Barbara Fagan Speake

Crime writer visits Huntly

Crown Bar, Gordon Street, Huntly • Wednesday 27 August 2014 • 7.30pm

Admission free – all welcome!

We are delighted to welcome Barbara Fagan Speake, who will read from her fiction and tell us something about the craft of the crime writer. Come and meet us in the cocktail lounge of the Crown Bar, Gordon Street, Huntly, if you want to join in what should be a lively discussion of the genre.

Barbara Fagan Speake is a regular visitor to Huntly, often writing while her husband and his friends fish for salmon. In fact Huntly provided the inspiration and background for her series character, Scottish detective Annie Macpherson, who is a native of Huntly. It was while staying at the Greenmount B & B and chatting to George Manson, a former policeman, that she developed the background to her character. She even visited the Macpherson Museum on her last visit to Scotland.

Born in Connecticut, Barbara moved to England in 1972 following her marriage. She has had a varied career as a research psychologist and a clinical psychologist, as well as holding various management positions in the NHS. She and her husband Terry have two grown-up children.

All four of her books are set in the fictional city of Westford, Connecticut. Her first, Secrets Only Sleep (2005) was meant as a standalone, but she later decided to use the same police department for her series. Detective Macpherson is seconded to the Westford Force for a six-month period. Primed by the Past (2011) introduces Annie. Her next novel, Programmed to Kill is another Annie thriller (2012), followed by Past Deception, her latest, published in May 2014. Another Annie book is being developed.

Barbara describes her books as "whydunits" as she is always interested in the motivation behind the crimes, although they each also have a "whodunit" element. She is always happy to chat about her experience as a crime writer and the lessons she has learned along the way!