BAD International Online Festival

ADRIAN MCKINTY ● JANET EVANOVICH ● HARLAN COBEN ● DON WINSLOW ● MICK HERRON 

FIVE THURSDAYS IN JUNE - FIVE INTERNATIONAL STARS - FIVE NEW BOOKS

BAD: All About Crime brings you a month-long online festival with bestselling international crime writers Zooming in to talk to us about their newest thrillers.

2 June: Adrian McKinty in conversation with Tim Ayliffe
9 June: Janet Evanovich in conversation with Sue Turnbull
16 June: Harlan Coben in conversation with Michael Duffy
POSTPONED: Don Winslow in conversation with Michael Brissenden
30 June: Mick Herron in conversation with Kate Evans

TICKETS

See one or several speakers in conversation for $10 per session.

Q&A

Due to timezone differences, the first four sessions will be pre-recorded, so please send any questions you have for the authors ahead of time to contextcpm@gmail.com.

6PM THURSDAY 2 JUNE - ADRIAN MCKINTY IN CONVERSATION WITH TIM AYLIFFE

THE ISLAND: Propulsive, pulse-raising and terrifying, The Island is the next thrilling adventure from the mastermind behind the award-winning global sensation The Chain, and a family story unlike any you've read. Set on an island off the Australian coast and in the USA it features some of the nastiest and one of the bravest characters you have ever read.

An American family talk their way onto a remote Australian island run by a tightly knit clan of locals. Then a shocking accident happens and the adventure turns into a nightmare where they are fighting for their lives. 

Adrian McKinty was born and grew up in Belfast, Northern Ireland, during the Troubles of the 1970s and 1980s. His father was a boilermaker and ship's engineer and his mother a secretary. Adrian went to Oxford University on a full scholarship to study philosophy before emigrating to the United States to become a high school English teacher. His debut crime novel, Dead I Well May Be, was shortlisted for the 2004 Dagger Award and was optioned by Universal Pictures. His books have won the Edgar Award, the Ned Kelly Award, the Anthony Award, the Barry Award and have been translated into over 20 languages. Adrian is a reviewer and critic for the Sydney Morning Herald, the Irish Times and The Guardian. Adrian lived in Australia for several years and now lives in New York City with his wife and two children.

Tim Ayliffe has been a journalist for more than 20 years and is the Managing Editor of Television and Video for ABC News Australia and the former Executive Producer of News Breakfast. He has travelled widely and before joining the ABC he worked in London for British Sky News. A few years ago he turned his hand to writing global crime thrillers featuring former foreign correspondent John Bailey. He is the author of The Greater Good, State of Fear and The Enemy Within which are being adapted for the screen. When he’s not writing or chasing news stories Tim rides bikes and surfs. He lives in Sydney.

6PM THURSDAY 9 JUNE - JANET EVANOVICH IN CONVERSATION WITH SUE TURNBULL

THE RECOVERY AGENT: Janet Evanovich returns with a new series blending wild adventure, hugely appealing characters, and pitch-perfect humour. As a recovery agent, Gabriela Rose is hired to find lost treasures, stolen heirlooms, or missing assets of any kind. She’s reliable, cool under pressure, and well trained in weapons of all types. But her latest job is for her own family, whose home is going to be wiped off the map if they can’t come up with a lot of money fast. This particular job comes with a huge problem attached to it - Gabriela’s ex-husband, Rafer. It’s Rafer who has the map that possibly points the way to the treasure. Together they need to defeat a vicious drug lord who has also been searching for the treasure and who doesn’t mind leaving a large body count behind him to get it.

Over the last twenty-six years, Janet Evanovich has written a staggering forty-two New York Times bestsellers, with her last seventeen Stephanie Plum novels going straight to #1 on the NY Times Best Sellers list. She has over two hundred million books in print worldwide, and her books have been translated into over 40 languages. The Recovery Agent is the start of a blockbuster new series starring Gabriela Rose.

Sue Turnbull, the queen of Australian crime reviewers, has been writing about crime fiction for The Sydney Morning Herald and the Age for over twenty years. She is a crime fiction judge for the Ned Kelly Awards, the Davitt Awards and is an Ambassador for Sisters in Crime Australia. Her academic publications include The TV Crime Drama (Edinburgh University Press 2014) and Media Audiences (Palgrave Macmillan 2020). She is the Chair of the Board of BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival and Senior Professor of Communication and Media at the University of Wollongong.

