Crime Cymru is holding the first Welsh International Crime Fiction festival very soon, on-line (prior to being alive – apart from the murder victims – at the Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival in Aberystwyth next year). As part of the digital festival, 2021, I shall be moderator at an event on May 3rd. Moderator make me think of a dour Presbyterian frowning on sinful Sabbath activities, but I think my role here will be rather different, because I shall be discussing dark and dreadful Horrible Histories, Gothic crime fiction, with mistresses of the genre, Rhiannon Ward and E S Thomson.

Rhiannon Ward also writes as Sarah Ward, author of the DC Childs crime series, but as Rhiannon she is delving into the Gothic with her latest book, The Quickening. She is a member of the Society of Psychical Research and has studied Conan Doyle’s passion for…