‘Watch Them Fall’ by Marion Todd

Published by Canelo London,
12 March 2026.
ISBN: 978-1-83598322-5 (PB)

When Dennis Gibb’s body is found floating in St Andrews harbour, DI Clare Mackay wants to give his death priority. Her boss, Superintendent Penny Meakin, has other ideas. Penny insists Clare prioritises a burglary reported by Rex and Erika Freeman, architects who are overseeing a controversial and expensive housing development. There is a shortage of affordable homes in the small university town and a protest march has been organised against the development. 

Clare and Sergeant Chris West visit the Freeman’s posh house. They are told that nothing has been taken and, although they suspect the burglary is a hoax designed to get the protest march banned, they send forensic experts to examine the supposed crime scene. The search of the Freeman’s house revealed a camera hidden in a false smoke alarm in the sitting room.  Two other similar break-ins, where nothing was taken and spy cameras were installed, were reported. Who was spying on these people and why? Where was the recorded data stored? Would it provide useful information if they could find it? 

Once the pathologist’s report showed that Dennis Gibb had been drowned deliberately, the Freemans and Gibb’s son, Steve, and his wife Jenny, became suspects. They all stood to benefit from Dennis’s death because he had owned a cottage in the middle of the proposed development area. The situation is further complicated by a second death in the Gibb family, the discovery that Steve Gibb had never divorced his first wife, and that he had an older brother, Brad whom nobody has seen for years. Is Brad still alive? Could he be the murderer? 

Superintendent Penny Meakin remained a constant thorn in Clare’s side. Despite it being obvious that the St Andrews police force lacked the resources to manage a large protest march safely, Penny insisted it went ahead.  Clare’s partner Detective Alistair, Al, Gibson had told her in strict confidence that Penny was using the event to lure and arrest professional agitators. Her intransience had devastating results. 

In the police station the desk sergeant, Jim Douglas, is a steady and reliable presence and Patch is the new ‘weightlifting’ girl on the block. Sergeant Chris West and his constable wife Sarah, whilst happily married, have an issue they need to resolve. As indeed does Clare herself. Alistair is now living and working away from home four days a week. Clare misses Al and finds his absence difficult. Her little dog Bengy, whilst very affectionate, can’t quite fill the gap.  Watch them fall is a great read although it comes with a warning. You might just want to keep a hanky ready when you reach the end of the book.
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Reviewer: Angela Crowther. 

Marion Todd studied music and worked for many years as a piano teacher and jobbing accompanist. A spell as a hotel lounge pianist provided rich fodder for her writing and she began experimenting with a variety of genres. Early success saw her winning first prize in the Family Circle Magazine Short Story for Children national competition and she followed this up by writing short stories and articles for her local newspaper. Marion has also worked as a college lecturer, plantswoman and candle-maker and now is a full-time writer, penning the DI Clare Mackay series of crime fiction novels set in St Andrews. Marion lives now in North East Fife, overlooking the magnificent River Tay.  

Angela Crowther is a retired scientist.  She has published many scientific papers but, as yet, no crime fiction.  In her spare time Angela belongs to a Handbell Ringing group, goes country dancing and enjoys listening to music, particularly the operas of Verdi and Wagner.

‘In At The Death’ by Judith Cutler

Published by Severn House,
7 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-4483-1347-1(HB)

Harriet and Matthew Rowsley are the housekeeper and land agent for the Thorncroft Estate in Shropshire, but their roles are far wider reaching and complex than other housekeepers and agents. The owner of the estate, Lord Croft, is unable to undertake any of the traditional roles expected of a man of his birth and wealth because a dissolute youth has led to him contracting syphilis, which has severely damaged him physically and has caused him to become insane. He now resides in a wing of Thorncroft House which is known as the Family wing and is, in reality, a well-equipped hospital with round-the clock nursing staff. It has guards posted, so that Lord Croft cannot escape unsupervised and cause harm to himself or others. The Family wing also provides nursing care for any members of the household who are unwell or infirm and serves this function for local villagers who need medical help.

