At Monty Lit Fest, we love a bit of crime fiction, especially when it combines thrilling plotlines with brilliant characters and is set in an evocative time or place.

Chris Lloyd is a master of crime fiction that perfectly meets this brief, whether he’s taking us to current-day Catalonia with his police procedural Elisenda Domènech series or immersing us in Nazi-Occupied Paris during World War II with his Eddie Giral thrillers.

In conversation with our very own Myfanwy Alexander – herself no stranger to the crime novel – Chris will tell us about his writing life, as well as giving us a sneak peak into the upcoming third Eddie Giral book, Banquet of Beggars.

Chris Lloyd lived in Catalonia for over twenty years, working in educational publishing and as a translator. He is the author of the Eddie Giral series about a French police detective in Occupied Paris. The first in the series, The Unwanted Dead, won the HWA Gold Crown for best historical novel of the year, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger and was a Waterstone’s Welsh Book of the Month. The second, Paris Requiem, was a Sunday Times Best Historical Fiction Book of 2023. The third in the series, Banquet of Beggars, will be published in August 2024.