Harrogate is one of the highlights of my year – three days of books and talking about books, catching up with readers and authors, going to panels and events and hearing about all the brilliant new crime and thriller novels coming out soon (plus a few pints in the sunshine).

Sally and me in the big green chair at Harrogate!

I’ve been going to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival – to give the event its full title – every year since 2017 when my first book was published. For me personally, it’s gone from being a slightly bewildering event where I knew almost no-one, to something I look forward to for many, many months and always feel slightly bereft when it’s over for another year.

For those three days in July, Harrogate hosts the biggest concentration of crime readers and writers anywhere in the UK (or maybe the world?), and it’s a chance to catch up with friends I might only see a few times a year. It’s a real celebration of the genre and some people even call it the Glastonbury of crime fiction, although it’s a lot easier to get tickets 😊

Mark Edwards, me, CM Ewan, John Marrs and Lisa Jewell

This year, a personal highlight was appearing on the main stage with brilliant fellow authors Mark Edwards, CM Ewan and John Marrs for a panel called ‘Man About The House’ – about male authors writing in the sphere of domestic suspense. The panel was expertly chaired by the queen of psychological thrillers, Lisa Jewell, and it was a genuine joy to be on stage with such an amazing group of writers in front of a sold-out audience.

I was just home and still recovering from the Harrogate weekend when another highlight came along – news that my latest paperback has become a Sunday Times bestseller!

The Weekend is only just out in paperback so it was a huge thrill to hear the news from my editor that it had climbed into the top ten in its second week, especially in the year I’ve been celebrating my tenth book under the banner of #TM10. Thank you to everyone who’s picked up a copy of The Weekend, I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I did writing it.

A wonderful weekend in Harrogate

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