Mystery, suspense and intrigue will hit a coastal town once more next month as a popular festival makes a welcome return.

Southwold Library will hold its popular Slaughter in Southwold crime festival on the weekend of June 17-19.

This will be the eighth crime-writing festival event since it was launched in 2013, and it returns after taking a two-year break during the pandemic.

An exciting programme of interviews with best-selling crime novelists has been arranged with Louise Candlish, William Shaw, Rory Clements and more speaking at Southwold Arts Centre as part of Southwold Arts Festival.

The event has been organised by Southwold Library with support from the Friends of Southwold Library and the Crime Writers' Association.

Charlotte Clark, executive library manager for Southwold Library and the organiser of the festival, said: “We’re delighted to be bringing Slaughter back to Southwold after a two-year break and I’m excited about the wonderful range of authors we’ve got booked.

"It’ll be lovely to welcome people back to the festival and you can also try and solve a mystery yourself at our special murder mystery dinner!”

The murder mystery dinner is held on Friday, June 17 at 7pm - with ‘Murder in the Lemon Grove’ an engaging murder mystery from best-selling author Kate Ellis.

Enjoy a delicious meal from Café 51 and test your abilities as a sleuth.

Tickets are £12 and can be booked online.

The full programme of author talks is as follows:

Saturday, June 18

Fiona Cummins at 10am, James Henry at 11.30am, Cara Hunter at 2pm and Lesley Thomson at 3.30pm.

Sunday, June 19

Lin La Versha at 10am, William Shaw at 11.30am, Rory Clements at 2pm and Louise Candlish at 3.30pm.

Louise will talking about her latest novel The Heights and her career so far - including Our House, which won the crime and thriller book of the year at the 2019 British Book Awards and is now a major ITV drama starring Martin Compston, Tuppence Middleton and Rupert Penry-Jones.

Each event is £6 but you can book a Saturday or Sunday ticket for £20 or a weekend ticket for £40 with the option to also buy lunch.

For full details of the events and booking details visit the Suffolk Libraries website.