Saturday: this was probably the most fun and longest day of the festival so far. If you’ve missed out on my experience so far, read up on days 1 and 2!
Another jam-packed day lay ahead, but it started on a good one which left me with a big smile for most of the day… I met TM Logan! He is by far one of my favourite crime authors who got me into the genre and actually made me aware of the festival after he documented it last year. I timidly said, ‘Excuse me’ a couple of times (I thought ‘Tim’ and ‘TM Logan’ would be an odd way to get his attention), before saying, ‘Hi, um, I love your books!’
Then I was completely NOT COOL and kept saying I was pretty starstruck to meet him and blabbed about his books being some of my favourites and how I was looking forward to the panel the next day and he was pretty much the only author I wanted a photo with and ooh can I please have a photo… breathe, Liz. He was super kind, lovely and chilled – win!
Now, onto the sessions…
I hadn’t heard of SA Cosby and Chris Hammer before, but a similar theme occurred throughout the festival, where each session added even more books to my TBR pile. The conversation between the pair was great: charismatic, funny and eye-opening into the realities of the publishing world – but that only makes it all the more exciting!
Want to use Private Investigators in your novel? The Modern Gumshoes, PI for Hire session followed authors who feature private eyes in their works.
Val McDermid was the perfect host as she led her New Blood panel, showcasing debut authors: books I want to add to my TBR include Jo Callaghan’s In The Blink of an Eye and The Things We Do To Our Friends by Heather Darwent.
Sadly I missed out on what I hear was a very entertaining session hosted by Rob Rinder for Presumed Guilty, getting to the heart of legal thrillers.
Whilst murder most certainly isn’t joyful, the Murder Most Joyful panel were! They spoke about all kinds of whatnots, including the Finnish Mushroom Magazine, The late Queen’s signal for having sex with hubby Philip, plus Absolute Sex (I know?!). It was a crazy, rather funny panel for a topic so dark that comes up in many crime novels. I even got a book signed after for my Grandma and I.
Heading into the evening was Jeffery Deaver: I’ve heard of him but haven’t had the pleasure of reading some of his 42 books (how many?!). He was so charismatic, succinct and a joy to listen to.
Before the final session of the day, I’d booked to attend an Author Dinner. It speaks for itself, where I was introduced to crime author James Oswald.
Not only is he a super lovely human and has 21 novels under his belt, but he also shares the same agent as Richard Osman. Over our 2 courses, we had to solve a murder mystery based on some of the characters played by other authors in attendance. It was very enjoyable and got people talking.
Ending the night were brothers Lee & Andrew Child, interviewed by Steph McGovern. Their accents really confused me! They were born in Coventry, but have major American twangs having lived in New York for most of their lives. I adored this session as they detailed Lee trying to make it as an author from a young age after being blscklisted from TV production, where his brother read his first Jack Reacher novel… and many years later, the pair are very successful.
Needless to say, I was EXHAUSTED by this point. I got home but tackled some intense fog on the way back, ready for my bed and another day – the last one!
Lizzie's Week 
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