Saturday 12th February, 2022
Whitley Bay Playhouse 09:30 – 17:00 (Doors Open 08:30)
All Day Tickets £30 + Booking Fee from:
From the team behind Virtual Noir at the Bar – shortlisted for FutureBook’s Event of the Year 2020 – comes Bay Tales Live, a one-day event showcasing the biggest and brightest names in crime writing.
Join us on Saturday 12th February 2022 for your chance to see some of the country’s best-selling crime authors as they discuss their works and answer your questions.
Meet the authors, grab signed books from our official booksellers, bag exclusive prizes and enjoy sneak peeks of the hottest crime fiction blockbusters of 2022.
09:30-1015: In Conversation…
Ann Cleeves, CWA Diamond Dagger Recipient, author of Vera, Shetland and Two Rivers.
with
Vaseem Khan, CWA Historical Dagger winner and author of the Baby Ganesh Agency series and the Malabar House series.
Followed by Panel Discussions:
10:15 – 11:15 Quercus Present:
Crime City
Trevor Wood, winner of the CWA Debut of the Year for his Newcastle-based The Man on the Street.
Olivia Kiernan – author of the highly acclaimed Frankie Sheehan series.
Amen Alonge – author of Good Day to Die – released February 2022
11:45 – 12:45 Simon & Schuster Present:
From Killer Twists to Perfect Plots
Russ Thomas – author of the number one bestseller, Firewatching and Nighthawking.
Sarah Vaughan, Sunday Times bestselling author of Anatomy of a Scandal, recently adapted for Netflix.
Louise Candlish – Sunday Times bestselling author of Our House, soon to be screened on ITV.
Kate Ruby –pseudonym of one of the UK’s top TV & film producers, Kate’s debut novel Tell Me Your Lies comes out 2022.
BREAK
13:30 – 15:15 Michael Joseph Penguin Random House Present:
Killer Conversations With…
Howard Linskey – North East’s own author of the David Blake series.
Tim Weaver – Sunday Times best selling author of the David Raker Missing Persons series.
Gytha Lodge – Richard & Judy and Sunday Times Pick author of the Jonah Sheens series.
Amy McCulloch – mountaineer and bestselling YA author whose debut crime novel Breathless is out in 2022.
In Conversation With…
Dr Richard Shepherd – Britain’s foremost forensic pathologist and best-selling author of Unnatural Causes.
BREAK
15:45 – 16:45 – Transworld Publishers Present:
Keeping the Home Fires Burning
Lesley Kara – Sunday Times bestselling author of The Rumour and The Dare.
Nikki May – author of Wahala, set to be one of THE debuts of 2022.
Lauren North – author of Safe at Home and The Perfect Betrayal.
Moderators Include:
Derek Farrell 
Ayo Onatade 
Fiona Erskine 
Vic Watson 
Simon Bewick
On-site Bookshop and Author Signings
We’ve partnered with the bound / Forum Books who’ll be selling books on the day and giving you the chance to get your copies signed.
Join us in Whitley Bay for the UK’s Newest Crime Festival
We’re proud of our home town – featured in TV series including Vera, Spender, 55 Degrees North and Byker Grove, movies including The Likely Lads, Goal!, and immortalised in the song Tunnel of Love by Dire Straits – and we’d love to have you join us for our first Bay Tales Live event at the state-of-the-art Playhouse, opposite the iconic Spanish City.
Less than 10 miles – and 25 minutes by Metro – from Newcastle Upon Tyne, Whitley Bay is easy to get to by car, bus, taxi or Metro and has a range of low cost hotels & B&Bs and great places to eat and drink.
We’ve loved bringing you the virtual shows via Virtual Noir at the Bar and Bay Tales, and we’ll be continuing to run those. But, if like us, you’ve missed the chance to see your favourite authors and to chat with fellow crime fiction enthusiasts in-person, we’d be thrilled for you to join us at what we believe is the best value, most exciting new literary festival of 2022.