Celebrating the world of words

Mysteries, Murder and Mayhem

Join acclaimed authors Michelle Harrison, Sarah Hilary, and Alexandra Benedict for a gripping Friday morning of mysteries, murder and mayhem at Newark Book Festival.

Alexandra Benedict is a best-selling, award-winning writer of short stories, novels and scripts. Educated at Cambridge, Sussex and Clown School, she has been an indie-rock singer, an actor, RLF Fellow, and a composer for film and TV, as well as teaching and running the prestigious MA in Crime Thrillers at City University. She is now a full-time writer and creative coach. As A. K. Benedict, she writes acclaimed short stories, high-concept novels and award-winning audio drama for Big Finish, Audible UK, Audible US and BBC Sounds, among others. She won the Scribe Award for herDoctor Who radio drama, The Calendar Man, and was shortlisted for the eDunnit Novel Award for The Beauty of Murder and the BBC Audio Drama Podcast Award for Children of the Stones. As Alexandra Benedict, she writes puzzle-filled Christmas mysteries, of which The Christmas Murder Game and Murder on the Christmas Express were both bestsellers and The Christmas Murder Game was longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. Her most recent festive thriller, The Christmas Jigsaw Murders, was published in 2023. She lives on the south coast of England with writer Guy Adams, their daughter, Verity, and dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.

Michelle Harrison is the bestselling author of twenty books for children, published in twenty-five territories. Her debut novel, 13 Treasures, won the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize. Prior to being a full-time writer Michelle was a bookseller for Waterstones and then an editorial assistant for Oxford University Press. She lives in Essex with her son and cats. Two Little Liars is her first novel for adults.

Sarah Hilary is the critically-acclaimed author of ten novels. Her debut, Someone Else's Skin, won the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year 2015 and was a World Book Night selection, a Richard & Judy Book Club pick and a finalist for both the Silver Falchion and Macavity Awards in the US. No Other Darkness, the second in her DI Marnie Rome series, was shortlisted for a Barry Award. Her latest novel, The Drowning Place, introduces readers to DS Joseph Ashe at the start of a brand new series set in the Peak District. Sarah is Programme Director for St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend, and co-founder of Ledburied, a crime fiction festival in her home town. Her short stories have won the Fish Criminally Short Histories Prize, the Cheshire Prize for Literature, and the SENSE Prize.