For our first evening author event of the year we were delighted to welcome the award-winning crime author and journalist Holly Watt, who was joined in conversation with The Bookery’s own interviewer Alison Sweatman. The Last Truths We Told was published on the 16th of January 2025 and having been reviewed in the Sunday Times last weekend, we were privileged to have Holly with us so close to the launch of the book.

Holly Watt is an award-winning investigative journalist who worked at the Sunday Times, the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian and has received nominations for several prizes in journalism and won several awards the most prominent of which were for her work on the “Panama Papers” and “MPs’ Expenses” at the Daily Telegraph. Her first novel, To The Lions, won the CWA Ian Fleming Steel Dagger, and was followed by The Dead Line, which has been longlisted for the 2021 CWA Steel Dagger, and then The Hunt And The Kill. The End of the Game was her fourth novel in the Casey Benedict series.

From the flowing conversation we learnt much about the nine characters in her latest novel The Last Truths We Told, their shared history from their time together at university, and the predictions that lead each chapter of the story that unfolds against the haunting backdrop of Dartmoor, with its twisting tin mines and its centuries-old houses that hold buried secrets. The Last Truths We Told is about old friends and new betrayals: Twenty years ago, nine friends made a series of predictions about what would happen to each of them after college. Now, they’ve all gathered together for the weekend, not for a reunion but for a reveal. Some have gone on to staggering success, others to more mundane lives. And one of them is missing. Before her death, Lily seemed agitated. Even scared. In the weeks before her death, she called Maggie, wanting to talk but then refusing to say what was frightening her. Now Maggie is beginning to realize that not everyone at the house this weekend is who they appeared to be. And those who are lying are prepared to do anything to stop the truth coming out. A bit like The Traitors!

We learnt from Alison’s discussion with Holly about several of the characters and the influences that led to Holly writing The Last Truths We Told which is the first book that has not featured the reporter Casey Benedict. The audience was interested to hear Holly describe how she tracked the development of the characters and their predictions on a spreadsheet and about the 18-month timeline it to from the start of writing the book to publication. Holly then read a passage from the book, which she told us was the first time she had read it out loud. Alison then welcomed a number of questions from the audience, and we concluded the evening with Holly signing copies of her book for customers and us-– we have copies available online HERE or from visiting the bookshop. We thank all our customers who joined us for the evening.

We will be back with more evening author events in March.