The Radio 2 Book Club

In this bumper episode of the Radio 2 Book Club, Jeremy Vine visits the Theakston Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate.
It's the world's largest crime writing festival, which welcomed over 20,000 crime fiction fans over four days, at the Old Swan Hotel (the hotel where Agatha Christie was found after she went 'missing' for 11 days, in 1926).
Jeremy chats to some of the biggest names writing crime fiction today: David Baldacci, Denise Mina, Vaseem Khan, Anthony Horowitz, Ann Cleeves, MW Craven, Anthony Horowitz and Tim Sullivan.
They discuss their new books, the joy of the festival, the popularity of crime fiction in the UK and how they keep coming up with murders!
David Baldacci (who has sold over 200M books!) won the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award this year - and talks about the threat of AI on writers.
Vaseem Khan discusses his new series of books, which he's writing for the Ian Fleming estate, featuring the Bond character, Q.
Ann Cleeves is a stalwart of this festival, and was their first writer in residence, so as well as telling us about her new novel - and working with Brenda Blethyn on 'Vera' - she also sums up what this celebration of crime fiction is all about.
Tim Sullivan self-published his first books, because agents didn't want them, but is now a million copy bestselling author - and he talks to Jeremy about that journey.
Denise Mina's new book asks lots of moral questions of the reader - which she gets into - as well as revealing the treats she got from Betty's.
Anthony Horowitz talks about meta fiction, writing himself into his books and writing a book within a book - whilst keeping it simple!
And MW Craven reveals how he started taking writing seriously after nearly dying from a tumor - and why writing his character, Washington Poe, was so cathartic!
There's something for everyone in this bumper edition!

Collette Lyons and Paul Vlitos (aka Ellery Lloyd) join Sara for a natter about their new novel, 'Time To Burn'.
Paul and Collette not only write together, but are married too - and Sara has A LOT of questions!
Their new novel is about time travel gone wrong, so we delve into their inspirations for the book, how important the history was, and just how they plot and plan (and write) between the two of them.
Plus, we hear an extract from the audiobook - and - get two cracking book recommendations too!
Here's a little more about Ellery Lloyd's latest novel, 'Time To Burn':
If the past catches up with you, time travel can be murder . . .
London, the present day: commercial time travel is a reality. Tempus Tours – owned by controversial tech entrepreneur Inigo Frank – offers the wealthy a chance to witness pivotal moments in history.
To immortalise his achievement, Frank enlists award-winning filmmaker Phoebe Hunt to create a fly-on-the-wall documentary. On her first day shadowing Inigo, she is set to witness the return of a billionaire property developer and his family from their trip to the past. But instead of their awe-filled return, she captures the group arriving bloodied and traumatized, with one of their number missing.
Not only that, but Phoebe recognizes the missing woman. She knows not only that she's not who she claims to be, but that the woman has every reason to harbor a grudge against her. And as events begin to unravel in the present day, it seems increasingly clear that the woman had sinister motives for returning to the past – and that people close to Phoebe are in danger.
Can Phoebe stop the ripple effect before she loses everything – and everyone – she holds dear?

Debut novelist, Anna Goldreich, joins Sara in the Book Club to discuss 'The Leveret'.
They chat about her inspirations behind the story, farming, baby hares, grief, queer love and much much more.
Anna is also a keen twitcher - and runs a queer bird watching group in Norfolk - which Sara gets very interested in!
We also hear a clip of the audiobook - and - get a cracking book recommendation too!
Here's a little more about 'The Leveret':
Moving to the countryside is supposed to fix Clare and Phoebe’s relationship. A fresh start, a change of scenery, a chance to heal after the miscarriage of their baby girl.
Instead, Phoebe feels suffocated. Back in the rural community she ran from at seventeen and unable to face the partner she cannot help, she throws herself into work on the family farm. Clare is a stranger in the village, uninitiated and out of place. She spends her days drifting around the cottage, its walls groaning and shifting as she withdraws into a world inside her head.
One day, wandering through the forest nearby, Clare finds a leveret – her own little Isla. A surrogate to lick and love. A way to feel whole again.
But as Isla grows into an adult hare she becomes wild and unruly – a kicking, biting, scratching creature. With Clare’s grasp on reality growing ever more tenuous, Phoebe begins to question whether Isla is the cure for grief Clare is searching for as she desperately clings on to the woman she loves . . .
With this bruisingly tender love story, debut author Anna Goldreich has conjured a hazy dream of a novel about the fantasies we create as a refuge from grief. The Leveret is a heartbreakingly gorgeous and lyrically haunting hymn to queer love and the power to rebuild from the wreckage of a relationship.

Sara heads to Sheffield, for the Crossed Wires Festival, to speak with international bestselling author Lisa Jewell, in front of a live audience.
Lisa chats about her new thriller, 'It Could Have Been Her', as well as her writing inspirations, the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival and how she turned from writing commercial 'women's fiction' to dark psychological thrillers.
She also reads us a short extract of the novel, recommends us some books and takes audience questions too.
Here's a little more info on Lisa's new novel:
Jane Trevally, newly divorced and feeling a little lost, agrees to accompany a man she doesn't know to his house in the darkest corner of Hampstead Heath. She's offered a drink, goes in, and then - a scream and the sound of something falling upstairs - Jane senses she's in a bad place. She runs.
Twenty five years later, Jane finds herself outside the same house, this time to return a small white dog who's been found near her home in the country; a dog whose owner has just been reported missing.
A fleeting glimpse of a haunted looking woman through the window sends Jane on a mission to uncover the house's secrets - secrets more terrifying than she could have ever imagined, especially when she realises it could have been her. .

Fantasy author Sunyi Dean joins Sara for the Book Club, to chat about her new novel and the inspirations behind it.
They chat about Hong Kong, myths, legends, ghosts and dim sum!
We also hear a clip from the audiobook (*which has references to drowning) and get some great book recommendations from Sunyi too.
Here's a little more info on 'The Girl With A Thousand Faces':
Mercy Chan is a triad exorcist with a mysterious past. After washing up on the shores of Hong Kong with no memory during World War II, she found a home in Kowloon Walled City, an infamous, ghost-infested slum full of lost and traumatised civilians. Since the war ended, Mercy has rebuilt her life and found work as a ghost-talker for the local triad, dealing with the angry and bitter spirits who haunt this place.
But the past she can’t remember won’t let her go. An unusually powerful ghost lurks in Kowloon’s waterways, drowning innocents and threatening the district. Unnervingly, it claims to know Mercy – and her forgotten childhood.
As Mercy is drawn into a deadly cat-and-mouse game with this malignant spirit, she begins to realise that the monster she fights within these walls may well be one of her own making.