The Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival 2012 is over. The books have been put on the shelf, the ‘tossergate’ explosion on twitter has died down, and the reservations have been made for 2013.
Therefore Theakstons Old Peculiar Crime Writing Festival Challenge 2012 has come to an end.
As I’ve said before technically I failed the initial challenge. However its my challenge and my rules therefore the abridged version of the challenge was to read a book by an author in every session. This was much more manageable, and I’m proud to say I read a book by an author in all 18 sessions, including Crime in another dimension.
For those of you wanting more figures – during the festival there were 50 authors appearing over the three days (Mark Lawson was mistakenly counted as an author in my previous post) In total if I include some books that I read prior to starting the blog, although have read since last august when we first booked to attend the festival, I have read 33 of them which I think is quite impressive! 20 of the books have been read in the past 5 months.
I’ve enjoyed every minute of the challenge, and also the blogging. Its been a great chance for me to revisit authors I knew as well as find some new ones to try. Having a target has meant that at times I’ve read books that I would not normally have picked up. Its also meant that very occasionally I’ve wanted a break from crime and have been tempted to pick up some pink fluffy stuff, but luckily I’ve always resisted! Coming back from Harrogate I did wander if I would want to have a total crime break, but I’m pleased to report thats not the case. In fact completely the opposite and I can’t wait to devour the huge pile of books I brought back with me.
So as one door closes another opens as they say. This time its in the guise of guess what… yes the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2013! We have our places reserved and I’m looking forward to it. Val McDermid is going to be chairing the programme committee (a decade after she chaired the very first festival) Already lined up to talk is Charlaine Harris, Kate Atkinson and Ruth Rendell, so its going to be another action packed weekend and this time giving myself a whole year to do it I’m once again going to aim to complete the TOPCWFC take 2!
List of novels read:
- Amanda Kyle Williams – Stranger you seek
- Ann Cleaves – The glass room
- Camilla Lackberg – Hidden child
- Chris Mooney – Soul collectors
- David Mark – The dark winter
- Deon Myer – Devils peak
- Elizabeth Haynes – Into the darkest corner
- Gillian Flynn – Dark Places
- Gregg Hurwitz – You’re next
- Harlen Coben – Live Wire
- Ian Rankin – The impossible dead
- Jilliane Hoffman – Plea of insanity
- Jo Nesbo – The Leopard
- John Connolly – Burning Soul
- Julia Crouch – The Cuckoo
- Kate Mosse – The Winterghosts
- Laura Lippman – Don’t look back
- Megan Abbott – The end of everything
- Mark Billingham – Bloodline
- Neil Cross – Captured
- Nicola Upson – Two for sorrow
- Oliver Harris – The hollow man
- Penny Hancock – Tideline
- Peter James – Dead like you
- Peter Robinson – Before the poison
- Ryan David Jahn – Acts of violence
- Stephen Leather – The basement
- Stuart MacBride – Shatter the bones
- Stuart Neville – The twelve
- Tania Carver – Cage of bones
- Tim Weaver – Dead tracks
- Tony Thompson – Gangland
- Val McDermid – The retribution
A crime readers blog 