A Matter of Time with Claire Askew

Claire Askew is an award-winning poet, writer and educator based in Edinburgh. Askew is best known for her DI Helen Birch series of hit crime novels that launched in 2018 with All The Hidden Truths. It was published to great acclaim and Askew was awarded the Lucy Cavendish Fiction Prize and was crime debut of the year at the prestigious Bloody Scotland crime-writing festival.

Askew's own teenage experience growing up surrounded by unrealistic images of femininity informed the creation of her lead character, DI Helen Birch, who is not super-slick and polished but more "an ordinary woman with a hard job" who "eats Chinese takeaway and drinks wine".

We look forward to welcoming Claire Askew to Coatbridge library to talk about her latest title, A Matter of Time. Fourth in the series, A Matter of Time, is a tense hostage thriller based on the devastating foot and mouth outbreak of 2001. It takes place over the course of 24 hours and DI Helen Birch finds herself at the heart of a state of emergency in the Scottish Borders. A three year old hostage is dependent on DI Birch to negotiate with a gunman.

Please contact Coatbridge Library(this will open in a new window) for booking information.