In March we are hosting special events to celebrate two years of Criminally Good Books and this one is all about the unstoppable rise of Young Adult (YA) crime fiction.

Join us at the magnificent Merchant Taylors’ Hall for an evening of conversation exploring the dramatic growth of YA crime fiction in recent years and what’s driving readers to devour twisty mysteries written for, featuring, and loved by young adults.

We’ll be talking about how the genre has evolved, what readers are craving right now and the huge influence of authors like Holly Jackson in shaping the YA crime boom.

OUR PANEL AUTHORS

Amy McCaw
YA author and YouTuber, Amy writes the Mina and the Undead series, murder mysteries set in 1995 New Orleans. She also co-curated the horror anthology A Taste of Darkness with Maria Kuzniar. Amy has a love for the macabre and vampires (she is a massive Buffy the Vampire Slayer fan), and her latest book, They Own the Night, is a YA 1980's Dracula retelling.

Cynthia Murphy
A North-West England-based YA horror/thriller writer, Cynthia’s has a lifelong love of the scary stuff (from Point Horror to Stephen King). Studying for a degree in Art History and Archaeology meant that she developed a thirst for anything old, beautiful and very often dead. She combines this with contemporary settings in her books to make unique and chilling modern stories. Her latest book, Keep Your Friends Close, is a dark academia thriller. Cynthia is the bestselling author of a number of YA thrillers, including the BookTok sensation Win Lose Kill Die.

Rosie Talbot
Rosie writes contemporary fantasy, mystery and horror for YA and adult readers - strange, magical, spooky and always very queer. She’s a bookseller by day, skirt-sewer with outrageously large pockets by night and lives in a mysterious pocket of the Sussex countryside with her spouse and two cats: Tinkerfluff and Captain Haddock. Her Sixteen Souls duology is fast-paced, spooky-but-wholesome with chaotic queer disaster teens who hunt down missing souls and face dangerous magic in Europe’s most haunted city, York. Whilst We Three Witches is a sapphic YA romance murder mystery set in 1930s haunted York.

Kathryn Foxfield
Kathryn writes dark books about strange things, fuelled by a childhood obsession with Point Horror, Agatha Christie and Doctor Who. She loves writing characters who fight back, even if they might not survive five minutes in one of her own stories. Her books blend AI, reality TV, the supernatural, video games, and so much more. Her Debut, Good Girls Die First, features an abandoned fairground along with murder and the paranormal.

About the venue: Merchant Taylors’ Hall

The magnificent Merchant Taylors’ Hall is one of the world’s finest surviving medieval guild halls, a 610-year-old building where tradition and community spirit are woven into the very fabric of the place.

Built in 1415, it’s a seriously atmospheric setting for a night of secrets, twists and YA crime.

🗓️ Event details
When: Sunday 8th March
Where: Merchant Taylors’ Hall, Aldwark, York YO1 7BX
Time: 6:00 PM - 7.30 PM (with signing opportunity) Doors open 5.30 PM

Tickets £7 (we recommend that this event is for guests aged 12+. Attendees aged 15 or under must be accompanied by a ticket-holding adult).

• Panel discussion
• Audience Q&A
• Book signing opportunity (all authors' books will be available to purchase on the night).

See you there!

Tickets are neither exchangeable nor refundable.