Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival Special Episode 2 recorded at the Ceredigion Museum and Aberystwyth Library featuring interviews with authors and excerpts of live panels. 

Featuring: LJ Shepherd, Jacqueline Harrett, Diamond Crime panel, Heidi Amsinck, Foreign Fields panel, Gwenllian Williams, Vaseem Khan (sneak appearance by Abir Mukherjee), Arresting Fun panel, Philip Gwynne Jones.

Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival Wales' only international crime writing festival, Aberystwyth 25th-27th April, 2025. Guests include Mark Billingham, Elly Griffiths, Mari Hannah, Chris Lloyd, Clare Mackintosh, Zoe Sharp, Graham Bartlett, Vaseem Khan, Abir Mukherjee, Alis Hawkins, Nicola Williams, Louise Mumford, Phil Rowlands. Ayo Onatade, Dr. Noir, Matt Johnson, Gwen Parrott and many more.

Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival Sponsors: Arts Council of Wales, Ceridigeon Museum, Love Ceridigeon, Aberystwyth govt., Literature Wales, Waterstones, Welsh Govt., Lottery, Hugh James and National Library of Wales.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

MICHAEL AMOS CODY chats to Paul Burke about his STREETS OF NASHVILLE, new country music, North Carolina, MTV, tragic inspiration for the novel, why done it not whodunnit and Runion.

In Streets of Nashville, Ezra MacRae has a nearly encyclopedic knowledge of songs and their writers, and he has moved from the North Carolina mountains to Nashville's Music Row with the dream of becoming part of that songwriting world. Yet just as he is out on the town to celebrate his first good fortune after several years of trying-a staff songwriting contract with an independent music publisher-he witnesses the man who signed on the dotted lines with him gunned down with three others outside his Music Row office. The masked gunman spares Ezra. But why?

Michael Amos Cody was born in the South Carolina Lowcountry and raised in the North Carolina highlands. He spent his twenties writing songs in Nashville and his thirties in school. He's the author of the novel Gabriel's Songbook (Pisgah Press) and short fiction that has appeared in Yemassee, Tampa Review, Still: The Journal, and elsewhere. His short story collection, A Twilight Reel (Pisgah Press) won the Short Story / Anthology category of the Feathered Quill Book Awards 2022. Cody lives with his wife Leesa in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and teaches in the Department of Literature and Language at East Tennessee State University.

Author blog on Runion: https://michaelamoscody.com/2019/05/24/runion-north-carolina/

Mentions: David Joy, Cormac McCarthy, Bruce Springsteen, Bob McDill, Thomas Wolfe, James Lee Burke, Heather Levy, CW Blackwell, Monster City Michael Arntfield, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Robert Southey, Charles Brockton Brown, Peter McDade, Don DeLillo - Great Jones Street.

Recommendations: anything by Tony Hillerman and the adaptation of two of his novels for streaming Dark Wind.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out early 2026.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

JEREMY VINE chats to Paul Burke about his new murder mystery Murder on Line One, regional radio, celebrity, Agatha Christie and washing our clothes.

MURDER ON LINE ONE There's a killer on the airwaves … and they're calling for you. Darkness looms over sunny Sidmouth, when an unsolved murder comes to the attention of late-night radio talk show host Edward Temmis. Recently sacked from his beloved job after a devastating tragedy, Edward is cast adrift – until he meets Stevie, whose grandmother, a devoted listener, died in a suspicious fire last year. Well, nobody hurts his listeners and helping Stevie might just give him the purpose he needs. Joined by his old fling, Kim, they discover Stevie's grandmother wasn't the only one of his listeners targeted – this is just the tip of the iceberg. But who is pursuing his ageing audience and why? And can Edward, Stevie and Kim get to the bottom of this mystery before it’s too late?

JEREMY VINE is a well-known British broadcaster who presents a daily show on BBC Radio 2 called The Jeremy Vine Show — and also a self-titled daily news and chat programme on Channel 5. This is why he likes strong coffee. He has been Sony Speech Broadcaster of the Year, and won Interview of the Year for the seminal moment when Gordon Brown put his head in his hands during the 2010 election campaign. Jeremy also does the BBC election graphics and rides a penny farthing, although not at the same time. 'The Diver and The Lover' is his first serious novel. It came out of a chance encounter with a painting. Born in 1965, he of course loves the music of Joy Division, The Cure and Elvis Costello. He is married to Rachel and they have two teenage daughters.

Recommendations Dean Koontz The Watcher, Terry Hayes I Am Pilgrim. Jane Casey, CL Taylor, Lucy Foley. Jodi Picault, Suk Pannu, Vaseem Khan.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out early 2026.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

GEORGINA CLARKE chats to Paul Burke about her new historical mystery VIPER IN THE NEST, Lizzie Hardwicke, Georgian England, 

VIPER IN THE NEST: London, June 1759. When a charmless civil servant takes his own life, few are interested in his death. But Lizzie Hardwicke, who plies her trade in the brothels of London whilst also working as an undercover sleuth for the magistrate, can see no reason why a man who had everything to look forward to would wish to end his life.

