In October 2025, Vaseem Khan joined us to tutor our Writing a Killer Crime Novel course, read on to find out more about the experience…
I spend a lot of time thinking about how to kill people. Over the course of twelve books, I have despatched dozens of unsuspecting victims, in ways both brutal and bloody, strangled, knifed, shot, drowned, burned, whacked over the head with a mallet. It’s becoming increasingly difficult to think of ever more ingenious ways of doing people in.
As well as writing fiction, I teach it, and so I was delighted to be invited to deliver a week long course for budding crime and thriller writers at Tŷ Newydd in autumn 2025. As I was on a six festival book tour at the time, I decided to drive – and so my wife decided she would accompany me. We ended up weaving our way around the country like a pair of lost and slightly tipsy tourists, before a final leg through the beautiful landscape of Snowdonia to reach Tŷ Newydd. Living in the concrete jungle of east London, this was (literally) a breath of fresh air.
The first impression of the house is striking, a beautiful white-painted edifice appearing at the end of a leafy lane. A quick tour reveals nooks, crannies, odd staircases and little rooms both cosy and intriguing. My wife cooed. My own crime writer’s brain immediately went to work picturing the venue as the perfect place for a locked room/closed circle murder mystery. I’m certain it must have been done before, but a murder at a writing retreat seems one of those perfect meta-story concepts just begging to be written.
The week went wonderfully. I was teaching the course with fellow crime writer Alis Hawkins, and we met our gang of ultra-keen ‘students’ – a range of ages, backgrounds and planned novels – for a getting-to-know-you session on the Monday evening where we introduced them to the darker realities of the publishing industry. Thankfully, none of them ran away in the night, and from Tuesday to Thursday we delivered six workshops covering various aspects of crime and thriller writing, from how to draw intriguing characters, to how to conduct police investigations. Lunches and dinners were collegiate affairs prepared by the in house chef, a colourful character who blasted an excellent selection of 70s and 80s music from the kitchen to enliven our stay. His cat also took a keen interest, though we were warned not to get too friendly as she was liable to turn into a man-eating tiger at any attempt at belly-tickling.
One evening session was invigorated by a guest speaker, bestselling crime writer, Erin Kelly; another saw the tutees read from their works-in-progress, and on another we read from our own work. What do I write? I am the author of a series of award-winning crime novels set in 1950s India, featuring India’s first female police detective working with an English forensic scientist. They’re called the Malabar House novels, beginning with Midnight at Malabar House. These books showcase the fabulous shared history of Britain and India, especially that turbulent period just after India became independent – with a few murders thrown into the mix.
My latest book, out in October 2025, is the first in a series featuring Q from the James Bond franchise. Exciting!
In Quantum of Menace, Q – aka Major Boothroyd – finds himself unceremoniously booted out of MI6. A man at sea, he decides to return to his small hometown – the fictional Wickstone-on-Water – to reinvestigate the mysterious death of his childhood friend, a quantum computer scientist. The tone of the novel lies somewhere between Mick Herron’s Slow Horses and Richard Osman’s The Thursday Murder Club. There’s dry humour, cryptic clues, an insight into Q’s life at – and post – MI6, and, yes, Commander Bond puts in an appearance. How could he not!
During the week, we had time to wander into nearby Cricieth, for a scenic walk along the beachfront and up to the castle, followed by my wife diving into various tourist shops to spend half of our annual household budget on knick-knacks. We also found time to visit former British Prime Minister David Lloyd George’s grave – set beside a bubbling river. One of the calmest half hours I have spent in recent years. Lloyd George, of course, lived and died in the Tŷ Newydd house – though no foul play was suspected, much to my disappointment.
We left on the Friday, wishing our newly energised tutees all the best with their planned novels and thanking the amazing Tŷ Newydd staff – and medicating them with a bottle of wine so that they might recover from the hectic week. The journey home took longer than I expected, with an unplanned detour in a kebab house in Coventry. No sooner had I got back I found myself packing for another event the following day. No rest for the wicked.