THIS EVENT TOOK PLACE ON WEDNESDAY 18TH OCTOBER 2023 AT THE ATHENAEUM.
This month marks the first of a new detective thriller series by award-winning writer Margaret Murphy, published under the pen name M.K. Murphy. The novel, described as ‘a compulsive thriller’ by bestseller Ann Cleeves, has been optioned for television.
Over almost three decades, the Liverpool born author has written 12 internationally-acclaimed psychological suspense novels under her own name, and 5 forensic thrillers as Ashley Dyer and AD Garrett.
Margaret will be in conversation with Professor Catherine Cole, Professor in Creative Writing in The Screen School, Liverpool John Moores University. They will talk about how Margaret’s passion for research has sustained her career through difficult times in publishing. This includes spending time in the US Midwest with cops, CSIs, cold case detectives and a forensic anthropologist researching one of her forensic thrillers. But research has its perils. She’s been threatened with arrest by Manchester police, briefly gained the unwanted attention of a drugs gang, and was infamously kicked out of a psychotherapy open day as a spy!
Professor Cole and Margaret will also discuss the influences that have inspired Margaret’s range of writing styles, the importance of resilience as a writer and the power of reinvention.
Continue the conversation in the Athenaeum’s dining room over a three course meal. This can be booked separately from the talk and details will be sent with your confirmation email.
About Margaret Murphy
Margaret’s work has been published in the UK and across North America, as well as in translation in nine countries. She is a past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), a former RLF Fellow and Reading Round Lector, and founder of Murder Squad. A Short Story Dagger, HRF Keating, and CWA Red Herring award winner, has also been shortlisted for the ‘First Blood’ critics award and the CWA Dagger in the Library.
About Professor Catherine Cole
Catherine Cole is Professor in Creative Writing in The Screen School. She has published 4 novels, and her non-fiction includes Private Dicks and Feisty Chicks: An Interrogation of Crime Fiction (Curtin University Press, 1996). She is a peer reviewer for the Literature Board of the Australian Council for the Arts, a regular book reviewer, participant in Australian and international writers’ festivals and a judge of major national book awards. Catherine’s research interests include Creative Writing and Crime Fiction and True Crime.
This event is supported by the Research Institute for Literature and Cultural History, Faculty of Arts, Professional and Social Studies at Liverpool John Moores University.