The management of the house and estate is overseen by a board of trustees, which includes Harriet and Matthew, as well as Montgomery Wilson, a Shrewsbury solicitor, and four respected local residents. However, everyday decisions are left to Matthew and Harriet who have to juggle their status as servants with acting as host and hostess when visitors are staying at Thorncroft House. 

While digging the foundations for a new model village to provide the villagers with hygienic, well-built homes, several valuable archaeological artefacts were discovered. Now Harriet, Matthew and Wilson are staying in Oxford to attend the ceremony in which the chief archaeologist, Sir Francis Palmer, displays the treasures to the academic community. Harriet is enjoying this occasion and the opportunity to mingle with such interesting, well-informed people, and she is filled with joy when she encounters a dear friend whom she has not seen for many years. Lord Halesowen is now a county court judge but he has not forgotten Harriet and is delighted to meet her again. 

Although the three trustees are scheduled to stay in Oxford for several days to discuss which academic institution could best care for the treasures they have unearthed, Wilson is torn between two conflicting duties. As Lord Croft is unable to produce a legitimate heir, for some time Wilson has been searching for a successor for when his lordship dies, now an American heir, Mr Claude Baker, has turned up in England and is demanding that Wilson makes himself available immediately. Wilson is unsure whether he should obey Baker’s summons or stay in Oxford to help decide the disposal of the archaeological treasures, but his companions persuade him that his skills are needed to oversee the negotiations, and the importunate heir can wait a few more days. However, a few days a summons arrives that none of them can refuse. The village constable sends them a telegraph informing them of the discovery of a body in the grounds of the Thorncroft Estate; the body has been beheaded and mutilated. 

There now follows a period of great strain for Harriet. Mr Baker turns up unannounced and, although superficially charming, he soon reveals himself to be arrogant and opinionated, and Harriet suspects that he regards the servants with the same contempt that he treats his slaves on his plantation in America. He seems eager for Lord Croft to die, resentful of any money that the trustees spend, and furious when Harriet wears some valuable jewellery that had been bequeathed to her by the late Lady Croft, the present lord’s mother. Harriet fears that when Baker inherits the title and the Thorncroft estate, he will sell it and all the art works it contains and return to America, leaving the staff and villagers homeless and, in many cases, jobless as well.

To add to the stress, the police sergeant who is sent to investigate the murder is a buffoon, clearly out of his depth, and the Scotland Yard officer who later arrives is an arrogant bully. Worst of all, Harriet inadvertently glimpses the dead man’s head, which the police have recovered and stored in the estate’s icehouse. She recognises him at once as a figure from her past. She realises that a long-suppressed nightmare has become reality and knows that those with power will do anything to save this man’s reputation, even conniving at her imprisonment on a false charge.

In At The Death is the sixth novel in the series featuring Harriet and Matthew Rowsley. It is an excellent addition to an interesting Victorian mystery series. The characters are vividly drawn and engaging, the plot complex and the historical setting unusual and fascinating. A very good read, which I recommend.
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Reviewer:  Carol Westron

Judith Cutler was born in the Black Country, just outside Birmingham, later moving to the Birmingham suburb of Harborne. Judith started writing while she was at the then Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize with the second story she wrote. She subsequently read English at university. It was an attack of chickenpox caught from her son that kick-started her writing career. One way of dealing with the itch was to hold a pencil in one hand, a block of paper in the other - and so she wrote her first novel. This eventually appeared in a much-revised version as Coming Alive, published by Severn House. Judith has seven series. The first two featured amateur sleuth Sophie Rivers (10 books) and Detective Sergeant Kate Power (6 Books). Then came Josie Wells, a middle-aged woman with a quick tongue, and a love of good food, there are two books, The Food Detective and The Chinese Takeout. The Lina Townsend books are set in the world of antiques and there are seven books in this series. There are three books featuring Tobias Campion set in the Regency period, and her series featuring Chief Superintendent Fran Harman (6 books), and Jodie Welsh, Rector’s wife and amateur sleuth. Her more recently a series feature a head teacher Jane Cowan (3 books). Judith has also written three standalone’s Staging Death, Scar Tissue, and Death In Elysium. Her new series is set in Victorian times featuring Matthew Rowsley. Death’s Long Shadow is the third book in this series.  

