But that's enough from me. Here are three of the Killer Women to tell you what influences their own writing and why this year's Killer Women Festival 2018 is the place to be!
Sarah Hilary
Sarah is author of the Marnie Rome series. She will be chairing the Fresh Blood panel at the Killer Women Festival (16.30-17.30).
1. Which crime fiction author or novel has influenced your own writing the most?
Am I allowed an author and a novel? The author would be Patricia Highsmith. There's something about her writing - so smooth and cool on the surface but it tangles you up and ties you to her world so utterly - which I'm always trying to unravel and from which I'm always learning. The novel would be Rebecca. I re-read it recently, and it struck me all over again just how much it affected me as a reader, and a budding writer. I first read it the summer I turned eleven, which I always thought was the ideal age to read it - as a young adolescent - but I enjoyed it hugely this last time, and took so much more from it than I ever have before. The emotion, the psychology, the atmospherics; it really is a masterpiece of storytelling.
2. Have you found a particular non-fiction book to be essential to (or influence) your own writing?
I'm a big fan of true crime. Most recently I enjoyed This House of Grief by Helen Garner, about a murder trial in Australia. It was utterly compelling, and almost unendurably real. The non-fiction book I've returned to most often when writing the Marnie Rome series is The Eye: A Human History by Simon Ing, for everything it has to say about the psychology of seeing and how we witness the world.
3. In 10 words or less, how would you describe Killer Women Festival 2018?
Ten tense, thrilling and tremendous hours for lovers of crime.
Mel McGrath
Mel's most recently book is a psychological thriller called Give Me the Child. She will be chairing the Sex Crime: Writing Sex in the #MeToo Age panel at the Killer Women Festival (10.15-11.15).
1. Which crime fiction author or novel has influenced your own writing the most?
I really can't just name one, but Barbara Vine and Patricia Highsmith both come to mind
2. Have you found a particular non-fiction book to be essential to (or influence) your own writing?
Really early on, Truman Capote's In Cold Blood. In the last couple of years probably Helen Garner's This House of Grief. Both brilliant non-fiction books about the impact of crime as much as about the crime itself.
3. In 10 words or less, how would you describe Killer Women Festival 2018?
Friendly, inclusive festival programmed by authors with readers in mind.
Kate Rhodes
Kate Rhodes is author of the Alice Quentin crime series and, most recently, the Hell Bay series.
1. Which crime fiction author or novel has influenced your own writing the most?
It’s horribly difficult to choose just one, but if those are the rules, I’ll pick Brighton Rock, by Graham Greene. I read it in my early teens, when it just seemed like a thrilling story, full of gangsters and danger. It’s only as an adult that I realise how beautifully woven the plot is, and that it works as a moral fable, with brilliant use of language.
2. Have you found a particular non-fiction book to be essential to (or influence) your own writing?
I tend to use websites, not printed materials when doing research, opting for specialist sites written by experts and updated regularly. My most recent book is about deep sea diving, so I combed the internet, looking for information on techniques, instead of putting on a diving suit myself!
3. In 10 words or less, how would you describe Killer Women Festival 2018?
A friendly, brilliant collection of crime-related events, open to everyone.
Find out more
This year's Killer Women Festival features bestselling authors, police experts, forensic scientists and criminologists. Visit the website here to find out more.The programme includes panels on forensic psychology, forensic science, forensic archaeology, the criminal justice system, geographic profiling, espionage and more! Check out what's going on here.
And visit here to buy tickets!
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