Cara Hunter, Andrew Thompson and Joey Giddings

DI Andy Thompson and former crime scene investigator Joey Giddings return to the festival by popular demand to discuss with crime fiction writer Cara Hunter the realities of police investigations, and what makes them laugh, or scream, about crime on television.

Thompson joined Thames Valley Police in 2000 and has worked across both the urban and rural areas of Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire. He has spent the last two decades working in various roles including uniformed response, custody, neighbourhood policing, CID and public protection within the realm of domestic abuse.

Giddings has a degree in forensic science and has worked in the criminal justice system for 13 years. He’s a former crime scene investigator, forensic examiner, and forensic quality consultant. He is also a magistrate in the adult criminal court. He regularly speaks in public about perceptions of forensic science and has lectured at universities, provided awareness training for barristers, and appeared in a BBC Ideas vodcast and BBC1 documentary.

Hunter is the author of a crime series featuring DI Adam Fawley and his Oxford-based police team. No Way Out was selected by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 best crime novels since 1945. Hunter’s novels have sold over a million copies worldwide. Her recent first standalone, Murder in the Family, was a Sunday Times bestseller and TikTok sensation.

Part of the festival’s programme of crime fiction.