http://www.judithcutler.com  

Carol Westron is a Golden Age expert who has written many articles on the subject and given papers at several conferences. She is the author of several series: contemporary detective stories and police procedurals, comedy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries. Her most recent publications are Paddling in the Dead Sea and Delivering Lazarus, books 2 and 3 of the Galmouth Mysteries, the series which began with
The Fragility of Poppies.  

www.carolwestron.com 

Japanese Crime Fiction by Lea O’Harra

Japanese crime fiction is enjoying a renaissance of late. But the phenomenon does not concern the Japanese themselves, who have long bought and read such books in great numbers. I am referring instead to western readers finally able to gain access to Japan’s huge treasure trove of mystery novels. Admittedly, it is a very limited access. Only a tiny percentage have been translated into English. But it’s a start, and one that provides a satisfying twist on what happened over a century ago, when the Japanese got hooked on western-style detective stories after an abridged Japanese version of the Sherlock Holmes story The Man with the Twisted Lip was included in the magazine Nihon-jin in 1894.

Now, more and more western readers are discovering – and relishing – the uniquely Japanese take on this popular literary genre in such works as

Keigo Higashino’s
The Devotion of Suspect X and
Salvation of a Saint,
A Midsummer’s Equation,
Silent Parade and Invisible Helix.

Uketsu writes a mystery/horror series. He is an enigmatic Youtuber and author, specialising in horror and mystery. He always appears in videos wearing a white mask and black body stocking, with his voice digitally distorted. His true identity is unknown He has written three books

 
Strange Pictures,
Strange Houses

  Strange Buildings

Yukitp Ayatuji was born 1960. He strives to recapture the tone and tropes of classic detective fiction.

The Decagon  House Murders
The Mill Hill House Murders
the Labyrinth House Murders
The Clock House Murders

Soji Shimada

Born 1948 in Hiroshima. 

She has written
The Tokyo Zodiac Murders
Murder in the Crooked House,
 a short story. 

 

Seishi Yokomizo. Small publishers like the Pushkin Press have played an important role in offering English translations of Japanese crime fiction in English, and social media platforms like BookTok have raised the profile of this literature for a younger demographic (Gen Z and readers in their twenties).
  

The Honjin Murders.
The 1^st book featuring Detective Kosuke

         Kindaichi.

There are now seven books in the series.

When I first arrived in Japan in the spring of 1984 to take up the position of ‘Guest Professor of English’ at a small private university on Shikoku Island, I eagerly devoured all the Japanese literature translated into English I found in its library. As an American who’d already spent a considerable time in Britain, France and Holland, I was used to trying to adjust to life in a new country. But Japan was different. Apart from superficial trappings of western ‘culture’ – including two McDonald’s and one KFC in the nearest city of Takamatsu – it soon became clear I was in the most alien environment I had yet encountered. The people simply thought and acted differently from ways I was accustomed to. Japan’s two and a half centuries of self-imposed isolation from the outside world had left an indelible mark. The culture and behavior and traditions were unlike anything I had ever known. 

Alas, the university library only had translations of the classics, including, of course, the complete works of Natsumi Soseki, books by two Nobel laureates – Yasunari Kawabata and Kenzaburo Oe – as well as a sprinkling of novels by Yukio Mishima. I recall being particular gripped by a book called A Dark Night’s Passing by Naoya Shiga which confirmed for me the inscrutability and ultimate unfathomability of the Japanese mind. Haruki Murakami had yet to have a book translated into English. His breakthrough international bestseller, Norwegian Wood (1987), wasn’t available in English until 1989.

 When I visited the local Miyawaki bookstore in Takamatsu or even the huge Kinokuniya in Tokyo, I found the selection of Japanese works in English even more limited, largely confined to translations of guides to famous sightseeing spots in the country, Japanese cookbooks, and a few books on Zen Buddhism.

