Alison Joseph
 
     
     
 

Welcome!

2023 sees us celebrating the 30th St Hilda’s Crime Fiction Weekend from 11th to 13th August. As one of the chairs, I will be moderating a session on Saturday where Fiona Cummins will speak on Stephen King: In Celebration of Death and Beyond, and Alexandra Benedict will discuss Parties in the Dark – Crime at Christmas and Halloween. In-person and online tickets are available here.

A few months ago I took part in the Hawkwood Artist Residency progamme, working on a new departure into non-fiction. I am also currently writing a new Sister Agnes novel called The Judas Chalice, which is due to be published in 2024.

Finally for this round-up, I've got a review of a new collection of Maigret stories on the CrimeTime website.


Over 13th–15th August 2021 I was one of the chairs of the 2021 St Hilda’s College Crime Fiction Weekend. Like last year's event, this will be live and online so you can take part wherever you are in the world. The video streams will be available for a month after the event to enable attendees to watch at the most convenient time. For more information and to book your ticket, please click here.

In May I spoke at The Bodies from the Library 2021 conference on Howdunit: a Masterclass in Crime Writing, a new book from the Detection Club which is, as the title suggests, all about how to write crime fiction from the broadest list of subjects – plot, character, themes, historical background, sense of place, but also just the business of being a crime writer and making a living. My contribution is about writing crime fiction for radio drama. Edited by Martin Edwards and published by HarperCollins, Howdunit has been shortlisted for numerous non-fiction crime awards both in the UK and the US.

What Dark Days SeenIn July 2020 I published a new Sister Agnes novella, What Dark Days Seen. Sister Agnes, confined to her flat during lockdown, encounters a troubled young woman by the old plague pits of Southwark. In trying to prevent a crime, Agnes has to face up to her own feelings of imprisonment. What Dark Days Seen is available on Kindle on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.

I wrote an article for CrimeTime: Missing Mrs. Christie: The search for Agatha in the Mary Westmacott novels.

"The Asphodel Meadows", a new short story featuring Sister Agnes, appears in The Book of Extraordinary Amateur Sleuths and Private Eye Stories, an anthology edited by Maxim Jakubowski.

I'm featured on a podcast, Counter Current, being interviewed by Professor Roger Kneebone. Click here for a stream or here for Apple Podcasts.

Like many events, the 2020 Killer Women Festival for Crime Writing & Drama and the 2020 St Hilda’s College Crime Fiction Weekend were hit by Covid-19. The former was cancelled, while the latter took place online. 

I recently appeared on Authors Studio - Meet The Masters hosted by Peter James:

Previous appearances:

I interviewed John Harvey and moderated panels for That’s SO Last Century: 20th Century Historicals and Down With The Patriarchy at Crimefest 2019 in Bristol (9th-12th May 2019).

I chaired a panel at the Killer Women Festival 2018 on Sunday October 21st 2018 at Browns Covent Garden, London.

I took part in Crimefest in Bristol in May 2018. In September 2017 I was a star speaker at the 5th Pune International Literary Festival; there is a report at the Sakal Times. I also participated in Killer Women's Killer Weekend 2017 in October.

ExileThe Exile, a new novella by James Patterson with Alison Joseph for the Bookshots series of short fiction, was launched in March 2017. It is available in paperback and Kindle at Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.Death in Disguise

My new novella Death in Disguise was recently published. The third in the Agatha Christie Investigates series, it is a whodunnit with an introspective slant, creating false realities whilst revealing the truth. Death in Disguise is now available on Kindle on Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com, with a paperback edition due soon.

I have written a post for the Killer Women blog: Writing the Past.

Other recent activity:

In October 2016 I was part of the very exciting Killer Women one-day festival – London’s first ever female-led crime festival – at Shoreditch Town Hall. We launched our Killer Women Anthology, published by Audible as audio, e-book and paperback.

A brand new Sister Agnes short story has been published in a Detection Club anthology: Motives for Murder, in honour of Peter Lovesey.

I appeared with fellow Killer Women Kate Rhodes and Erin Kelly at the Slaughter in Southwold crime fiction festival, on Saturday June 18th.

I was one of the speakers at a special conference at Exeter University, The Ageless Agatha Christie, on June 20th-21st.

I also appeared at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Festival in Harrogate over July 21st-24th.

On Wednesday April 20th I live tweeted for Endeavour Press' Historical Festival.

On Tuesday April 19th I appeared at Crawley Wordfest, in West Sussex, on a Killer Women panel.

Samir's LamentMy new short story featuring my new detective, Malone, is up on Amazon as a Kindle Single. It's called Samir's Lament.

Samir is someone who has fled the dangers of war, only to find himself homeless in London and in a new kind of danger. Malone is the detective at the heart of this story. An Irishman, himself a refugee, he has to intervene when Samir finds himself at the centre of a killing.

