A new festival for crime fiction lovers is coming to Newcastle on 31 May and its organisers have come up with a twist as unique as any you’ll find in a Norwegian thriller. Crime Story will take place at the University of Northumbria, and the event has commissioned author Ann Cleeves to invent a fictional crime which will then be investigated by various experts including forensic scientists, police detectives and legal eagles. It’s being organised by New Writing North.

“The scenario will be based around a young man, found dead in a locked room; a grieving foster mother; a landlord who keeps himself to himself and the picture of an enigmatic girl smiling down from the bloody wall,” explains Crime Story’s publicist Tammy Moore.

If you attend the two-day event, you’ll get an in-depth look at how the investigation and trial might proceed with various experts demonstrating how the police would investigate the crime, what forensics could uncover, and how it would be handled in the courts. It also has a digital forensics aspect to it, and will take a look at blood splatter analysis. Ann Cleeves (right) will be interviewed live during one session, and Louise Welsh will be launching a new book as part of Crime Story. Optional extra sessions will cover everything from procedure at trial to what it’s like to be in prison.

“It isn’t role-play, it is more a chance for the participants to get under the skin of the crime – to hear from the people who do it how it would actually happen,” adds Tammy Moore. “We will also have authors who write forensic heavy crime novels there to talk about how they integrate the science into the narrative.”

For further details visit the event’s website here ;tickets are £99 at the early bird rate plus a £6.59 booking fee. The first five people to order tickets will get a signed copy of Harbour Street, the latest Vera novel by Ann Cleeves.