It was only in the 1990s that the situation changed. In the Heisei Era, beginning in 1989, female writers began to dominate the field of Japanese crime fiction. The popularity of their works, which often took as their theme the country’s persisting gender inequality, led to a dramatic increase in English translations of so-called misuterii  novels. To understand what a seismic shift this represented. I’ll provide the context in a brief history of crime fiction in Japan.

The detective novel or, in Japanese, Tantei Shosetsu, is one of the most popular literary genres in Japan – and one of the oldest. It first appeared in the Tokugawa era (1600–1868), when it was a genre dominated by courtroom narratives such as Saikaku’s Trials in the Shade of a Cherry Tree. Like their Chinese precedents, these stories revolved around the notion of the wise judge. They glorified and upheld the state’s authority in the form of omniscient omniscient administrators who delivered infallible judgments. Although suspects’ confessions often had been wrung from them by torture, this fact was conveniently ignored or suppressed.

In the Meiji Era (1868 -1912), when the country had opened up to foreign influences, with the monolithic hierarchical nature of the state diminished and the notion of the individual accorded new importance, the focus of detective stories shifted to genuine mysteries in which a culprit guilty of a crime must be identified. At that time, the ‘puzzle’ aspect of the traditional detective story as it manifested in other countries was allowed to come to the fore. 

In the late 1800s, translated western texts flooded the Japanese market. The appearance of such stories as Murders in the Rue Morgue spurred renewed interest in western ideas and texts. One of the most influential proponents of the detective story at this time was Ruiko Kuroiwa (1862-1913) who saw in such stories the chance to educate the newly literate masses. He is credited with having written Japan’s first detective story in 1889, In Cold Blood Japan’s indebtedness to Edgar Allen Poe, the pioneer of American detective fiction, is illustrated in the decision of Taro Hirai (1894-1965), widely acknowledged as the ‘father’ of modern Japanese crime fiction, to choose to publish his works under the pen name of Edogawa Rampo – a phonetic reading of the American author’s name. 

The optimism of the Meiji Era darkened in the subsequent Taisho (1912-1926) and early Showa (1926-1989) periods with Japan’s venture into militarism and colonial expansion. Kuroiwa gave up writing detective fiction in the late 1890s when Japan fought and won three international wars within a decade, concentrating instead on political journalism. With his departure, the production of detective fiction was more or less halted for three decades. 

In 1941, detective novels of Anglo-American origin were banned in Japan, and writers of such fiction turned to spy stories. Eventually, writers of any kind found themselves required to frame narratives that would publicly

support the war and inspire patriotism in their readers. A chronic shortage of paper during those years meant that publishing was sublimated to the war effort. Printed material needed to have as its goal the country’s ultimate victory.

Japan’s defeat in 1945 was followed by a resurgence in the popularity of detective fiction. Mysteries provided much-needed solace and entertainment to the general public after a decade of near-complete subjection to an authoritarian government waging all-out war on various fronts. They also offered the Japanese a chance to reassert the right to indulge in a private life, free from the dictates of the state. The author Seishi Yokomizo argued in 1946 that his compatriots should read such literature as much as possible to recover their equilibrium, arguing that the general misery pervading the population at that time stemmed from their not reading enough detective fiction. He also argued that rationality is a feature of crime fiction – and a quality the Japanese had signally lacked in surrendering their ideals to the dictates of a fascist government and continuing to fight a war long after it was obvious it would end in defeat. 

Two decades later, the popularity of detective fiction in Japan was largely attributable to one man – Seicho Matsumoto (1909-1992). Matsumoto was Japan’s bestselling, highest-earning writer in the 1960s, and one of its most prolific, publishing over 450 detective stories and mystery novels as well as historical fiction. Reviews of one of his most famous books, Inspector Imanishi Investigates, liken the author to Georges Simenon and its eponymous protagonist to Simenon’s Maigret or P.D. James’s Inspector Dalgleish. 

