Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train, will headline this year’s Crime Story festival in Newcastle upon Tyne on 11 June 2016.
Crime Story gives writers and fans of crime fiction rare access to experts from the fields of forensics, criminology, pathology and law, who explore the facts behind a crime story.
This year they will pick apart a fictional crime written by Hawkins. She wrote four romantic comedy novels under the name Amy Silver from around 2009, including Confessions of a Reluctant Recessionista. She achieved her commercial breakthrough in 2015 with her dark thriller The Girl on the Train, one of last year's best-sellers.
She says it took her six months writing full-time to complete - at a time when she was in a difficult financial situation and had to borrow from her father to be able to complete it.
- Festival website: crimestory.co.uk (full programme will be announced on Thursday 10 March)
