crime fiction Archives • Huddersfield Literature Festival

Lesley McEvoy

A New Leaf bookshop presents an event with crime writer Lesley McEvoy.

A Yorkshire crime writer with a background as a Behavioural Analysist/Profiler and Psychotherapist, Lesley will talk about her Jo McCready series of crime novels, from her debut The Murder Mile to latest The Invisible Dead.

Lesley McEvoy was born and bred in Yorkshire and has always had a passion for writing. This took a backseat as she developed her career as a Behavioural Analyst/Profiler and Psychotherapist – setting up her own Consultancy business and therapy practice.

She has written and presented extensively around the world for over 25 years, specialising in behavioural profiling and training, and has worked in some of the UK’s toughest prisons, where she met people whose experiences informed the themes she now writes about.

Her debut novel The Murder Mile (2019) has been followed by three further titles featuring forensic psychologist Dr Jo McCready, The Killing Song, A Deadly Likeness and The Invisible Dead.

Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.

https://www.anewleafbookshop.co.uk/

To book your ticket, visit: https://www.anewleafbookshop.co.uk/events or email: [email protected]

Date: Sunday 18 May

Time: 4pm-6pm

Location:Empire House (Braise), Lewisham Road, Slaithwaite HD7 5AL

Tickets: £7.50 (includes a drink and snacks, and discount on book purchase)

Age guidance: 16+

Access Guides: contact the venue on: 01484 959617; [email protected]

Sex, Spies and Politics – with Stephen May

Enjoy an in-conversation with Stephen May – “The spry, sardonic voice of the new historical fiction” Hilary Mantel.

Stephen’s latest book Green Ink is based on the real-life story of former Colne Valley MP Victor Grayson, a bisexual hedonist and secret service informant. Victor vanished one night in late September 1920, having threatened to reveal all he knew about Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s involvement in selling honours.

Was he murdered by the British government? By enemies in the Socialist movement (who he had betrayed in the war)? Did he fall in the Thames drunk? Did he vanish to save his own life, and become an antiques dealer in Kent?

Whatever the truth, Green Ink imagines what might have been with brio, humour and humanity; and is a reminder that the past was once as alive as we are today.

“Stephen May has a nose for fascinating historical events” The Times

“Vivid and wholly credible recreation of post-Great War London” Robert Edric

Stephen May is the author of six novels including Life! Death! Prizes! which was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and The Guardian Not The Booker Prize. He has also been shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year and is a winner of the Media Wales Reader’s Prize. He has also written plays, as well as for television and film. He lives in West Yorkshire.

Date: Friday 16 May

Time: 6pm-7pm

Location: Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP

Tickets: £5, free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers

Age guidance: 16+

Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/the-cellar

For further information on essential carer tickets please visit our FAQ’s page.

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Yorkshire crime fiction with AA Dhand & Russ Thomas

For fans of crime fiction, your chance to hear from acclaimed writers AA Dhand and Russ Thomas about their latest Yorkshire-set crime thrillers.

In AA Dhand’s adrenaline-filled thriller, The Chemist, Bradford pharmacist and pillar of the community Idris Khan goes looking for his missing childhood sweetheart and finds himself in the middle of a turf war between two powerful Yorkshire drug cartels. Praise for AA Dhand: “Outstanding – relentless, multi-layered suspense and real human drama” Lee Child

Sleeping Dogs by Russ Thomas is a Sheffield-set police procedural novel with shades of Line of Duty – a cold case investigation with an element of police corruption. Written with Russ’s trademark wry humour, it’s a whodunnit with a clever twist. Praise for Russ Thomas: “An intriguing start to a new series, introducing a pleasingly misanthropic new hero” Observer

AA Dhand was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired his Harry Virdee novels and he has adapted the third book of these for a BBC crime drama series Virdee broadcast in February 2025.

 Russ Thomas was born in Essex, raised in Berkshire and now lives in Sheffield. After a few ‘proper’ jobs (among them: pot-washer, optician’s receptionist, supermarket warehouse operative, call-centre telephonist, and storage salesman), he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to people about books all day. His highly acclaimed debut novel and first in the DS Adam Tyler series, Firewatching (2020) was followed by Nighthawking in 2021.

Supported by:

Date: Thursday 15 May

Time: 7pm-8pm

Location: Cellar, Lawrence Batley Theatre, Queen Street, Huddersfield HD1 2SP

Tickets: £9 (£7 conc), free for University of Huddersfield staff and students & essential carers

Early Bird tickets have now ended

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Age guidance: 12+ (U16s should be accompanied by an adult)