Lizzie's search for answers takes her from the smoke-filled rooms of fashionable gambling houses, where politicians mix ambition with pleasure, to the violent streets of Soho, ready to erupt with riots in the sultry summer heat. All the while, she is navigating her complicated feelings for the magistrate's trusted assistant, Will Davenport, and a disturbing situation at home.

Then a gambling house owner is brutally murdered, and Lizzie finds herself tangled in a chaos that she cannot control. The darkest of secrets threatens to turn Davenport against her forever; its exposure will send her to the gallows.

Recommendations: Natalie Marlow, CJ Sansom

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out early 2026.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

RAYMOND BENSON chats to Paul Burke about writing James Bond (6 novels, 3 novelizations and 3 short stories), The James Bond Companion, fantasy spy fiction, Films & Novels, Tom Clancy, The Union, favourite Fleming and Legacy.

News: Coming later this year The Hook and the Eye as part of the ever expanding Bond franchise Raymond Benson is writing a novel about American spy Felix Leiter due out in October.

JAMES BOND: THE RAYMOND BENSON YEARS For the first time ever, all six of Raymond Benson's original James Bond novels are available together in one omnibus edition.
James Bond: The Raymond Benson Years collects Zero Minus Ten, The Facts of Death, High Time to Kill, DoubleShot, Never Dream of Dying, The Man with the Red Tattoo. These classic tales show Benson at his finest and 007 at his most heroic.

Raymond Benson is the author of over forty published titles. He is the third--and first American--to write continuation James Bond novels (six original titles and three film novelizations, between 1996-2002), and for the best-selling and acclaimed five-book serial, THE BLACK STILETTO (2011-2014). THE MAD, MAD MURDERS OF MARIGOLD WAY appeared in 2022. His most recent works include the suspense novels, THE SECRETS ON CHICORY LANE, IN THE HUSH OF THE NIGHT, BLUES IN THE DARK, and HOTEL DESTINY--A GHOST NOIR. His backlist of original thrillers (EVIL HOURS, TORMENT--A LOVE STORY, ARTIFACT OF EVIL, A HARD DAY'S DEATH, DARK SIDE OF THE MORGUE, and others) as well as his classic reference book from 1984, THE JAMES BOND BEDSIDE COMPANION, are available as Kindle e-books. Raymond is also a prolific tie-in writer: the first two best-selling TOM CLANCY'S SPLINTER CELL novels (for the latter he used the pseudonym of "David Michaels"), and with John Milius he wrote HOMEFRONT: THE VOICE OF FREEDOM. He also produced novelizations of other popular videogames--METAL GEAR SOLID and METAL GEAR SOLID 2: SONS OF LIBERTY, HITMAN (HITMAN: DAMNATION, and DYING LIGHT (DYING LIGHT--NIGHTMARE ROW). The full story is at his website... www.raymondbenson.com!

Recommendations: 

Film: The Seventh Seal Dir. Ingmar Bergman, Duck Soup The Marx Brothers.

Books: Ruth Rendell 

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2025. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out early 2026.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

New Crime Fiction for April 2025 reviewed by Paul Burke 

The Secret Room by Jane Casey ✓

Out of the Dark by Heidi Amsinck✓

Death and Other Occupational Hazards by Veronika Dapunt✓

10 Marchfield Square by Nicola Whyte✓

Lovers of Franz K by Burnham Sönmez, trans. from the Kurdish by Sami Hêzil. ✓

Sting of the Nettle by Colin Bostock-Smith✓

The Children of Eve John Connolly✓

Marble Hall Murders Anthony Horowitz ✓

Galway Confidential Ken Bruen✓

Ken Bruen An Appreciation RIP

Human Remains Jo Callaghan✓

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival Wales' only international crime writing festival returns to Aberystwyth 25th-27th April, 2025. Guests include Mark Billingham, Elly Griffiths, Mari Hannah, Chris Lloyd, Clare Mackintosh, Zoe Sharp, Graham Bartlett, Vaseem Khan, Abir Mukherjee, Alis Hawkins, Nicola Williams, Louise Mumford, Phil Rowlands. Ayo Onatade, Dr. Noir, Matt Johnson, Gwen Parrott and many more.

Paul Burke chats to festival organiser Gail Williams, treasurer Sarah Ward and chair Philip Gwynne Jones about the event. 

Aberystwyth - lovely seaside location, friendly local reception, beautiful venues, and nearby tourist/countryside attractions.

Tickets here

Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival Sponsors: Arts Council of Wales, Ceridigeon Museum, Love Ceridigeon, Aberystwyth govt., Literature Wales, Waterstones, Welsh Govt., Lottery, Hugh James and National Library of Wales.