Matsumoto, who was born in poverty and never completed high school, was not content to follow the pattern of old-fashioned detective novels whether penned in Japan or the west. Thirty years before Japanese women writers began publishing work that critiqued Japanese society, Matsumoto captured the public imagination by focusing on the minutiae of daily life and on ‘real life’ social problems. Despite the pre-eminent status of Edogawa Rampo, it is said that Matsumoto, writing as a cultural activist, had the greatest influence on that surge of Japanese women writing crime fiction in the late twentieth century. 

Before 1989, there were few female crime fiction novelists. After that date, there were many. In taking up the pen to express themselves, these women followed an honourable and ancient precedent. Japan boasts two women who, against all odds, wrote books in the first century esteemed now as classics of world literature. Both were noblewomen who served as ‘court ladies’ in Japan’s Heian period, a position in which they were isolated from theoutside world and encouraged to cultivate such aesthetic pastimes as writing diaries and composing poetry. Sei Shonagon, who joined the court of Empress Teishi when she was in her late twenties, around the year 993, is famous for The Pillow Book (1002) and her contemporary and rival, Murasaki Shikibu, who served the Empress Shoshi, for The Tale of Genji, written between 1000 and 1010. As aristocratic Heian women, they were denied not only the benefits of formal education but forced to live restricted, secluded lives within the family or at court, forbidden to consort with any male not a close relative or household member. Women were seen as inferior and necessarily subordinate. They were believed to be incapable of real intelligence. 

Many centuries after Sei Shonagon and Murasaki Shikibu achieved lasting fame through their writing, their female descendants are still constrained by sex. In present-day Japan, women often remain second-class citizens in their own country, expected to derive much of their sense of self-worth through their roles as daughters, wives and mothers. 

It has been argued that the rise of women crime writers in Heisei Era Japan (1989-2019) can be attributed to three main factors. First, in response to an explosion in literary prizes offered by corporations, individuals and publishers, the 1980s saw the emergence of writing schools that attracted many women, including housewives looking for a free-lance career that would allow them to juggle domestic responsibilities with work. It was a time of unprecedented affluence in Japan that seemed as if it would never come to an end. Second, while the

phenomenon of Japan’s ‘red-hot economy’ preoccupied men, women writers had more opportunities to publish their own work. Also, with more women joining the work force, there was an increased readership for women’s fiction. Third, the boom in women’s detective fiction in Japan was matched by and partly inspired by a corresponding boom in the US and the UK, with the works of such popular writers as Sara Paretsky, Marcia Mueller, Liza Cody and Sue Grafton issued in Japanese translation. 

The publication of Miyuki Miyabe’s Kasha in 1992, issued in English four years later as All She Was Worth, represented a watershed moment, its massive popularity inspiring an upsurge in Japanese women writing crime fiction that dealt with sociological problems. In Miyabe’s case, she depicted issues then gripping the society: personal bankruptcy, rampant consumerism, and the devastating effects of the collapse of the ‘bubble’ economy.

Natsuo Kirino proved a worthy successor and heir to Miyabe’s achievement in her bombshell novel Out, published in Japan in 1997 and in English in 2004. Like All She Was Worth, Out is a work that is not so much a ‘who-dun it’ as a ‘why-dunnit’: a searing analysis of a society which can drive its female citizens to that most extreme of acts – murder.  Kirino’s novel addresses the problem of domestic violence and the unfair disparity between the sexes, with women earning, on average, over the course of a lifetime, only around 75% of men’s wages despite often doing the same work. Until recently, a Japanese woman was expected to quit her job on marrying and, if not then, on falling pregnant with her first child. After maternity leave, she would be unable to get a full-time tenured position, hired instead as a ‘part-timer’ on low wages (despite often working a forty-hour week) and missing out on bonuses and employment protections and retirement benefits. On hearing that Japanese male readers said of her book that it made them afraid, Kirino reportedly remarked that she was glad.

