Crime Fiction Special

Mon 27 July 2026 | 8.30pm | £16

Multi-award-winning Armagh writer Stuart Neville has invited some of the most popular and critically acclaimed crime writers to join him to discuss their work for this annual festival highlight.

Stuart Neville's debut novel, 'The Ghosts of Belfast' (published in the UK as 'The Twelve'), won the Mystery/Thriller category of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and was picked as one of the top crime novels of 2009 by both the New York Times and the LA Times. He has been shortlisted for various awards, including the MWA Edgar, CWA Dagger, Theakstons Old Peculier Novel of the Year, Barry, Macavity, Dilys awards, as well as the Irish Book Awards Crime Novel of the Year.

Harriet Tyce, criminal barrister and standout star of Series 4 of BBC's The Traitors, is the million-copy, Sunday Times bestselling author of four novels. After practising as a criminal barrister in London for nearly a decade, she subsequently completed an MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. Her first novel, 'Blood Orange', published in 2019 to huge critical acclaim and this was followed by three bestsellers; 'The Lies You Told', 'It Ends at Midnight' and 'A Lesson in Cruelty'. Her fifth novel, the addictive thriller, 'Witch Trial', was published earlier this year.

Catherine Ryan Howard is a No 1 bestselling Irish thriller writer whose work has been shortlisted for many major awards including the An Post Irish Crime Fiction Book of the Year multiple times. Her books are published in 20 languages, and a number of her titles have been optioned for screen. Catherine's fifth novel, 56 Days, was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award and a screen adaptation starring Dove Cameron and Avan Jogia will debut exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in February 2026. Her eagerly awaited next novel, Buyer Beware, publishes in the UK/Ireland on 16 July.

"Beautifully written, brilliantly entertaining, and brutally terrifying, Buyer Beware is Ryan Howard's best book to date and that is saying something." — Liz Nugent