Waines, Veitch Smith and Watt headline virtual National Crime Reading Month

A J Waines, Fiona Veitch Smith and Holly Watt will feature in this year's National Crime Reading Month, which is now online due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Co-ordinated by the Crime Writer's Association (CWA) and Crime Reader's Association (CRA), the annual festival promotes authors at live events across the UK.

Due to lockdown, the initiative has moved online and in May will see crime authors posting vlogs and blogs on the website crimereadingmonth.co.uk.

Former psychotherapist A J Waines' lastest thriller, Cut You Dead, was released this month, and she will feature in a video series, alongside Fiona Veitch Smith, author of the Poppy Denby Investigates series, and Holly Watt, last year's winner of the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger award.

Chair of the CWA Linda Stratmann said: “We’ve—quite literally—created crime writers in residence by asking authors to post films from their homes while in lockdown. It’s a kind of criminally-good through the keyhole!

"Readers love the personal insights from meeting authors in person, and most crime authors love to connect to their readers. With all the major crime writing festivals, as well as author events in libraries and bookshops, cancelled for spring and summer, we felt it was important to step in and offer a digital alternative.”

This year's NCRM will also see the launch of a selection of short stories, that will be free to read on the website.