by Ann Chadwick
As Bristol’s long-running CrimeFest comes to an end in May, Ann Chadwick explores why murder has become a national obsession, from our bookshelves to our screens.
CrimeFest’s roll call of authors can feel a bit like flicking through the Radio Times TV Guide. Last year, Bristol’s long-standing crime fiction convention, which first began in 2008, welcomed authors such as Laura Lippman (Apple TV adapted her novel, Lady in the Lake, starring Natalie Portman), and the original trailblazer, Lynda La Plante, who set up her own TV production company after Prime Suspect was released in 1991, making a star of Helen Mirren.
This year, brothers Lee and Andrew Child who co-write the Jack Reacher series, headline CrimeFest. With a book selling somewhere in the world every nine seconds, maybe you’re one of the 100 million people in need of an addictive Reacher fix? Readers mainline a book a year.
Reacher was adapted to screen starring Tom Cruise, and is now streaming for the small screen via Amazon Prime starring Alan Ritchson. It all began when Jim Grant (Lee’s real name) spent £3.99 on pencils and paper at his kitchen table when, aged 40, he was made redundant and began to write. It’s the stuff of Hollywood movies. A boy from Coventry ends up flying in helicopters with Tom Cruise (he’s had cameos in each of the Reacher films, as well as the Amazon series).
In my previous interviews with Lee, he’s explained why this genre has, literally, got a stranglehold on popular culture: “Everybody really wants a fair world,” Lee said. “Everybody really wants to do the right thing, but generally speaking we can’t because we’re either physically incapable, inhibited or intimidated. Or maybe the unfairness is at work, where if you make waves, you’re going to get fired, so people live with a kind of buzz of frustration all the time. They want to do the right thing but they can’t so they turn to the Reacher books. Reacher does what they want to do, and they find that very consoling, a compensation – real life isn’t like that, but it can be in fiction.”
Reacher soothes a universal nerve in a world where Lee says everyone is insecure in a ‘big culture of anxiety.’ Look at the news headlines. Or at your heating bills. Or the threat of AI taking over all our jobs. No wonder we want the world putting to rights.
Steve Mosby, who writes under the pen name Alex North, is also heading to the city for the mini-crimewave. Like Lee, Steve has been coming to CrimeFest for years. The Leeds author has written ten novels as Steve Mosby, then, in 2019 he released a book under the pen name, Alex North: The Whisper Man. It became a Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller, translated into over 30 languages.
Last month, it was announced that none other than Robert De Niro will star in an adaptation of The Whisper Man for Netflix, produced by the famed Russo brothers. “I had to read the email twice. It felt a little surreal,” Steve said on being told De Niro would star in his book adaptation. “I had to keep it quiet, but that was fine. People are working hard behind the scenes, and I wouldn’t want to mess anything up. It was nice to have good news that I knew would come out eventually.”
Steve is a fan. “Aside from all the obvious classics, I’m a huge fan of Midnight Run. That’s a perfect film to me, and he’s brilliant in it. The scene with his estranged daughter is beautifully done, but the whole thing is great.” The process of page to screen took years: “I signed the original deal for The Whisper Man close to seven years ago now, so it’s been a while. I think you have to put the whole process out of your mind and see what happens as time passes.”
Lee Child has cameos in all his screen adaptations, but Steve said his involvement has been pretty hands-off. “I’ve spoken to the director, and I’ve been asked for my thoughts on various drafts of the screenplay, which I’ve given, even though I know it’s not my medium. That’s a nice level of involvement. You have to accept that certain things are going to change. I’ve been very lucky in that the people involved have captured everything that was important to me about the story, and I couldn’t ask for more than that.”
His fourth Alex North book The Man Made of Smoke was published in May.
Steve believes the genre lends itself well to the screen due to its page-turning qualities: “The crime genre relies upon putting great characters under pressure in extreme situations. There’s a natural momentum to the stories, and they can deal with very weighty themes. But also, crime readers are really smart: as writers we have to work hard to keep them wrong-footed, surprised, and wanting more, which is ideal for the screen in this day and age.”
Conventions like CrimeFest are also where screen magic happens.The Welsh-Canadian author Cathy Ace described how attending CrimeFest changed her life.
At the 2018 event, she was hanging out with the author Martina Cole, who introduced her to her friend, Barry Ryan. Cathy said: “I had no idea who he was and we nattered about this and that. He asked me about my writing and, well, I don’t know many authors who don’t get passionate about their characters and stories – so I dare say I went on a bit. Then we met again down at the bar, more chat. It was at this point that I discovered he is the joint MD of the Indie production company Free@LastTV, which brought the Agatha Raisin series to our TV screens.” At CrimeFest a year later, Barry told her he wanted to option (secure the rights for adaptation) her books.
Cathy and Barry will both attend this year and announced that the actor Eve Myles (Keeping Faith, Torchwood) will star in the adaptation of her Cait Morgan Mysteries. If that wasn’t enough, CrimeFest features a panel devoted to Le Carre, featuring his son the film producer Simon Cornwell, who is currently bringing the second series of the Tom Hiddleston hit, The Night Manager to our screens. You’ll also find Barbara Nadel, whose much loved Inspector Cetin Ikmen series was adapted for TV as The Turkish Detective starring Haluk Bilginer, which aired on BBC2 in June 2024.
As it bows out from Bristol, the final ever CrimeFest is set to celebrate the remarkable legacy of the genre that’s changed our cultural landscape, and dominated the small and silver screen, because in our troubled times, we all need a hero.
The final CrimeFest takes place 15-18 May at the Mercure Bristol Grand Hotel.
