Murder in Merton: Crime in the Library

Last night I had the pleasure of attending a fun crime writing event at one of the libraries in my local London borough, Merton, with the Crime in the Library author panel at Wimbledon Library, held in association with National Crime Reading Month, Wimbledon BookFest, and Murder in Merton.

Having organised 80+ library events in New Zealand (plus Tasmania, Melbourne, and Reyjavik) in recent years that I haven't attended in person, it was nice to go to a library crime fiction panel nearby. More often any crime fiction events are held in central London, at Waterstones Piccadilly and the like.

Kudos to local Merton author Joy Kluver for setting up Murder in Merton to encourage more events in SW London. Joy chaired last night's event, which featured Putney author Robert Gold, journalist turned crime writer Saima Mir, and Irish author Olivia Kiernan, who'd set her most recent book THE END OF US in Wimbledon. It grew into a really fun event, with lots of interesting discussion about characterisation, the importance of setting, each of the authors' approach to crime writing, and more.

It was great to see a big (120+) audience in attendance, with people enjoying the discussion, buying drinks and books and getting them signed (thanks Waterstones Wimbledon for supporting the event), which will hopefully encourage the Library and others to host more crime writing events locally. 

The Wimbledon Crime in the Library panel showcasing each others' books:
Joy with Liv's book, Robert with Joy's, Liv with Saima's and Saima with Robert's. 

Hopefully there will plenty more crime writing events held in future. It's lovely to mix in these local library (and bookshop) evenings among all the festivals large and small and numerous book launches over spring-autumn. We're blessed with a cornucopia of great crime writing nowadays, and it's great to see writers and readers (and libraries) connecting in a variety of ways.