Vaseem Khan and Carolyn Kirby chaired Triona Adams

Crime writers Carolyn Kirby and Vaseem Khan debate crimes and injustices occasioned by empire-building, ranging from Germany and Russia’s impact on Poland in World War II to Britain’s long tenure of the Indian subcontinent.  What happens when empires charge blithely into foreign cultures? What crimes are normalised in the shadow of colonisation and occupation?

Khan is the author of two award-winning crime series, the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime novels set in 1950s Bombay. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 40 best crime novels published between 2015 and 2020 and is translated into 17 languages. Midnight at Malabar House won the Crime Writers’ Association Historical Dagger.

Kirby’s first novel, The Conviction of Cora Burns, was longlisted for the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown and shortlisted for the Specsavers Debut Crime Fiction Award. Her follow-up novel, When We Fall, was chosen by The Times as one of the best novels of 2020 and described by the Daily Mail as ‘a terrific World War II novel’.

Discussions are chaired by the director of the festival’s crime fiction programme Triona Adams.

Part of the festival’s programme of crime fiction.