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An Evening with PETER JAMES for The Hawk is Dead – the new Roy Grace thriller!

An Evening with PETER JAMES for The Hawk is Dead – the new Roy Grace thriller!

by | 25, Jul 2025

Join best-selling thriller writer PETER JAMES as he introduces THE HAWK IS DEAD: A KILLER IN THE PALACE, which sees Roy Grace gain access to the heart of Buckingham Palace, when he is called upon to solve a murder and what looks to be a royal assassination attempt.
Roy Grace is Queen Camilla’s favourite fictional detective and now she plays a leading role in his latest thriller The Hawk is Dead! Combining Peter’s classic fast-paced action with extensive behind-the-scenes research at Buckingham Palace, The Hawk is Dead is the not-to-be-missed publishing event of the autumn and the perfect entry point into the world of Roy Grace for anyone yet to meet him.
We are delighted to welcome Peter back to Steyning on Wednesday 22nd October – the day after publication – for what is sure to be a highly entertaining evening! Peter will discuss how Queen Camilla and King Charles came to feature in the book and share his fascinating research into the inner workings of the Royal Household and Buckingham Palace.
Peter will be in conversation with an interviewer (TBC)
EVENT FORMAT
Doors open 7pm, Author interview starts at 7.30pm followed by audience Q and A and then book-signing / meet and greet.
There will be a licensed bar selling alcoholic and soft drinks.
Tickets: Single ticket: £22 INCLUDING a copy of The Hawk is Dead / Couples Ticket: £32 Admits 2 people with just 1 copy of the book included

Tickets available online via button below (small booking fee applies) or in person from the shop / by phone on 01903 812062


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ABOUT PETER JAMES

Peter James is a New York Times and Sunday Times bestselling author best known for his crime thrillers featuring Detective Superintendent Roy Grace, who Queen Camilla recently named as her favourite fictional
detective. Praised by critics and much-loved by crime and thriller fans for his fast-paced page-turners full of unexpected plot twists, sinister characters, and accurate portrayal of modern-day policing, he has won more than 40 awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award and the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger. His books have sold over 23 million copies worldwide, achieved
21 Sunday Times No.1s, and have been translated into 38 languages.
His Roy Grace novels are currently filming their 6th season for the hit ITV drama, Grace, starring John Simm as the troubled Brighton copper and available to view on ITVX and on Britbox. Seven of his novels have been adapted into phenomenally successful stage plays, with his most recent, Picture You Dead, now on national tour in the UK. His plays have been named as the most successful stage franchise since Agatha Christie.

An Online Evening with Lucy Atkins & William Shaw

An Online Evening with Lucy Atkins & William Shaw

by | 12, Jul 2021

Thursday 29th July 7.30pm VIA ZOOM.

To celebrate the lovely honour of being the Crime Writer Association’s Bookshop of the Month for July 2021, we wanted to celebrate crime writing! So we are delighted that thriller writer & journalist Lucy Atkins will be Zooming in to discuss her fourth novel, the critically-acclaimed thriller ‘Magpie Lane’. Lucy will be joined by wonderful writer William Shaw, with his interviewing hat on.

This will be a kind of ‘Open Book Group’ style event – 2 of our book groups will be reading ‘Magpie Lane’, we are very happy to invite non book-group members to join the event but we strongly recommend that you read the book first, as there may be SPOILERS and we can’t have that with a thriller!

Lucy Atkins is an award winning British author and journalist. She has written four novels, most recently the critically acclaimed MAGPIE LANE. Many of her books are published internationally and THE NIGHT VISITOR (2017) has been optioned for television. Lucy teaches on the Creative Writing Masters degree at the University of Oxford. She was a judge for the 2017  Costa Book Awards  , and is a book critic for The Sunday Times. She has lived in Boston, Seattle and Philadelphia, and is now based in Oxford, with her family and her dog.

About Magpie Lane

When the eight-year-old daughter of an Oxford College Master vanishes in the middle of the night, police turn to the Scottish nanny, Dee, for answers.

As Dee looks back over her time in the Master’s Lodging – an eerie and ancient house – a picture of a high achieving but dysfunctional family emerges: Nick, the fiercely intelligent and powerful father; his beautiful Danish wife Mariah, pregnant with their child; and the lost little girl, Felicity, almost mute, seeing ghosts, grieving her dead mother.

But is Dee telling the whole story? Is her growing friendship with the eccentric house historian, Linklater, any cause for concern? And most of all, why was Felicity silent?

Roaming Oxford’s secret passages and hidden graveyards, Magpie Lane explores the true meaning of family – and what it is to be denied one.

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