Crime and Thriller Panel

Chester Literature present a Crime and Thriller Panel featuring local author Caroline Corcoran with Sean Watkin and CL Taylor.  

Each author will talk through their writing inspirations and introduce audiences to their chilling new reads for this summer.  

Caroline Corcoran is an internationally published Sunday Times bestselling author whose work has been translated into multiple foreign languages and sold around the world. Caroline’s debut Through the Wall was followed by The Baby Group in 2021, Five Days Missing in 2022, What Happened on Floor 34? in 2023, TINY DAGGERS in 2025 and THE NEXT WOMAN, which came out this March. 

Caroline’s books are marketed as psychological thrillers or ‘domestic noir’ but they are also very much books about the female experience, tackling big themes such as infertility, domestic violence, work and its role in our lives, female friendship, new motherhood, sexual assault and mental health.  

Prior to writing novels, Caroline was a journalist, working for Stylist, Grazia, Marie Claire, the Telegraph, the Independent, the Mirror, the Guardian and many of the other biggest newspapers, magazines and websites in the country. If you speak to her for longer than three minutes, she will tell you about the time she interviewed Beyonce. Now, her interviewees take on a more literary form as she is a regular chair of book events and panels so that most of the time that isn’t spent writing her own books is spent reading other people’s. 

C.L. Taylor is the nine times Sunday Times bestselling author of eleven gripping stand-alone psychological thrillers. She’s the recipient of four Nielsen Silver Bestseller Awards and her books have sold over two million copies in the UK alone. They have been translated into over 30 languages and have been selected three times for the Richard and Judy Book Club. Her new book is It’s Always the Husband which is out in paperback now. 

Sean Watkin is the author of Black Water Rising, which was shortlisted for the prestigious McDermid Debut Award 2025. His crime fiction is known for its atmospheric Merseyside settings, layered psychological insight, and intricately plotted investigations. Blending social realism with compelling procedural narratives, Sean’s work explores grief, loss, and the human cost of secrets. His second novel, Better Off Dead, was published in January 2026, continuing the series featuring DCI Winifred de Silva. 

Sean was born and raised in Liverpool and attended Liverpool John Moores University, where he gained a BA in Creative Writing and an MA in Writing.