A fringe event for the first Southwold Arts Festival Slaughter in Southwold was a Friends of Southwold Library event in association with the Crime Writers Association. It took place on the weekend of the 21st & 22nd June at Reydon Village Hall.

Slaughter in Southwold consisted of eleven events over the two days including eight author talks, two lunches with the authors and a crime themed quiz night.

This year’s authors were Mark Mower, Andrew Martin, Alison Bruce, Cynthia Harrod-Eagles, Elly Griffiths, Nicola Upson, Sophie Hannah and Linda Davies.

We heard about the real-life crimes of Suffolk, the attractions of the Edwardian railways, the complexities of getting a crime series published, how authors build relationships with the police and other experts, the impact of location on a crime series, how fact can influence fiction, how crime writing can address those “what if?” questions and how life can sadly follow fiction.

Four hundred places were taken across the eleven events comprising of over one hundred individuals.

Look out for Slaughter in Southwold 2015 the same time next year.