About this Event
Meet our fabulous crime-writing trio; BP Walter, a Sunday Times bestselling author including The Dinner Guest, The Garden Party and The New Boyfriend; Rebecca Hannigan, Little Brown Crime Prize author of the intricate thriller “Darkrooms” and Julie Haworth, RNA Romantic Novel Award author of “M**der at Honeysuckle Cottage”. Our wonderful authors will share their writing journeys, read extracts from their books and answer your questions in a Q&A session
BP Walter Sunday Times bestselling author of thirteen twisty thrillers, including The Dinner Guest, The Garden Party, The Locked Attic, The Winter Visitor and The New Boyfriend. My new festive mystery The Christmas Guest publishes in autumn 2026. Born and raised in Essex, my novel The Dinner Guest was a Number 1 Times Bestseller and a Sunday Times Top 10 bestseller. I have also written a fantasy horror novel, Scuttle, under the name Barnaby Walter and a gothic thriller, Medlock, as S G Hartnell.
Rebecca Hannigan has an MA in Creative Writing Crime Fiction from UEA, graduating in 2023. She won the UEA/Little Brown Crime Prize for her dissertation. She has also been shortlisted for Virago/The Pool’s Best New Crime Writer.
Julie Haworth writes both cosy crime and contemporary romance novels about love, friendship and community, bursting with charm and just a dash of mystery, from her home in the bustling city of Chelmsford, Essex. Her debut novel, Always By Your Side, won the RNA's Debut Romantic Novel award in 2023 and her second novel, New Beginnings at the Cosy Cat Café, was shortlisted for the RNA’s Popular Romantic Novel award in 2025. Julie's first cosy crime novel, M**der at Honeysuckle Harbour, is scheduled for publication in autumn 2026
There will also be an opportunity to buy books and have them signed by the authors - please note; sales will be cash only.
The Christmas Guest
This Christmas will be M**der…
Once a year, the Wentworth siblings come to Liars Island. For the rest of the year they avoid each other – but Christmas is for family. There’s Nicole, smart and quiet. Archie, ambitious and reckless. Cliff, sweet and confused.
Six years ago, one of them killed their mother.
I’m here to find out which one.
But as the Wentworths avoid each other’s eyes and gently deflect my questions, outside a storm is rising.
And the trap I thought I’d set for them might be closing around me…
M**der At Honeysuckle Harbour
'An idyllic Devon village. A murdered pug breeder. And a vet with a nose for trouble...
When Daisy Turner returns to the seaside village of Honeysuckle Harbour to take over her late father's vet practice, she's expecting muddy paws, cuddly cats, and the chance to grieve in peace. What she gets is a new vet trying to drive her out of business, a handsome new colleague... and a dead body.
Margot Kinkade was a successful local pug breeder, and when the police say her death was an accident, Daisy isn't convinced. Margot was meticulous – and the pet passport Daisy spots at the scene raises questions no one else seems willing to ask.
With the village police refusing to listen and a whiteboard full of clues set up in her spare room, Daisy sets out to diagnose this mystery the only way she knows how: gathering symptoms until a pattern emerges.
Can Daisy unravel a web of secrets without putting herself - or her animals - in danger?'
Darkrooms
Two girls went into the Hanging Woods. Only one returned.
Twenty years ago Caitlin vowed never to return to her small Irish hometown. Now she drifts from temporary jobs to temporary men, trying to escape memories of the Hanging Woods. Of what happened to Roisin there.
But with news of her estranged mother's sudden death, Caitlin is forced to return home, back to the town where everyone knows each other's business and old resentments run deep.
Roisin's sister Deedee, now a Garda, has never given up on finding the truth of what happened in those woods. And Caitlin's return makes old wounds fresh, threatening to exhume secrets that have lain buried for two decades - while the Hanging Woods begin their siren call to Caitlin and Deedee once more . . .
Event venue & nearby stays
The Forum, Southend on Sea, Elmer Square, Southend-on-Sea, United Kingdom
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