Apart from Matsumoto, male Japanese crime writers had traditionally tackled the composition of their stories as an abstract, intellectual exercise, content to write locked-room mysteries or stories that privileged the puzzle aspect, taking care to provide sufficient clues for the reader to solve the mystery and identify the culprit. Female crime fiction writers, on the other hand, examined sociological issues obviously dear to their own hearts, offering, one suspects a kind of catharsis. In some novels, most notably Kirino’s Out, female characters exact delicious revenge on the men in their lives who have treated them badly. 

The enthusiasm for the writing of authors like Kirino and Keigo Higashino has meant English translations of Japanese crime fiction are now flooding the market. It is not only new works that are being translated. When I first encountered Matsumoto’s Inspector Imanishi Investigates a few years after arriving in Japan, it was the only book of the astonishing number he has published I could find available in English. Now, more and more of his books – and those of many other writers – are finally getting the attention from western readers they deserve. 

I believe Japanese crime fiction performs an invaluable service. It offers a mirror of Japan, allowing western readers insights into a country famously ‘different’ – exotic and mysterious. From its earliest incarnations, it has
presented a portrait of Japanese society. Where their literary forebears had used the genre to frame narratives glorifying the state or simply to provide light entertainment, in the 1990s, female writers like Miyabe and Kirino gave us an unvarnished critique of Japanese society and particularly of the position of women within it.  

In Japan, the traditional ie or family structure privileged males over females and assigned roles by sex. It led to girls facing limited life options, with what has been described as the ‘rigid order of sex polarity’ frustrating their aspirations. Equally, wives and mothers were expected to be self-denying creatures who devoted themselves to their families.  

Miyabe’s All She Was Worth not only held up a mirror to Japan but also exerted a strong influence upon society, helping it to change. While the female characters in Matsumoto’s Inspector Imanishi Investigates were
girlfriends, wives and mothers, peripheral to the action, significant primarily in their relations to the male figures in their lives, in her murderer Kyoko Shinjo, Miyabe convincingly created a resourceful and self-sufficient if
immoral individual. Miyabe’s groundbreaking work encouraged other female novelists also to include brave and resilient women in their books. Women were permitted to be lawbreakers, no longer doomed to their former role as ‘angel of the house’. 

In a similar vein, Japan’s crime fiction can help western readers understand another little-known aspect of its society: why it boasts the unenviable distinction of having a record number of citizens killing themselves. A 2019 survey found that Japan had the highest suicide rate among seven developed nations, comparing it to France, the US, Germany, Canada, the UK and Italy. Why? Japanese businessmen kill themselves because of the stress of work, and Japanese children because of the stress of exams. But there are also ‘honour’ murder/suicides when a man facing financial ruin might decide to kill not only himself but all his family, fearing his wife and children will suffer disgrace after his death. The continuing importance of the bushido code in Japanese thought meant that the famed author Yukio Mishima decided to commit seppuku rather than accept that his call for revolution was rejected and even derided by the Japanese military and the public. And the list goes on.  

When I came across a collection of twelve short Japanese detective stories published in 1978 as Ellery Queen’s Japanese Golden Dozen, I was surprised to find the number of people killed by stabbing, strangulation, or having their throats slit was nearly eclipsed by those who had decided to kill themselves. In the dozen stories, suicide is suspected in as many as seven of the deaths. In five of the stories, deaths initially attributed by the investigating officers to be suicide are only subsequently found to be murders.

It has been said that crime fiction resembles a sonnet with ‘endless variations on an inflexible form’. Variations include the ‘Golden Age’ novels of the 1920s and 1930s, the private eye novel, the hard-boiled suspense story, police procedural, the serial killer mystery, the legal thriller, and forensics-driven detective stories. Japanese crime fiction represents yet another take on the ‘inflexible form’. For western readers interested in exploring that new avenue, Goodreads offers an invaluable list of publications and resources:

https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/19227.

Lea O’Harra.  An American by birth, did her postgraduate work in Britain – an MA in Lancaster and a doctorate at Edinburgh – and worked full-time for 36 years at a Japanese university. Since retiring in March 2020, she has spent part of each year in Lancaster and part in Takamatsu on Shikoku Island, her second home, with occasional visits to the States to see family and friends. An avid reader of crime fiction since childhood, as a university professor she wrote academic articles on it as a literary genre and then decided to try her hand at composing such stories herself, publishing the so-called ‘Inspector Inoue mystery series’ comprising three murder mysteries set in rural, contemporary Japan. The fourth and final book of this series will appear in spring 2026. She has also published two standalones.

