Event cancelled

[John Dean]

Unfortunately, due to low ticket sales, the organisers of the crime writers event at Dalry Town Hall on Friday night (June 24) have had to cancel the event.

The village of Dalry, in Dumfries and Galloway, is to support National Crime Reading Month in June by staging an In Conversation With… event featuring crime writers Jackie Baldwin, Ian Robinson, Ann Bloxwich and John Dean.

National Crime Reading Month is an initiative developed and run by the Crime Writers’ Association, and is staged this year in collaboration with The Reading Agency. It aims to bring new books to existing readers and attract new readers to one of the most popular and biggest selling genres. National Crime Reading Month will feature hundreds of events across the UK and Ireland run by libraries, bookshops, book clubs, reading groups, venues and museums.

The Dalry event will take place in Dalry Town Hall, which is in the heart of the village, close to The Clachan Inn, at 7.30pm on Friday June 24 when the authors will talk about their work, including reading from their novels. Ian, Ann and John live in Dumfries and Galloway and Jackie used to live and work in Dumfries.

A spokesperson for the Town Hall management team said that they were proud to present the event.

Having spent twenty-seven years in the Metropolitan Police, Ian is now a full-time writer. Seven of his crime novels have been published and Rubicon was optioned with the BBC for a six-part TV series. Ian is published by Fahrenheit Press and The Book Folks of London. Ian said: ‘When I first moved to Scotland, I wrote in The Clachan Inn while my daughter was at the local playgroup. It’s an honour to be invited back to Dalry for National Crime Reading Month.’

Ann Bloxwich is a lifelong fan of crime fiction who started writing after attending her first crime writing festival in Harrogate. Her debut novel  What Goes Around was published by Dark Edge Press in the summer of 2021.

Jackie Baldwin sets much of her work in Dumfries and Galloway and was a solicitor in Dumfries for twenty years. Her debut crime novel, Dead Man’s Prayer, was published by Killer Reads, Harper Collins in 2016. The second in the series, Perfect Dead, was published in 2018 with the third, Avenge the Dead, having also been published. Jackie said: ‘I am delighted to be back on home turf for this event and to be taking part in National Crime Reading Month.’

John Dean is the creator of the DCI John Blizzard and DCI Jack Harris series of novels published by The Book Folks of London. John, who will chair the event, said: ‘National Crime Reading Month is a terrific initiative and I am looking forward to sharing a stage with three such talented authors.’

Tickets £10 available from www.dalrytownhall.co.uk – follow the link to DTH Promotions