UK Cypriot Lia Middleton is a barrister who specialises in crime and prison law, and lives with her husband and two young children in Buckinghamshire. She is the author of When They Find Her and Your Word or Mine.
Lia is the daughter of Panayiotis and Yianoulla Yiacoumi who are from Gypsos and Agios Amvrossios and Prodromi respectively. Panayiotis is the Chairman of the Greek Parents Association.
After 2022’s phenomenally successful inaugural event, Whitley Bay Playhouse welcomed back the Bay Tales Live team and their patron Ann Cleeves with the biggest crime fiction festival in the North East.
This was a chance to hear from more than fifteen of the biggest and best authors across five panels of conversation, and Sunday Times and New York Times bestsellers, Richard and Judy Book Club picks and multi-award-winning writers talking about their books and inspiration.
Speakers were
Ann Cleeves, Bay Tales patron and author of Vera, Shetland, and the Matthew Venn series
Brian McGilloway, New York Times bestselling author of the DS Lucy Black thrillers and Inspector Devlin mysteries
Abir Mukherjee, Times bestselling author, and CWA Dagger for best Historical Novel for the Wyndham & Banerjee series
Ruth Ware – Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of One by One, The Turn of the Key, In a Dark, Dark Wood, and more
Jack Jordan – International bestselling author of My Girl, A Woman Scorned, and Do No Harm
Lin Anderson – Author of the Rhona MacLeod series (described by the Daily Record as ‘the Best Scottish Crime Series Since Rebus’)
Trevor Wood – Award winning author of the Newcastle-set Jimmy Mullen trilogy (optioned for TV by the production team behind Line of Duty)
Jo Callaghan – Author of In the Blink of An Eye – one of 2023’s most anticipated debut novels
Fiona Cummins – The award-winning author of When I Was Ten, The Neighbour and Into the Dark
Alex North – Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling author of The Whisper Man and The Shadow Friend.
C.J Tudor – Richard and Judy Pick, and author of The Chalk Man (coming to BBC), The Burning Girls (coming to Paramount +) and The Hiding Place (The Taking of Annie Thorne)
Laure Van Rensburg – author of Nobody But Us – one of THE thrillers of 2022.
Lia Middleton – author of the brilliant When They Find Her and Your Word Or Mine
CM Ewan: – ,the critically acclaimed and bestselling author of Safe House, A WIndow Breaks, and The Interview. .
Jonathan Whitelaw – The Bingo Hall Detectives is a cozy crime with a quirky setting, a great location, entertaining sleuths and a fiendish puzzle…
Karen Woods – Described as ‘Manchester’s answer to Martina Cole’, Karen’s latest novels include Tracks and Vice
Nasheema Lennon – Debut author of The Engagement: described as ‘a mind-bending, against-the-clock psych thriller debut’