Paul Burke writes for Monocle Magazine, Crime Time, Crime Fiction Lover and the European Literature Network, Punk Noir Magazine (fiction contribution). He is also a CWA Historical Dagger Judge 2024. His first book An Encyclopedia of  Spy Fiction will be out in late 2025.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

Laura McCLUSKEY chats to Craig Sisterson about her new crime thriller THE WOLF TREE, the Scottish lighthouse mystery, film and book, writing the sequel, 

THE WOLF TREE A mysterious death. On a small island off the coast of Scotland, an isolated community is grieving. Eighteen-year-old Alan Ferguson was found at the foot of the lighthouse – an apparent suicide. Two detectives trapped on an island. DIs Georgina Lennox and Richard Stewart are sent to investigate. But a raging storm keeps them trapped on the island for four days. And the locals don’t take kindly to mainlanders. A village full of suspects. As George and Ritchie question the island’s inhabitants, they discover a village filled with superstition and shrouded in secrets. But someone wants those secrets to stay buried. At any cost.

Laura McCluskey is a Melbourne-based writer, editor and actor. She created the production company Sibylline Films and co-founded Three Fates Theatre Company. The Wolf Tree is her first novel.

Recommendations: JK Rowling - Harry Potter, Suzanne Collins - Hunger Games, Lemony Snickett- A Series of Unfortunate Events, Dervla McTiernan, Ashley Kalagian Blunt Cold Truth

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

AJAY CHOWDHURY chats to Craig Sisterson about his new novel THE SHADOW,

THE SHADOW: A ritual killing. An ancient curse. What's myth... and what's murder?
After a bruising encounter with a terrorist group, Detective Kamil Rahman has decided to hand in his resignation to the Met and set up a detective agency with his friend Anjoli. But when his boss asks him to go to India to investigate the murder of a British engineer who was found with eighteen arrows stuck in his body, Kamil agrees to take the case, as long as Anjoli can accompany him.
When they arrive in Mumbai, they find someone is on a gruesome killing spree, striking down those connected to the engineer in increasingly macabre ways. Meanwhile, an old friend of Kamil’s gets in touch to beg for his help: he believes his family are cursed, and that he is going to die on his 47th birthday, just like his father and grandfather before him.
As the body count rises, Kamil is torn between solving a very real murder case and protecting his friend from a grisly – if far-fetched – fate. Can he catch a killer and prevent an ancient curse before more people lose their lives?

AJAY CHOWDHURY was the inaugural winner of the Harvill Secker–Bloody Scotland crime fiction award. He is a tech entrepreneur and theatre director who was born in India and now lives in London where he builds digital businesses, cooks experimental dishes for his wife and daughters and writes through the night. His children’s book, Ayesha and the Firefish, was published in 2016 and adapted into a musical.
The Waiter, published in 2021, is the first in his critically-acclaimed crime series about Detective Kamil Rahman, an ex-policeman from Kolkata who has moved to Brick Lane in London. It is being adapted for television by Moonage Pictures. Follow-up The Cook was published in May 2022 to excellent reviews and deals with the issue of homelessness. The third book in the series – The Detective – is about government surveillance and AI. The Spy is the fourth book in the Detective Kamil Rahman series.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,

NICK KOLAKOWSKI chats to Paul Burke about his new California PI novel WHERE THE BONES LIE, training wheels, heist novels, the private eye, voice versus pastiche and AI.

WHERE THE BONES LIE: For Dash Fuller, Hollywood’s underbelly is home. He’s spent years making the film industry’s worst secrets disappear, and it’s left him a cynical burnout with a taste for bourbon and self-loathing.
But when a young woman comes to him with a peculiar quest, Dash sees a chance at redemption. Madeline Ironwood is the daughter of Ken Ironwood, a notorious smuggler and murderer who disappeared 20 years ago. Ken’s skeleton has just been discovered in a barrel at the bottom of a dried-up lake, and Madeline wants to know who killed him.
Dash agrees to help, and as this desperate daughter and jaded cynic claw their way through a world of sun-bleached secrets, crooked cops, and Hollywood thugs, they soon uncover a conspiracy involving some of LA’s most powerful people.
Get ready for a fast-paced, darkly funny thriller with a twist you won’t see coming.

NICK KOLAKOWSKI lives and writes in NYC. His recent novels and novellas include Groundhog Slay (Crystal Lake Publishing), Payback is Forever (Shotgun Honey), and Boise Longpig Hunting Club (Down & Out Books). Nick grew up as a voracious reader of mystery and crime fiction, and his own writing is an attempt to pay homage to the best of the genre while also using it as a lens through which to view our weird, sometimes not-so-wonderful modern life. 

Recommendations: Ivy Pochoda Sing Her Down, Thomas Trang Dark Neon Dirt, Jordan Harper Everybody Knows.

Mentions: James Wallis, Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, Carl Hiaasen, James M Cain, Black Wings Has My Angel Elliot Chaze, Jordan Harper Everybody Knows, SA Cosby King of Ashes, Eryk Pruitt Something Bad Wrong.

Produced by Junkyard Dog

Crime Time

Crime Time FM is the official podcast of
Gwyl Crime Cymru Festival 2023 & 2025
CrimeFest 2023
CWA Daggers 2023 & 2024 & National Crime Reading Month
& Newcastle Noir 2023 and 2024
2024 Slaughterfest,