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Mina and Lippman headline CrimeFest 2024
Denise Mina and Laura Lippman are among those appearing at CrimeFest in May 2024.
The festival, sponsored by Specsavers, runs from 9th to 12th May 2024 at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel. The biggest event of its kind in the UK, it features around 150 authors across more than 50 panels.
Mina is a multiple-award-winning author, known for her DI Alex Morrow books and for adapting Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy as graphic novels as well as being the first woman asked to write a new novel featuring Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlow, The Second Murderer (Vintage). She last headlined CrimeFest in 2013, alongside the late Scottish author William McIllvanney.
Lippman is a former reporter on the Baltimore Sun and has written a series of novels set in Baltimore featuring reporter turned investigator Tess Monaghan. The US-based author has won various prizes and her novel Every Secret Thing (Orion) was adapted into a 2014 film and Lady in the Lake (Faber) was adapted into a series for Apple.
Other speakers include Canadian mystery writer Cathy Ace, attending as Gala Dinner’s Leader of Toasts, celebrating those nominated for the 2024 CrimeFest Awards. Vaseem Khan, chair of the Crime Writers’ Association will also appear as a delegate along with Janice Hallett, best known for her bestselling debut thriller, The Appeal (Profile). Author and historian Martin Edwards will host the panel Authors Remembered while Abigail Dean, known for her bestselling thriller Girl A (HarperCollins), will discuss her experience of being a debut author in a session chaired by CrimeFest co-founder Donna Moore.
The convention has also announced a homage to P D James through The Ghost of Honour panel which will feature crime writer and lawyer Frances Fyfield, the Sunday Times chief fiction critic Peter Kemp and writer and producer Simon Brett.
Moore said of the festival: “Generally, the crime writing community is a very friendly one, and CrimeFest has always been a down to earth, welcoming convention open to all. We continue to work hard at creating an inclusive energy.”
Dame Mary Perkins, who founded event sponsor Specsavers, said: “I am an avid reader and fan of the genre, and I always look forward to CrimeFest, which is so friendly it feels like all who go are welcomed as part of a big family, connected by a love of books and reading.”
First founded in 2008 by Moore and Adrian Muller (now festival director), the convention now also covers a bursary for a crime fiction author of colour since 2022. The fund covers the costs of a weekend pass to the convention, with a night’s accommodation and panel appearance.
The convention will also continue its Community Outreach Programme. In partnership with the independent Max Minerva’s Bookshop in Bristol and participating publishers, Crimefest donates thousands of pounds of crime fiction books for children and young adults to school libraries. Additionally librarians, students, and those on benefits can receive discounted tickets.
For more information, visit crimefest.com.