POSTPONED - HARLAN COBEN IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL DUFFY

THE MATCH: In this gripping new thriller Harlan Coben returns to Wilde, the man with a childhood shrouded in mystery who appeared one day in the Ramapo Mountains with no memory of how he got there or the mother and father who abandoned him. Here, Wilde follows a tip that he hopes will finally solve the mystery of his origins, but instead sends him straight into the arms of a serial killer. More taut suspense and jaw-dropping twists from this modern master of the thriller genre.

With more than seventy million books in print worldwide, Harlan Coben is the worldwide number 1 bestselling author of numerous thrillers, including Don't Let Go, Home, and Fool Me Once, as well as the multi-award-winning Myron Bolitar series. His books are published in forty-three languages around the globe and are bestsellers in more than a dozen countries. Coben is also the creator and executive producer of many television shows, including the Netflix Original drama Harlan Coben’s The Stranger and the critically acclaimed Netflix Original drama Harlan Coben’s Safe. Coben is currently developing 14 projects, including Run Away, with Netflix in the US and internationally. He lives in New Jersey.

Michael Duffy has worked as a crime reporter and written the novel Drive By, set in south-western Sydney, co-authored the crime history Sydney Noir: The Golden Years, and recently released the crime novel The Problem with Murder. He is a founder of BAD Sydney Crime Writers Festival.

6PM THURSDAY 23 JUNE - DON WINSLOW IN CONVERSATION WITH MICHAEL BRISSENDEN

CITY ON FIRE: The first in an epic crime trilogy about crime syndicates in 1980s and 1990s America. Irish and Italian criminal empires together control all of New England until a war erupts that will leave only one standing. Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise become a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die. Exploring the classic themes of loyalty, betrayal, and honour, City on Fire is a contemporary masterpiece.

Don Winslow is the author of many acclaimed, award-winning international bestsellers, including the New York Times bestseller and sensation The Force, the #1 international bestseller The Cartel, The Power of the Dog, Savages, and The Winter of Frankie Machine. Savages was made into a major film by three-time Oscar-winning writer-director Oliver Stone. The Power of the Dog, The Cartel and The Border sold to FX in a major multi-million-dollar TV deal. The Force is soon to be a film starring Matt Damon. A former investigator, anti-terrorist trainer and trial consultant, Winslow lives in California and Rhode Island.

Two-time Walkley Award winner, Michael Brissenden is a now a reporter for the ABC’s 4 Corners after more than thirty years as a political journalist and foreign correspondent, covering many of the biggest international stories from all corners of the globe. He was the political editor for the 7.30 Report in Canberra from 2003 to 2009, the ABC’s Defence and National Security Correspondent and most recently he has worked as the host of the AM national current affairs program. In 2017 released his debut page-turning thriller The List. His second novel, Dead Letters, was published in 2021.

6PM THURSDAY 30 JUNE - MICK HERRON - IN CONVERSATION WITH KATE EVANS

BAD ACTORS: In the new book of the addictive Slough House series, a key member of a Downing Street think-tank has disappeared. But the trail leads straight back to Regent’s Park HQ itself, with its chief, Diana Taverner,as prime suspect. Meanwhile her Russian counterpart has unexpectedly shown up in London and has slipped under MI5’s radar. In a world where lying, cheating and backstabbing is the norm, bad actors are bending the rules for their own gain. If the slow horses want to change the script, they’ll need to get their own act together before the final curtain.

Mick Herron is a bestselling and award-winning novelist and short story writer, best known for his Slough House thrillers. The series has been adapted into a TV series starring Oscar-winning actor Gary Oldman as Jackson Lamb. The Slough House novels have been published in 20 languages; have won both the CWA Steel and Gold daggers; have been shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year four times; and have won Denmark’s Palle Rosenkrantz prize. Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford.

Kate Evans has a PhD in History and has worked in publishing, universities, TV and radio. She, joined Radio National in 1997. In that time, she has worked as both a producer and presenter, on historical programs like Hindsight and Rear Vision, ideas programs including Australia Talks, Movie Time and Life Matters, and in recent years has specialised in interviews with authors on Books and Arts and Books Plus. Kate currently co-presents The Bookshelf with Cassie McCullaugh, a weekly radio show where they review the latest in fiction for dedicated readers and for those who wish they read more.