Barclay, James and La Plante join SlaughterFest line-up

Linwood Barclay, Peter James and Lynda La Plante are among the big-name crime writers appearing at SlaughterFest, a weekend curated by Karin Slaughter to mark her 20th book in 20 years.

The online event runs from 5th-6th September and is being broadcast on crime and thriller website Killer Reads. It will conclude with Stephanie Merritt interviewing Slaughter, whose new novel is The Silent Wife (HarperCollins).

More than 70 authors were submitted for consideration as speakers, from publishers across the trade. The eight panels include "Dial M for Murder", concentrating on popular detectives, police procedurals and great novels that happen to be crime, with Barclay, Jane Casey, James and La Plante speaking. The panel will be chaired by Douglas Skelton.

Elsewhere, discussing the golden age of crime in celebration of the centenary year of Agatha Christie, will be Lucy Foley, Sophie Hannah and Kate Weinberg, chaired by Martin Edwards.

Charles Cumming, Charlotte Philby, Khurrum Rahman and Holly Watt will take a look at espionage in a session chaired by Henry Hemming. There is also a panel on novelists at the start of their career, selected by Slaughter, featuring Kia Abdullah, Amer Anwar, Harriet Tyce and John Vercher.

Due to the popularity of the event, Slaughter has programmed an additional panel, "Behind Closed Doors", exploring domestic noir, featuring Lisa Jewell, C L Taylor and Stephanie Wrobel, chaired by Phoebe Morgan.

Slaughter said: “It’s the most enormous pleasure to be part of such a fantastic line-up, with the festival showcasing a really wide range of wonderful writers. I really do feel that SlaughterFest has something for all readers across the entirety of the genre, who can spend time with old favourites while also discovering some of the best in emerging new voices—and, crucially, the programme demonstrates the strength and breadth of the crime-writing community. It’s a community I’m hugely proud to be part of, and I look forward to seeing all my partners in crime in September.”

The full line-up is available online.