Lea’s latest book is

Falling Leaves

Published 20 February 2026

Book 4 in the Inspector Inoue series

One cold night in 1983 in a coastal town in Japan a thirteen-year-old schoolgirl disappears on her way home from badminton practice. The local police explore all avenues, but as is often the case, when there are no clues, there are no answers.

Decades later, the repercussions of her mysterious disappearance are still being felt in Japan in unspoken secrets and lies and broken lives that are left littered behind. When a half-Japanese, half-Korean student is found hanged in her room on the campus of Fujikawa University, the local police at first suspect suicide, never dreaming that this death could possibly be connected to the fortieth anniversary of that schoolgirl's disappearance.

Chief Inspector Inoue and his trusted team of detective inspectors face their most challenging case yet in a race against time to apprehend the culprit before more lives are lost.

CAPITAL CRIME ANNOUNCES 2026 HEADLINERS.

GLOBAL SENSATIONS LEE AND ANDREW CHILD,
JANE HARPER, CLAIRE DOUGLAS, ANDREA MARA
AND COMEDY WRITING TALENTS ARDAL O’HANLON
AND ANDI OSHO 

• The 2026 festival to return to the Leonardo Royal Hotel, St Paul’s, on 18^th-20^th June
• Partnership with The Reading Agency announced, in the National Year of Reading
• Founder David Headley heralds crime as ‘one of the most engaging and accessible genres, and the perfect way to help people rediscover a love of reading’
• Fingerprint Awards to return on 18^th June, presented by radio and TV broadcaster, and host of The Bookshelf Podcast Ryan Tubridy 

Capital Crime, the celebrated crime and thriller festival led by Goldsboro Books’ co-founder and managing director David Headley, has announced its first confirmed headlining authors, attending in June 2026. The programme features authors at all stages of their careers, from much anticipated debut novelists to global sensations from around the world. 

Capital Crime will also be Going All In on the National Year of Reading, a nationwide campaign designed to help people rediscover the joy of reading, and the biggest reading initiative the UK has ever seen. The festival has agreed a partnership with The Reading Agency, a UK charity that inspires social and personal change through the proven power of reading, and the organisation behind Quick Reads. This partnership will be a step change for Capital Crime’s Social Outreach initiative, a cornerstone of the festival since it launched in 2019, which has seen schoolchildren from all around London invited to meet, hear and engage with publishing representatives and authors, in order to demystify the industry; encourage a diverse range of people to consider a future career in books; and grow its community of readers by inspiring a lifelong love of reading. As part of the partnership, Capital Crime will host a panel with Quick Reads authors from 2026 and previous years, chaired by Debbie Hicks MBE, a founding member of The Reading Agency. Goldsboro Books and Capital Crime have been committed to creating reader communities since the bookshop’s inception, and the team firmly believes that crime fiction can be the most brilliantly accessible route into a lifelong love of reading. 

The festival returns to the Leonardo Royal Hotel in St Paul’s, and confirmed authors and speakers so far include:  

• Lee Child, creator of the globally famous Jack Reacher novels, and his brother Andrew, who has taken up the baton, will be in conversation with author and journalist Stig Abell
• Jane Harper, the international #1 bestselling Australian author of The Dry
• Andrea Mara, million copy bestselling author of All Her Fault
• Actor, comedian and novelist Ardal O’Hanlon
• Bestselling creator of Maeve Kerrigan Jane Casey
• Award-winning psychological suspense writer Liz Nugent 

Also confirmed to be taking part are Sunday Times bestselling thriller writer Claire Douglas; Andi Osho, stand-up comedian and thriller writer; multi-award-winning bestseller Clare Mackintosh; creator of Roy Grace Peter James; bestselling creator of The Guest List and The Paris Apartment Lucy Foley; and the author of Reece’s Book Club selected Broken Countries, Clare Leslie Hall. 

