An evening with Kate Riordan and Claire Quinn

What the Past Leaves Behind

Two crime writers, one theme: the things that don't stay buried. Kate Riordan and Claire Quinn spend their new books picking apart what happens when a hidden past finally catches up, and they're doing it together at St Edmund's Church for Shipston Bookfest's Friday-night crime slot.

Riordan has published atmospheric, twist-laden fiction for over a decade: The Heatwave was a Richard and Judy Book Club pick, The Girl in the Photograph (also published as Fiercombe Manor) was a Sunday Times bestseller, and her new novel The Last Time I Saw Her Alive brings the suspense home, literally, with two bodies found decades apart in the Cotswolds under eerily matched circumstances and one woman refusing to let the case close.

Quinn arrives from the opposite direction, a former real estate lawyer whose Cheshire Novel Prize-winning debut, The Games We Play, follows three lifelong friends whose teenage secret resurfaces the weekend before a wedding. Charlotte Vaughan of Kenilworth Books chairs the conversation.

Two very different routes into crime writing, one shared appetite for slow-burn dread, and both books worth reading before you arrive.

Friday 18 September 2026 · St Edmund's Church, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire CV36 4AT · Starts 7:30pm