Creative Midlands Events

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The Shock of Readers’ Afternoon Posted: 15 May 2013 02:27 AM PDT The clouds were ominous; it was the day we'd been eagerly anticipating (for the last couple of weeks, anyway) and tensions were running high-ish. But when you're armed with cake for 65, what can go wrong? We welcomed four fantastic crime-thriller writers and a cheerful audience into the lovely Water Hall at Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery for an afternoon of treacherous tales, Q&As and cake. Having tucked into generous-sized Madeira with cherries in it I can personally vouch for the refreshments. And the authors didn't disappoint; when the laughter from the audience wasn't filling the hall (who knew crime could be so amusing?), we were all leaning forward in our seats eagerly listening to the  quadruplet as they offered advice to other writers, shared personal stories and read from their work. A personal highlight was hearing Helen Cross talking about her newest book Wolf-Girls: Dark Tales of Teeth, Claws and Lycogyny; 'he swung from her arm-pit hair like a monkey from a tree' (please excuse the inaccuracy of this quotation; it is purely from memory!). I missed the beginning where she announced she would be reading from this book (I was undertaking the important task of preparing the cake) and thought her protagonist was just a very hairy woman. The realisation made me laugh out loud. Having been previously unfamiliar with Sabine Durrant and Nathan Filer's work, I am excited to get started on both of their novels. 'I'll tell you what happened because it will be a good way to introduce my brother. His name's Simon. I think you're going to like him. I really do. But in a couple of pages he'll be dead. And he was never the same after that.' This is the only blurb on the beautiful cover of The Shock of the Fall (Filer) and in these six sentences I am sure I am going to be riveted. And having read a review of Under Your Skin (Durrant) where the Guardian warns that the novel "rapidly unravels into a maelstrom of tension and paranoia" I doubt that this will be any different. With a reputation for devouring books like my life-depended on it, and being prone to staying up all night to do so, I'm sure I can look forward to a fair amount of happy sleep-deprivation. I have read, and enjoyed, a book of Chris McCabe's (pen name John Macken) before, so I was excited to walk away with Breaking Point: the third of four books starring Reuben Maitland, an ex-CID agent. This one features the slightly sci-fi concept that DNA can predict homicidal tendencies. I am definitely interested! And concerned. But in a good way. Chaired by the wonderful Roz Goddard, the event shocked, thrilled and, most of all, entertained us all. And only a small percentage of that was because of the cake. Cake word total = 4. By Sian Buckley

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