Thrills and Spills

Ever wondered how crime writers sleep at night? Or where they get the ideas for the villains that terrorise readers? Or why more thrillers are sold than any other book genre? If so, this is the event for you.

Saturday 22nd June. 1.30pm

Best-selling crime writer Dorothy Koomson will host a panel discussion featuring, Taha Kehar and Katy Massey. They'll explore the craft of the crime novel, finding a place in crime fiction as marginalised authors and rewriting the narratives for minority characters.

Dorothy Koomson is a multi-award-winning, internationally best-selling crime writer based in Brighton. Dorothy wrote her first (unpublished) novel at the age of just 13, passing it around to her fellow convent school pupils. She published her first book, The Cupid Effect, in 2003 and her third novel, My Best Friend's Girl (2006) became a best-seller. She now has 16 crime novels to her name and has been described as "Britain's best-selling black author of adult fiction". 

Taha Kehar is a novelist, journalist and literary critic. A law graduate from SOAS, London, Kehar is the author of two novels, Typically Tanya and Of Rift and Rivalry. His third novel, No Funeral for Nazia, will be published by Neem Tree Press. He has served as the head of The Express Tribune’s Peshawar city pages and bi-monthly books page, and worked as an assistant editor on the op-ed desk at The News. His essays, reviews and commentaries have been published in The News on Sunday, The Hindu and South Asia magazine and his short fiction has appeared in the Delhi-based quarterly The Equator Line, the biannual journal Pakistani Literature and the OUP anthology I’ll Find My Way. Based in Karachi, he teaches undergraduate media courses and is planning a novel about male friendships.

 Katy Massey was a journalist for many years before studying for an MA and PhD in Creative Writing from Newcastle University. Her memoir, Are We Home Yet? was published in 2020 and praised by Bernardine Evaristo as ‘a gem’. All Us Sinners is her first novel and will be published in March 2024 by Sphere. It is an unusual take on the crime genre, featuring Maureen, a tough but tender-hearted brothel-keeper in 1970s Leeds, who is unexpectedly drawn into the killing of a friend’s son. These events take place against the disturbing backdrop of the Yorkshire Ripper’s murders. A second book in this series will appear in 2025.