A joint Bloomsbury Institute and Writers & Artists event

Date: Tuesday 19^th June

Time: 6pm for a drinks reception. Event will start at 6.30pm.
Place: Bloomsbury Publishing, 50 Bedford Square, London, WC1B 3DP
Cost: £15 (£12 for early birds)

We're celebrating National Crime Writing Month with three brilliant crime writers, James Runcie, Anne Zouroudi and Claire McGowan who will tell us how to plot the perfect murder mystery and unravel the mysterious charm of crime, be it cosy or hardboiled.

Ever wondered how to create criminal tension? What makes a villain villainous or a detective likeable? Join us for this crime writing extravaganza of tips on plotting, pacing and the secret of making your own book go bump in the night.

James Runcie and Anne Zouroudi are both authors of their own series of murder mysteries and interrogating them will be Claire McGowan, Director of the Crime Writers' Association and author of The Fall, a thriller set in contemporary London about two women from very different backgrounds who are brought together when a brutal murders shatters both their lives.

Sidney Chambers and the Shadow of Death is the first in James Runcie's new series of six detective novels, The Grantchester Mysteries, featuring vicar and sleuth Canon Sidney Chambers. Together with his roguish friend, Geordie Keating. Together with his roguish friend, Inspector Geordie Keating, Sidney inquires into the suspect suicide of a Cambridge solicitor, a scandalous jewellery theft at a New Year's Eve dinner party, the unexplained death of a well-known jazz promoter and a shocking art forgery, the disclosure of which puts a close friend in danger. James Runcie is Artistic Director of the Bath Literature Fesival and an award-winning film-maker. His novels include The Discovery of Chocolate, The Colour of Heaven, Canvey Island and East Fortune.

The Bull of Mithros is Anne Zouroudi's latest in her series of Mysteries of the Greek Detective . Investigator Hermes Diaktoros is intrigued by the island of Mithros's fabled bull, and his arrival on the isle coincides with a violent and mysterious death. As Hermes sets about solving the complex puzzle of who is guilty and who is innocent, he discovers a web of secrets and unspoken loyalties, and it soon becomes clear that the bull of Mithros may only be the beginning of the island's shadowy mysteries. Anne Zouroudi is the author of five other Mysteries of the Greek Detective: The Messenger of Athens (shortlisted for the ITV3 Crime Thriller Award for Breakthrough Authors and longlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize), The Taint of Midas, The Doctor of Thessaly, The Lady of Sorrows and The Whispers of Nemesis.

Find out more about The Grantchester Mysteries here: http://www.grantchestermysteries.com/index.html

'Anne Zouroudi writes beautifully - her books have all the sparkle and light of the island landscapes in which she sets them.'

Alexander McCall Smith

'Alexander McCall Smith's Mma Ramotswe is going to have to look to her laurels! Sidney Chambers's adventures are thoroughly captivating and engaging. I loved the character and I loved the highly evocative period feel and dialogue'

Amanda Craig

'Its crime-novel-meets-Hampstead-novel but without the contrivances of the former genre and the navel-gazing of the latter. Funny and perfectly paced, the pervading sense of "there but for the grace of God go you" chills you to the bone.'

The Telegraph