Wednesday Night Showcase: On the Brink – $20

In situations bristling with tension, excitement and anticipation often comes that feeling of being on the precipice of something big — whether an impending war, social upheaval, the chance to escape or a major breakthrough in solving a mystery. The writers on this panel are all masters at capturing the rich, emotional depth of what it means to live “on the brink” in the periods in which their novels are set. This showcase features short readings, on-stage interviews and an audience Q&A. Hosted by Judith Duthie.

Featured Books

Carry Me by Peter Behrens

Set during the decades between the First and Second World Wars, Carry Me is a devastating historical saga, an unusual love story and a lucid meditation on Europe’s violent twentieth century. Coming of age in Frankfurt and Berlin, Billy and Karin share a passion for speed, jazz, and nightclubs. As society loses its moral bearings and Germany marches toward war, they also share a dream of escape — from Germany, from history — to El Llano Estacado, a richly imagined New Mexico landscape.

Fire by C.C. Humphreys

Fire is a thriller set in London 1666 and follows on from Plague. It is the epic tale of the hunt for a serial killer threatening London’s rich and poor during the Great Fire of London.

By Gaslight by Steven Price

By Gaslight is a magnificent literary historical-suspense novel in the tradition of Eleanor Catton’s The Luminaries, Patrick DeWitt’s The Sisters Brothers, and Michael Faber’s The Crimson Petal and the White. Set in London, 1885, Steven Price unravels the story of the most unlikely of bonds: between William Pinkerton, the greatest detective of his age, and Adam Foole, the one man who may hold the key to finding the notorious thief and fabled con-man Edward Shade. What follows is an atmospheric portrait of two men on the brink, as they embark on a fog-enshrouded hunt through sewers, opium dens, drawing rooms and séance halls.

When the Music’s Over by Peter Robinson

When the body of a young girl is found in a remote countryside lane, evidence suggests she was drugged, abused, and thrown from a moving van  — before being beaten to death. While DI Annie Cabbot investigates the circumstances in which a 14-year-old could possibly fall victim to such a crime, newly promoted DSI Alan Banks must do the same — but the crime Banks is investigating is the coldest of cases. Fifty years ago Linda Palmer was attacked by celebrity entertainer Danny Caxton, yet no investigation ever took place. Now Caxton stands accused, at the centre of a historical abuse investigation, and it is Banks’s first task as superintendent to find the truth.