider Light, and the 2005 Theakston-nominated Tower of Silence.
Maureen Carter is a former BBC TV journalist and producer whose background includes a presenting stint on Newsnight. She is the creator of the gritty detective series featuring Bev Morriss. Bev made her debut in Working Girls. The latest title in the series is Baby Love.
For more information, email: or
Five historically challenged individuals who today are responsible for most of the medieval mayhem straining crime readers around the world.
That is who we are. What do we do? We don't do readings (none of us are very good) but we sit and chat together about why we write, what we write, why we picked our characters, why we chose our eras, why we wanted to cover that piece of land, where our ideas come from, and much, much more. We are not only historically challenged, we're geographically challenged too, since we live in Wales, Cambridge, Devon, Somerset and Cornwall, but so far our travels have taken us almost the length - and certainly the breadth - of Britain. We are busy, though, so we prefer some warning.
The Medieval Murderers. Dealing death with humour!
For more information contact us at mail@michaeljecks.co.uk
Murder Squad was the first grouping of British crime writers. It consists of John Baker, Chaz Brenchley, Ann Cleeves, Martin Edwards, Margaret Murphy, Stuart Pawson, and Cath Staincliffe.
Although these writers are the authors of very different novels within the crime genre, they are all located in the North of England, and cover an area from Manchester up to Newcastle. They offer, singly or in combination, talks, workshops, festivals, book-signings, readings, panel-discussions, entertainments, or after-dinner speakers.
For further information on Murder Squad, see our website at: www.murdersquad.co.uk or
What is Oxblood?
Oxblood is a group of successful crime novelists based in and around Oxford. Inspector Morse clones then? Not quite. Some find mystery close to home while others venture as far as New York, Ireland, France, and Northern England for settings and characters in a range of crime stories to conjure with.
Who are we talking about?
Patricia Hall – Former Guardian journalist whose latest book, Sins of the Fathers, featuring Yorkshire detective Michael Thackaray and his lover, reporter Laura Ackroyd, was published in September 2005.
Jane Jakeman – who is winning critical acclaim for The Kingdom of Mists set in Monet's London, a world of wealth and appalling poverty.
Simon Kernick – a rising crime fiction star whose latest book, A Good Day to Die, reintroduces his rogue policeman and hitman Dennis Milne.
Gemma O'Connor – author of six best-selling novels. Following the Wave, the latest, is set in Oxford and the south-west of Ireland.
Oxblood authors love to talk about their work. If you would like to contact us to invite all or some of us to visit your local festival, bookshop or library, or to run a creative writing workshop, write to us at 22 The Green, Garsington, Oxon OX44 9DF or 33 Merewood Avenue, Sandhills, Oxford or email
Whether cosy or hard-boiled, historical or modern, crime fiction in all of its many forms exerts a fascination for readers of all tastes and ages. Now some of Britain's leading professional crime writers have joined together to spill the beans about their work and to share unique insights into the mysterious and intriguing world of fictional crime.
Take three writers selected from Bill James, Russell James, Gillian Linscott, Priscilla Masters, Iain McDowall, Phil Rickman, Rosemary Rowe, Betty Rowlands and Rebecca Tope. Mix in lively debate - humorous, thought-provoking and controversial by turns. Stir with an audience-friendly attitude. Result: the Secrets of Crime Writing, increasingly in demand at literary festivals, bookshops, writing groups, libraries and other venues throughout the UK.
For more information, including contact details, visit www.secretsofcrime.co.uk ... and start unravelling the clues.
A diverse group of award-winning crime novelists who can write and talk on everything from anaesthesiology to zealotry (taking in chaos theory, prostitution, prisons, and the water metaphors in Shakespeare) and place those subjects within the context of the modern crime novel. Reviewers have called their books 'topical, witty, thrilling, brainy, devilish' and more...
Natasha Cooper - former Chairman of the Crime Writers' Association, author of many novels of detection and psychological suspense; reviews and broadcasts widely.
Manda Scott - a former vet, shortlisted for the Orange Prize, who has written four thrillers and is now winning great acclaim with her tetralogy about Queen Boudicca.
Michelle Spring - creator of Cambridge based PI Laura Principal; author of crime novels which explore the darker corners of modern society.
Andrew Taylor - winner of the John Creasey Award and the Ellis Peters Historical Dagger; author of the Roth Trilogy and the Dougal and Lydmouth Series.
Laura Wilson - former publisher whose critically acclaimed psychological crime novels are set in the mysterious terrain of the recent past.
The Unusual Suspects can provide:
See our website for further information: www.unusualsuspects.co.uk
For bookings and other enquiries, please email: info@unusualsuspects.co.uk
Alternatively, you may contact us by fax on 0870 051 3061