An Interview with Simon Mason

Longlisted for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award 2024, Simon Mason, joins Harrogate International Festivals and host Joe Haddow, to talk about his book, The Broken Afternoon. 

A shocking disappearance.

A four-year-old girl goes missing in plain sight outside her nursery in Oxford, a middle-class, affluent area,
her mother only a stones-throw away.

A triggering response.

Ryan Wilkins, one of the youngest ever Detective Inspectors in the Thames Valley force, dishonourably discharged three months ago, watches his former partner DI Ray Wilkins deliver a press conference, confirming a lead.

A dark web.

A little more about the author…

Simon Mason was born in Sheffield in 1962. He was educated at local schools and studied English at Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford. He is the author of three novels of black comedy for adults, The Great English Nude, which won a Betty Trask Award in 1990, Death of a Fantasist and Lives of the Dog-Stranglers. The Quigleys, his first book for children, was published in 2002.