Death in the Dales – Festival of Crime

The story follows Al Roberts, a cynical but talented nightclub pianist from New York City. When his girlfriend, Sue, leaves for Los Angeles to find success, lonely and penniless Al decides to hitchhike across the country to join her.

Detour is a 1945 American independent film noir directed by Edgar G. Ulmer and starring Tom Neal and Ann Savage.

The narrative takes a dark turn in Arizona when Al is picked up by Charles Haskell Jr., a wealthy traveller with a mysterious past. Through a series of unfortunate events and Al’s own mounting paranoia, he finds himself trapped in a web of deception, forced to assume a false identity to avoid the suspicion of the law. His situation goes from desperate to nightmarish when he encounters Vera, a ruthless and sharp-tongued drifter who knows his secret and sees him as a pawn for her own gain.

The film will be introduced by Matthew Booth, a writer of historical crime fiction, as well as being a short story writer and radio scriptwriter.

As an expert in crime and supernatural fiction, Matthew has provided a number of academic talks on such subjects as Sherlock Holmes, the works of Agatha Christie, crime fiction, Count Dracula, horror fiction, and the facts and theories concerning the crimes of Jack the Ripper.

He is a member of the Crime Writers’ Association and is the primary editor of its monthly magazine, Red Herrings. He lives with his wife in Manchester, England.

His latest book, published by Level Best Books, April 2026, is ‘A Sudden Vengeance‘, the fifth Golden Age mystery in his Everett Carr series, praised for its authentic sense of time and place and its enigmatic hero detective.

Website: thecwa.co.uk/find-an-author/booth-matthew