CrimeFest: One of a Kind: Atypical Characters

   Friday, 16 May 2025

14:50 - 15:40

The panel are Paul Durston, Christina Koning,
Tom Mead, Bridget Walsh, 
and the participating Moderator is 
Michael Stanley (Michael Sears).

Paul Durston is a former police officer, and now a crime fiction writer. His books – If I Were Me, If We Were One and If You Were Chosen are psychological crime and revolve around Charlie who’s having identity problems. He is flattered that CrimeFest has selected Charlie for the One of a Kind – Atypical Characters panel set for 2.50pm on Friday, and hopes to see you there. 

pauldurston.com 

Christina Koning has worked as a journalist, reviewing fiction for The Times, and taught Creative Writing at the University of Oxford and Birkbeck, University of London. From 2013 to 2015, she was Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Newnham College, Cambridge. She won the Encore Prize in 1999 and was long-listed for the Orange Prize in the same year. Murder in Oxford is the ninth novel in the Blind Detective series.

Tom Mead is the author of the Joseph Spector locked-room mystery series. His books, which include Death and the Conjuror, The Murder Wheel and Cabaret Macabre, have been critically acclaimed, published in ten languages (and counting!), and nominated for numerous awards. A short-story collection, The Indian Rope Trick (and Other Violent Entertainments), came out in November 2024 and the next Spector novel, The House at Devil's Neck, is published in August 2025. 

tommeadauthor.com 

Bridget Walsh’s obsessive interest in the weirder elements of nineteenth-century life has led her to write a series of crime novels set in a down-at-heel Victorian London music hall. The Tumbling Girl won the HWA Debut Crown and was shortlisted for the CWA New Blood Dagger. The third in the series, The Spirit Guide, will be published in 2026. Bridget lives in the fine city of Norwich with her husband and two dogs. 

bridgetwalsh.co.uk

Michael Sears writes with Stanley Trollip as Michael Stanley. Their Detective Kubu novels are set in Botswana and based around real issues affecting southern Africa. The ninth will be out later this year. They also wrote a thriller about rhino poaching, Dead of Night, set in South Africa. They won a Barry Award for Death of the Mantis and were finalists for other awards including an Edgar and an ITW award. 

michaelstanleybooks.com