Audiences will also hear from CWA Gold Dagger-winning author of Wyndham and Bannerjee novels Abir Mukherjee; Sunday Times bestselling Anatomy of a Scandal writer Sarah Vaughan; Sophie Hannah, #1 bestselling author of Poirot continuations; former barrister and Traitors star Harriet Tyce; and Lucy Rose, author of 2025’s debut sensation The Lamb. 

The festival will also be welcoming some of the most critically acclaimed and eagerly anticipated debut novelists of 2026, including Yemi Dipeolu, launching psychological thriller Kiss Marry Kill; Ellie Levenson, author of the heartstopping suspense Room 706; and renowned wine writer Olly Smith, launching the first in The Bottle Bank Mysteries series. 

Also returning are the Fingerprint Awards, this year to be presented on Thursday 18^th by Ryan Tubridy, and sponsored by the festival’s official international cultural partner, the Sharjah International Book Fair. This year the shortlist in each category will be chosen by the Capital Crime Tastemakers – an independent committee of bloggers, journalists and readers. The award winners will, as always, be voted for by the readers and fans who make this genre the best in the world. 

Last year the eagerly anticipated awards received over 6,000 votes from the public and winners included bestsellers Vaseem Khan and M.W. Craven, for the Historical Book of the Year and the Overall Best Crime Book of the Year respectively. 

Finally, on Thursday 18^th, Capital Crime is thrilled to open its doors to aspiring, unpublished writers ready to take the next step towards securing literary representation. Agents from DHH Literary Agency who are actively searching for the next standout voice in crime fiction will be available for an open afternoon with all ticketholders. If you’ve written a gripping thriller, a twist-filled mystery, or a page-turning police procedural, this could be your opportunity to get your work in front of top industry talent. Festival ticketholders will be invited to submit ahead of the festival, and will be given a meeting slot with their agent of choice. 

Capital Crime co-founder and Goldsboro Books managing director David Headley, said:

“I set up Capital Crime because I wanted to create a festival that brought together crime writers, readers, and industry professionals in a way that was welcoming to both established and emerging authors. It has been a joy to see the festival go from strength to strength, and our community of crime fans and writers grow. In this, the National Year of Reading, I’m delighted to announce our partnership with The Reading Agency. Crime is one of the most engaging and accessible genres of writing, and the perfect way to help people rediscover a love of reading. As well as our Quick Reads panel, we have panels for every reader, from discussions about AI to ‘property noir’, and courtroom dramas to comedy in crime.” 

Capital Crime Festival Director Lizzie Curle, said:

“I’m thrilled with how our programme is shaping up, with some of the best crime writers in the world joining us, such as international sensations Lee Child, Jane Harper and comedy legend Ardal O’Hanlon and fan favourites like Lisa Jewell and Peter James. As always, I’m also delighted by the extremely exciting new voices we’ll be welcoming this year, including Lucy Rose, Olly Smith, Yemi Dipeolu and Ellie Levenson.” 

The full line-up will be announced at the end of March. 

Headley and his team at Goldsboro Books have helped launch the careers of so many authors since it opened over 25 years ago, by uniting incredible writing with their loyal, ever-growing community of passionate readers. Capital Crime is a brilliant extension of that vision, having become an unmissable fixture in the literary calendar, one of the largest crime fiction festivals in the UK, and the only one to be owned by an independent bookshop. With a line-up which fully reflects the vibrant and culturally diverse city that it calls home, Capital Crime’s goal is to create a year-round home for crime and thriller readers and authors, celebrating books and stories, and nurturing the next generation of talent and book enthusiasts. The festival attracts authors from around the world, to create a unique, innovative and entertaining programme, pairing debuts with household names. The festival welcomes more than 1,000 attendees, the majority purchasing full weekend passes, and previous attendees have included Ian Rankin, Irvine Welsh, Dorothy Koomson, Abir Mukherjee and Kate Atkinson. 

Capital Crime Festival | Join the Thrill