Photo © Writers’ Centre Norwich/University of East Anglia.

No, it’s not a spelling mistake – Noirwich is a festival of crime writing that happens in Norwich. I’d very much like to go but am unable to make it; it’s a good programme so I thought I’d post the details in case any of you are interested. (This post isn’t sponsored.)

The festival runs from 14th – 17th September and tickets can be purchased per event, per day, or for the entirety.

On the Thursday, Val McDermid will be discussing her latest novel as the launch event. She’ll be in conversation with Stav Sherez.

Friday sees The Times/The Sunday Times crime club. Arne Dahl will be at UEA. Later that evening at the same venue, Martina Cole will be in conversation with Harry Brett.

On Saturday there are a few multi-author events. ‘Female characters and writers’ with Laura Wilson, Mel McGrath, and Erin Kelly. Later, Lone Theils, Daniel Pembrey, and Nick Quantrill will be talking about fiction further afield; Mark Billingham and Christopher Brookmyre will take to the stage (though this event is sold out), and there’s a 2pm chat with Anthony Horowitz.

Sunday, Stella Duffy, Felicia Yap, and Cassava Republic’s Leye Adenle look at international crime writing; Karen Maitland, Andrew Martin, and David M Mark look at historical crime fiction, and closing the festival will be Stuart McBride.

There are also fringe events: a murder mystery evening; and book group; a writing exhibition; a short film, and there are writing workshops on the Friday.

Photo © Writers’ Centre Norwich/University of East Anglia.

It’s an excellent line-up and three weeks away. If you’d like to go and haven’t tickets already, get planning.

What festivals, literary or otherwise, have you always wanted to go to?

As above. The reviews I had scheduled for this week will be online next week.

I’ve been pretty interested in this book; in light of my recent slow reading I’m posting an extract before/instead of a review.

Julia Chapman is a pseudonym for the writer Julia Stagg and Date With Death is out on 9th March. It’s the first novel in a series and published by Pan Macmillan. This is the prologue:

Mist. Fog. Or even brume. Dense cloud lapping at the muted glow of the station lamp; twin tracks emerging suddenly from the murk, the edge of the platform softening into nothing. It was too far inland to be a haar or a fret. But however it was labelled, it made the dark, early-morning hour redolent of death.

Richard Hargreaves, alone in this cold, shadowy world, stamped his feet, the sound smothered by the dampening shroud, and lamented the paucity of words to describe this recurrent feature of autumn in the Dales. Unlike the Inuit in the frozen north with their wealth of terminology for snow, the locals here had very few ways of representing these dark, damp, drizzly days.

Fog, then. It was too thick for mist, visibility almost zero, and gave no hint of being burned off, should the sun ever rise above the hills to penetrate the low-lying vapour mass. He pulled his scarf tighter against his chilled neck, thrust his hands in the pockets of his overcoat and smiled into the gloom.

Last day of the week. Two days without having to get up to catch the six-thirty train. And this evening with her. There was a lot to look forward to, despite the dreary weather.

He had no idea how wrong he was.

To his right, the flare of an approaching light bled into the blanket of grey. Richard Hargreaves, for the last time in his life, hunched his shoulders, shoved his hands further in his pockets, and stepped towards the edge of the platform.

When the blow struck him in the back, he had no means of defence. No means of stopping himself falling.

The press release looks to fans of Alexander McCall Smith, Robert Galbraith, and Midsomer Murders. Author Cath Staincliffe describes it as ‘A classic whodunit set in the spectacular landscape of the Yorkshire Dales, written with affection for the area and its people’. If you like the sound of it and would like to know more, there will be further extracts and other posts this week:

Do you enjoy reading ‘whodunits’?

I’ll be pausing posting for the next two weeks for Christmas, hopefully reading a number of books I haven’t yet got to, and sorting out year round-ups and those What’s In A Name posts. Posts will start up again 2nd January, and the What’s In A Name pages will be available the day before. I will be on Twitter throughout the holiday.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

After a couple of hours discussing the four shortlisted books, Eric Karl Anderson, Kim Forrester, Naomi Frisby, Simon Savidge, and I arrived at a winner on Saturday, fuelled by Eric’s fab cake, celebrating Naomi’s birthday. Buzzfeed’s Dan Dalton joined us as chair and kept us on track. It was tough; each of the books is of a high standard, in a similar way. But we got there. Here is our winner:

Jessie Greengrass for her book An Account Of The Decline Of The Great Auk, According To One Who Saw It. There was a lot of talk about the form of the short story in the context of Jessie’s collection. Winter 2058, the title story, and On Time Travel are three of those we all highlighted. We discussed the theme of cold climates that Jessie favours and how well her thoughts corresponded to the backdrop and general situation. We spoke of the writing, how the telling in this book really works.

The official winner will be announced at the award ceremony next week, Thursday 8th December.