This is a story with London at its heart. It's about the scars of war, the loss of a place to belong; the need for a place to call home.

You can order it in the UK here, and in the USA here.

Murder Will OutHidden Sins, my new novella featuring Agatha Christie as detective, is now available from Endeavour Press. In June 1925, Agatha Christie is holidaying in Cornwall and working on a new novel. But her plans are interrupted when one of the guests is found shot dead on the hotel tennis courts. As Agatha is drawn into the investigation, it becomes clear that the killing has its roots in the Great War, and the truth is obscured by the shadows it still casts. Click here to order it in the UK, and here in the USA; a paperback adition will shortly be available.

In September 2015 I appeared at the International Agatha Christie Festival, in Torquay, Devon, on a panel entitled Following In Her Footsteps: Meet The Killer Women. See the festival website for more information. Killer Women is a new and high-profile group of London-based women crime and thriller writers – I'm delighted to be a part of it.

Two further pieces saw publication last year: an essay in the book Crime Uncovered: Detective, edited by Barry Forshaw (published by Intellect Ltd in September), plus a short story featuring Sherlock Holmes' nemesis, in The Mammoth Book of the Adventures of Moriarty edited by Maxim Jakubowski, (published in October).

Three of my Sister Agnes novels are now available on Kindle through Endeavour Press: The Quick And The Dead, A Dark And Sinful Death and The Dying Light. Click here for the links.

After two years, my term as Chair of the CWA has come to an end. It was an honour to serve the CWA, and also lots of fun. I wish crime writer L.C. Tyler the very best in his new role as Chair!

I was recently interviewed by Valerie Holmes.

I appeared at two other festivals in 2015 – Crimefest in Bristol in May, and the Mystery and Crime Weekend at St Hilda's College, Oxford in August.

Murder Will OutMy first novella Murder Will Out, published on Kindle, features Agatha Christie in the role of the detective in 1923. It is both a tribute to Agatha Christie, who remains the master (mistress?) of the crime novel, and also a meditation on the relationship between real life and the fictional world, and how story-telling is at the heart of our attempts to create order out of chaos. I have tried to write a story as deceptively simple, as pared-down, and as elegant, as the best of Dame Agatha's work. If I am halfway there, I shall be delighted. Click here to order it in the UK, and here in the USA.

2014 marked 50 years of Inspector Wexford, and in October Baroness Ruth Rendell and I discussed Wexford, Ruth Rendell's new novel The Girl Next Door, and much more, at the Bishopsgate Institute in London. Click here for audio of the event.

My new short story, Vermilion, appeared in the April-May 2014 edition of The London Magazine.

Dying to KnowMy novel Dying to Know is available on Kindle. Click here to order it in the UK, and here in the USA.

Crime Time has a feature on Dying to Know here.

On 4th December 2013 I chaired a joint Heffers and CWA event in Cambridgewith Rowan Williams and Raymond Tallis called Narrative and Meaning: Science, Religion and the Stories We Tell. You can watch a video of the discussion here.

I have a new short story called 'Click' in a crime anthology called Deadly Pleasures, published by Severn House in July. Click here to visit Severn House.

In April 2013 I began a two-year stint as Chair of the Crime Writers' Association, taking over from Peter James. Crime Time interviewed me about the new role.

My abridgement of Bedsit Disco Queen, the memoir by Tracey Thorn, was broadcast in early March 2013 on BBC Radio 4 in the Book of the Week slot.

I wrote the January blog for the Society of Authors about the BBC Audio Drama Awards — click here to read it.

Ali Karim recently interviewed me — click here to read our discussion at The Rap Sheet.

Follow me on Twitter: @alisonjoseph1.

The Sister Agnes books are now available on Amazon Kindle. Click to view the series on Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com. You can also find individual links to each e-book here.

In October 2011 I was one of the curators for the Society of Authors' short story tweetathon, a campaign to raise awareness of the short story culturally. Starting off with a first line by Neil Gaiman, it involved people choosing five lines via Twitter to make up a short story. Click here for more information.

I recently visited the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva to research my current novel.

My 2009 article on the differences between Sherlock Holmes and Inspector Maigret is available online at Crime Time, a magazine for fans of crime writing. Click here to read it — and visit www.crimetime.co.uk for other crime fiction articles, news and interviews.

A Violent ActThe latest Sister Agnes novel, A Violent Act, is published in hardback by Allison & Busby (ISBN 978-0749080631) and also available for Kindle. To find out more click here.

In addition to writing novels, I write plays and adapt fiction & non-fiction for the BBC.

For information about me and my other writing projects, click here.

Click here for details of my radio work.

You can e-mail me here.

 

Sister Agnes books on Kindle — Amazon.co.uk

Sister Agnes books on Kindle — Amazon.com

Allison & Busby web-site

British Crime Writers' Association web-site


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