The Bookseller – News – Orion’s immersive ‘The Incident Room’ returns to Harrogate with Vaseem Khan and Julian Clary

Orion’s immersive event space, The Incident Room, returns to Harrogate on Friday 19 July 2024, running alongside the main programme of the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival.

The space will reopen for the eighth time and will offer exclusive events for festival-goers, including a celebration of the release of Murder in Harrogatea collection of crime short stories edited by Vaseem Khan will be published by Orion in July. There will also be an Agatha Christie quiz, a live Crime Writers Room and a discussion with Julian Clary about his crime debut. Curtain up for the murderThe cast includes MJ Arlidge, Julia Crouch, Steph Broadribb, Vaseem Khan, Elly Griffiths, Ruth Ware, MW Craven and Mark Billingham, among other Orion writers.

Following on from last year’s fundraising efforts, tickets for The Incident Room will once again be priced at £3 per person, with all proceeds going to Harrogate International Festival’s educational programmes.

Orion will also be offering a limited exclusive ‘Harrogate at Home’ package for those unable to attend The Incident Room in person. Leanne Oliver, Publicity Director, said: “We are delighted to be working with the amazing team at Harrogate International Crime Festival again on the Orion Incident Room.”

“Over the past seven years, the Orion Incident Room has hosted many Orion debuts, including Love letters to a serial killer by Tasha Coryell, Complicated by Winnie Li and rag doll by Daniel Cole, and will also feature popular authors such as Sir Ian Rankin, Michael Connelly, Mari Hannah, Chris Whitaker and others. We look forward to welcoming even more readers to this year’s event.”

Clement Roux, Festival Manager, said: “As we prepare to welcome our visitors to the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival next month, we are delighted to see both long-standing visitors, some of whom have been with us since our first festival in 2003, and many new faces. This year we are presenting a festival that is bigger and better than ever! We are particularly pleased to present the ‘Murder in Harrogate’ panel as part of the Orion Incident Room, featuring five of the authors featured in the anthology commissioned to mark the two-decade festival. We really are ready for the hottest weekend in the crime calendar!”

Tickets for The Incident Room go on sale today (Monday, June 17, 2024) at 12pm. Find out more here.