Imagine creating one of literature's greatest villains for your crime series yet allowing him to appear in only one story. That is exactly what Arthur Conan Doyle did in 1893 when he introduced Professor James Moriarty in The Final Problem. Despite his surprisingly brief appearance in the Sherlock Holmes canon, Moriarty became the template for the modern criminal mastermind: the hidden intelligence orchestrating crime from behind the scenes. Before him, fictional villains tended to commit crimes

Why do hidden masterminds fascinate us? From Professor Moriarty to QAnon, discover how crime fiction shaped our fascination with secret conspiracies.

I’m delighted to have been invited to give a solo talk at the ‘Alibis in the Archive 2026’ event to be held in collaboration with the Crime Writers’ Association at the prestigious Gladstone’s Library on 5th June – 7th June.This stunning location is home to the British Crime Writing Archive, made up of materials from the Crime Writers’ Association and The Detection Club. That champion of the genre, Martin Edwards, has worked closely with the Gladstone’s Library team to make the collections...