Mark Billingham (What the Night Brings) & Mark Edwards (The Wasp Trap)

DOUBLE AUTHOR EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT!

We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have two brilliant crime writers joining us for a second time! We are so lucky to welcome back Mark Billingham with his 25th novel in 25 years, What the Night Brings AND another magnificent Mark - Mark Edwards, with his brand new novel The Wasp Trap.

Mark and Mark will be in conversation with fellow author and friend of the shop, Catherine O'Flynn.

This will sell out fast so don't delay in booking your tickets!

Mark and Mark will be in conversation for around an hour, there will then be a book signing afterwards. 

Mark Billingham is one of the UK’s most acclaimed and popular crime writers. His series of novels featuring DI Tom Thorne has twice won him the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award. Every one of his twenty-four novels has been a Sunday Times top ten bestseller, his debut novel, Sleepyhead was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 books that had shaped the decade and Rabbit Hole, his 2020 novel, was named as Crime Book of the Year by The Times. In 2021 he received the award for Outstanding Contribution To Crime Fiction at the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival. A Sky television series based on the Thorne novels starred David Morrissey as Tom Thorne and a series based on In The Dark and Time Of Death was broadcast on the BBC in 2017. 

The Last Dance was the first in a new series, featuring DS Declan Miller, andwas published in 2023. DS Miller returned in 2024 with The Wrong Hands. What The Night Brings, Mark’s twenty-fifth novel, published in June 2025, sees a return for Tom Thorne, in what promises to be his most shocking and thought provoking novel to date.

Mark lives in London with his wife and two children. When he is not living out rock-star fantasies as a member of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers, he is hard at what is laughably called ‘work’, writing his next novel.

What the Night Brings - Mark Billingham
 

The lies are deadly, the truth unthinkable… Tom Thorne returns in Mark Billingham’s 25th novel, with his most shocking case ever.

"Three dead coppers, Tom, maybe four by lunchtime."

The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful. As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal. 

To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world. 

‘Twenty-five years and he only gets better’ Karin Slaughter

‘One of the genres most formidable talents.’ Peter James

'Mark Billingham gets better and better' Michael Connelly

Mark Edwardsis already one of the bestselling thriller authors in the UK, with more than 5 million copies sold and published into more than twenty languages; The Wasp Trap sees him published as a physical hardback for the first time. He writes psychological thrillers in which scary things happen to ordinary people. He has sold 5 million books since his first novel, The Magpies was published in 2013, and has topped the bestseller lists numerous times. His other novels include Follow You Home, The Retreat, In Her Shadow, Because She Loves Me, The Hollows and Here to Stay. He has also co-authored six books with Louise Voss. Originally from Hastings in East Sussex, Mark now lives in Wolverhampton with his wife, their children and two cats.

The Wasp Trap - Mark Edwards

Summer 1999. Will joins five other idealistic graduates working for an eccentric psychology professor. They’re going to launch a website to change online dating forever. No-one expects it to end in tragedy.

Twenty-five years later, Will gets an invitation: a dinner party. A chance to see the old gang again. But as soon as he arrives, something doesn’t seem right.

There’s an unexpected guest. The hosts are clearly keeping a secret. And on the way in, Will is sure he heard crying. 

Everyone has something to hide about what really happened that summer.

But only one of them is willing to kill to find the truth…

‘I loved this brilliant, edgy, character driven thriller with a passion. So clever and fresh with a wild and incredibly satisfying twist at the end’ - Lisa Jewell

‘Great and vivid characterisation that kept me guessing and surprises up to the very last page, this is a highly entertaining read.’ – Liz Nugent

Catherine O'Flynn is a novelist for adults and children. She is author of critically acclaimed novels: What Was Lost; The News Where You Are and Mr Lynch’s Holiday, and her books have been published in over 20 countries. Her writing has received various awards including the Costa First Novel Award and the Guildford Arts Book Prize, and been listed for the Booker, the Orange and the Bollinger Everyman Wodehouse Prize. Catherine’s Lori and Max novels for children based on her own experiences as a child detective were shortlisted for Blue Peter and UKLA book awards. Catherine has been described as ‘the JG Ballard of Birmingham...finding poetry and meaning where others see merely boredom and dereliction."