Mystery Fest 2023

Saturday 4^th March: 10am-5pm.
Portsmouth Central Library: 3^rd Floor

Guests of Honour:
Edward Marston and Judith Cutler on
Murder Ancient & Modern

Judith Cutler

Edward Marston

Edward Marston is one of our most prolific
and popular authors of
Historical Crime Fiction and Judith Cutler is an acclaimed writer of both Contemporary Crime Fiction and Victorian Mysteries.
Edward and Judith will give a talk on Murder Ancient & Modern.

There will be two panels.

Jeff Dowson

Peter Tickler

Panel 1:
Oxford based, contemporary crime author
 Peter Tickler (moderator);
Jeff Dowson, who writes both historical and contemporary crime fiction mainly set in Bristol;
Portsmouth based author Pete Adams.

Title of the Panel is
Deceit or Cheat:
Does the writer have to play fair with the reader?

Carol Westron

Leigh Russell

Panel 2:

Carol Westron (moderator) author of police procedurals, cosy crime and Victorian Murder Mysteries;
million bestseller Leigh Russell, author of the Geraldine Steel crime fiction series,
who is about to embark on an exciting new series;

Charlie Cochrane, author of gay fiction in contemporary, Edwardian and Post World War 2 settings.

Charlie Cochrane

Title of panel: Never Kill the Cat, (the role of animals in crime fiction.)

 Four short talks:

 Leigh Russell: best selling author will talk about her writing process and hopefully will tell us about the exciting new series that’s about to be published (title to be announced.)

Linda Stratmann

Linda Stratmann: : an expert on Victorian history and the author of three series of fictional novels set in Victorian times and numerous non-fiction books. Linda will tell us about her latest venture, The Early Casebook of Sherlock Holmes and talk about what inspired her to address that part of Holmes’ life, and how she is exploring it.

Dot Marshall-Gen

An academic with a passion for crime fiction, Dot Marshall-Gent will talk about the use Agatha Christie makes of nursery rhymes, with reference to Christie’s published notebooks and the often sinister origins of seemingly innocent nursery rhymes.

Carol Westron: author and an expert on the Golden Age of Crime Fiction, will talk about how the Georgian & Regency novels of Georgette Heyer are marketed as Romantic Fiction but how many have crime at their heart, which if rebranded would make Heyer one of the earliest authors of Historical Detective Fiction.

Expert Witness: Dr Nick Pamment on Wildlife Crime

Nick Pamment

Nick Pamment of the University of Portsmouth has agreed to reprise the talk about Wildlife Crime that he gave over Zoom during lockdown, this time in person and bringing several artefacts to illustrate his talk.

£12 (full day ticket) £8 (concessions)

 Register for the Event