The Big Read

Saturday 20 July 2024 | 12.30pmThe Bramham Suite | Old Swan Hotel | HarrogateTicket: Free event, but you must book a ticket to secure your spacePlease note – If you reserving a ticket for this event you do not need to purchase a separate site pass for that day.BOOK NOWWe’re thrilled to launch the North’s biggest book club, The Big Read 2024, at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival this summer.

Join us on Saturday 20 July at 12.30pm for this free reading group, led by the Festival’s Reader-in-Residence, author Luca Veste, as we discuss Ajay Chowdhury’s The Detective.

We’re encouraging as many people as possible to read this fantastic work of fiction.

Reader-In-Residence Luca will also be touring libraries across the North of England in September 2024,  as he takes The Big Read on the road and opens up the discussion via social media.

How does it work?

If you’re local to Harrogate and want to get your hands on the book before hand, drop by our office at 32 Cheltenham Parade to collect a free copy of The Detective. Otherwise we will have free copies available at the event.

The full listing of library events for September will be announced in Summer 2024.

Meet our Reader-In-Residence:

Luca Veste is a writer of Italian and Liverpudlian heritage. He is the author of eight novels, including the Murphy & Rossi series, and standalone novels The Bone Keeper and You Never Said Goodbye. He is the co-organiser of the Locked Up Festival, which raised over £25,000 for the Trussell Trust, co-host of the Two Crime Writers and a Microphone podcast, and the bass player in the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers. He studied psychology and criminology at the University of Liverpool. He is married with two daughters and lives in Merseyside.Meet the Author:

Ajay Chowdhury was the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker–Bloody Scotland crime fiction award. He is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director who was born in India and now lives in London where he builds digital businesses, cooks experimental dishes for his wife and daughters and writes through the night. His children’s book, Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical.

The Waiter, published in 2021, is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures. Follow-up The Cook was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy is the fourth book in the Detective Kamil Rahman series. The Detective: The Plot

HAS SOMEONE GOT AWAY WITH MURDER?

Kamil has always wanted to be top cop. With a father who reached the position of Police Commissioner of the Calcutta police, what else could he do, other than hanker after an honourable career chasing the bad guys, just like his dad. However, the odds are stacked against him. He’s a Muslim in the Met, facing overt and covert racism and he needs to be twice as good as his colleagues to make it. All of this he could cope with, if only his personal life was humming along smoothly.

Anjoli is searching, but she doesn’t know what for. A high-minded psychologist who is super smart, always restless and naturally empathetic, she is meticulous and often finds connections Kamil has missed. She would love to get deeper into crime solving – possibly even have a go at it full-time but she can’t shake the feeling that she is an imposter in a game of let’s pretend. Kamil makes her laugh, but she doesn’t know why she can’t make the leap. Why is she so scared of surrendering her heart to him? Does she not feel deserving of love and adoration? Or does she fear a life where she’s always waiting for the other shoe to drop?Ticket Collection: All tickets for the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival are to be collected from our on-site box office, located at the entrance of the Old Swan Hotel, from 3.00pm on Thursday 18 July 2024. The box office will remain open throughout the Festival weekend. Collection of tickets prior to 18 July will not be possible.

All events will be at the Old Swan Hotel, Harrogate, HG1 2SR. Please note that there is no parking available at the Old Swan Hotel.

For more details about the Festival, view our #TheakstonsCrime FAQ Here

With thanks to our title sponsor:

In  Partnership  with: