Steve Cavanagh in Conversation at Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival
By Sarah Morgan, July 2026
Do a quick Google search for Steve Cavanagh and the first thing that pops up is the fact he’s sold more than a million copies of his books in the UK alone, and over four million worldwide.
Those numbers are pretty impressive, and yet his career as a novelist was almost over before it had really begun…
The Belfast-born author is currently at the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival in Harrogate to publicise One of Us Is Guilty, the 10th book in his series about con artist-turned-lawyer Eddie Flynn, and claims Eddie almost didn’t make it to book four.
“Nobody read the first three Eddie Flynn novels,” explains Steve. “The second one sold 600 copies in a year, which isn’t good. Then I wrote a standalone called The Thirteen that was a big success, and people started to go back and find my other stuff. If that hadn’t been a hit, I probably wouldn’t be writing about Eddie now.”
They say you should always write about what you know, and while we’re assuming that Steve was never a con man, he did spend many years as a lawyer. However, he admits that setting the stories in New York may seem odd – here’s why: “I wrote the first three books without having been to America!
“But New York, you get an impression that anything could happen there. We all have an idea of it. I don’t need to spend pages and pages describing it because you already know it.”
He claims his former career has never provided him with any inspiration, “Mostly because nobody would ever believe some of the stories. Like, I once dealt with somebody who tried to rob a post office with a dead seagull. Alcohol was involved! Interestingly, he was charged with armed robbery… we queried it and the judge asked, ‘would being hit with a dead seagull hurt?’ So that was that!
Steve Cavanagh on stage in Harrogate with fellow author Nadine Matheson and moderator Louise Minchin
“You have to have your characters challenged”
“But I always wanted to write,” adds Steve. “My mum was a great reader and gave me my first crime novel – The Silence of the Lambs – when I was about 12. I grew up in Belfast during The Troubles so that was light relief! She passed away quite suddenly in 2011, so that’s what spurred me on to try writing; I wrote my first book for her.”
And although he’s never used his previous career as inspiration, he does feel there are some similarities between it and penning fiction: “A lawyer’s job is to tell somebody else’s story but using your skills, techniques and abilities. It’s often said that a trial is a test of two lawyers and whoever tells the best story wins.”
One of Us Is Guilty was “sort of inspired by Gone Girl. I loved the toxic warfare between that couple and I wanted a toxic relationship in my novel.
“I don’t plan though. I know the basic story and then let it take me where it wants to go. I don’t even know what happens in chapter two, never mind what the end is. And I always write for two people – one who’s read all the books and someone who hasn’t read any of them; it has to work for both.”
As ever, Eddie will find himself in jeopardy at some point, which Steve thinks is crucial: “You have to have your characters challenged, that’s what readers enjoy. At the end of each book I usually have a couple of pages where everything is okay… ish.”
At the moment, he’s working on a standalone he describes as “a mix of Planes, Trains and Automobiles and Seven. It’s not a comedy.”
So at least poor Eddie can have a little rest from the terror and trauma that always heads his way – but you can bet it won’t be long before his creator has something else up his sleeve that his readers will devour in their millions.
images: Richard Maude
Sarah Morgan studied film journalism at post-graduate level with the BFI and has been writing about TV and film for PA Media’s newspaper, magazine and new media customers since 1996. She’s also written for a wide range of other publications, both online and in print, including the book Offbeat and Intermission magazine, and is a regular contributor to the Talking Pictures TV podcast. When she isn’t watching movies, she’s collecting and reading vintage crime and horror paperback books or, for her sins, watching her beloved Sheffield Wednesday.
