While The Oxford Literary Festival goes from strength to strength, its crime fiction offering is legendary. Here are the massive names and events to book now.
The Oxford of Morse, Lewis and Endeavour Walk by Alastair Lack, Friday April 4, 2pm. Mention Oxford and it’s famous TV dramas immediately come to mind. Inspector Morse, the TV series featuring John Thaw, based on the novels of Oxford writer Colin Dexter, remains immensely popular worldwide. Morse, Sergeant Lewis and Endeavour encounter heads of houses, dons, murderers and criminals in the course of their detective work – pausing only for a pint or two in a favourite pub. This walk visits the scenes of some of their best-known cases in a walk starting at the main entrance of St John’s College in St Giles. It lasts two hours and ends at Christ Church. £25. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/april-04/the-oxford-of-morse-lewis-and-endeavour
Mick Herron РRunning away with the Circus: Rereading John le Carr̩ The Quest for Karla, Saturday March 29, 12 noon. Harris Manchester College: Chapel. Oxford-based thriller writer Mick Herron, author of the multi-award-winning Slough House thrillers and Oxford-based Zoe Boehm series, both of which have been made into major TV series, starring Gary Oldman and Emma Thompson respectively, explains why he admires the spy novelist John Le Carr̩ so much and looks at what makes his novels stand out from the rest. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/march-29/running-away-with-the-circus-rereading-john-le-carre-the-quest-for-karla
Brian McGilloway talks to Tom Fletcher, Walking the Tightrope: Creating Fiction in Troubled Times, Saturday, March 29, 2pm, Weston Lecture Theatre. Crime novelist Brian McGilloway, McGilloway is the New York Times bestselling author of 13 crime novels, including the Ben Devlin and the Lucy Black mystery series. In his new novel, barmaid Katie often hears things she shouldn’t working in the pub owned by the notorious O’Reilly brothers. When approached by two detectives looking for information, she faces an impossible dilemma. The only way to keep her family safe is to become an informant but that is a dangerous game with men like the O’Reillys. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/march-29/walking-the-tightrope-creating-fiction-in-troubled-times
Kate Summerscale talks to Andrew Wilson: The Peepshow: Behind the Walls of 10 Rillington Place, Saturday, 29 March, 4pm. Oxford Martin School: Lecture Theatre. The UK’s top-selling true-crime-writer Kate Summerscale, author of The Suspicions of Mr Whicher, (which led to three fictional ITV dramas about Jack Whicher’s investigations), Mrs Robinson’s Disgrace, The Wicked Boy, The Haunting of Alma Fielding and The Book of Phobias & Manias. Here she discusses her latest book, The Peepshow: The Murders at 10 Rillington Place, about the 1950s crimes of the serial killer and former policeman Reg Christie. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/march-29/the-peepshow-behind-the-walls-of-10-rillington-place
Anna Beer and Manjiri Prabhu, Murder and Mystery among the Dreaming Spires, Friday April 4, 2pm, Weston Lecture Theatre. The crime writers discuss their latest murder mysteries and their literary themes and setting among the dreaming spires of Oxford. Beer’s Death of an Englishman is her debut crime novel about literary detective Eve Brook, recruited to complete the latest book of Oxford don David Morrow after he is found dead in his college rooms. Prabhu’s The Grand Oxford Mystery will also be launched at the festival. It sees tourist guide Emma Carter helping an elderly stranger Claus write his novella, but when Claus commits suicide it sets off a deadly search. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/april-04/murder-and-mystery-among-the-dreaming-spires
- Alexander McCall Smith talks to Nick Higham, Friday, April 4, 4pm, Sheldonian Theatre. Join one of the world’s favourite storytellers, transported to a small dating agency in Edinburgh’s New Town, the setting for the latest novel in his new Perfect Passion Company series, Looking for You, via Germany to meet the hilarious Professor Dr Moritz-Maria Von Igelfeld and finally to Botswana to catch up with Mma Ramotswe and the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency. McCall Smith is one of the world’s most prolific novelists and has published more than 80 books and sold more than 20 million copies in English alone. He is also author of the popular 44 Scotland Street novels, the Isabel Dalhousie novels, the von Igelfeld series, standalone novels, works of non-fiction, and children’s books. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/april-04/an-audience-with-alexander-mccall-smith
Jonathan Coe talks to Val McDermid. Saturday March 29, 6pm, Sheldonian Theatre. The award-winning novelist discusses his latest novel, The Proof of my Innocence, a blisteringly funny political critique wrapped up in a murder mystery, around a sinister think tank founded in Cambridge in the 1980s. after a conference in the Cotswolds take a sinister turn and a murder enquiry is soon in progress. Coe will also consider the art of crime writing with famous crime writer Val McDermid. Coe is the bestselling author of 15 novels translated into 22 languages and a film of Mr Wilder & Me is currently in development. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/march-29/the-val-mcdermid-interview-the-proof-of-my-innocence
- Richard Coles, Murder Under The Mistletoe, Saturday, 5 April, 10am. Sheldonian Theatre. The writer, broadcaster and Anglican priest talks to Triona Adams about his life and latest novella in which Canon Clement and Detective Sergeant Neil Vanloo aim to solve another crime and catch the Christmas killer. Coles, one half of successful 1980s band the Communards, went on to become a Church of England priest, well-known writer, broadcaster, TV star, winner of Christmas Masterchef and contestant in the 2017’s Strictly Come Dancing. His Canon Clement mysteries are all bestsellers as was his book The Madness of Grief, written in the aftermath of the death of his partner, Rev David Coles. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/april-5/murder-under-the-mistletoe
Repeat Offenders: ‘It must be true, I saw it on TV’ Andrew Thompson and Joey Giddings chaired by Cara Hunter, Saturday, March 29, 10am, Pusey House: Chapel. DI Andy Thompson and former crime scene investigator Joey Giddings return to the festival with crime fiction writer Cara Hunter Cara Hunter is back: Nearly two million books sold, new thriller ‘Making A Killing’, crime gaffe podcast and Oxford Lit Fest dateto dissect the hilarious unrealities of television policework. It’s the same duo that Cara not only works with to ensure her books are factually correct but whom she runs the brilliant podcast Watching The Detectives with, where they dispel the myths and misnomers around TV crime shows. Hunter is the author of a crime series featuring DI Adam Fawley and has sold over 2 million copies worldwide. Her recent first standalone, Murder in the Family, is being developed for TV. https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org/literature-events/2025/march-29/repeat-offenders-it-must-be-true-i-saw-it-on-tv
READ OUR TOP 15 OXFORD LITERARY FESTIVAL 2025 PICKS HERE: https://oxinabox.co.uk/top-15-oxford-literary-festival-2025-what-to-book-now-from-joanna-lumley-at-the-sheldonian-to-crime-gardening-food-kids-events-big-names-poetry-and-history/
Oxford Literary Festival runs from March 31-April 6. For more details go to: https://oxfordliteraryfestival.org
