110 mThe Crime Fair is for readers who want to get closer to the genre than the back-cover blurb. Here, crime fiction, suspense, interviews, talks, lectures, and book sales fill FÆNGSLET in Horsens, so the setting is not just a backdrop, but part of the atmosphere.
The programme can include meetings with Danish and international crime writers about current books, but also talks with professionals from the real-world crime scene. Forensic doctors and investigators are among the types who can give the genre a more concrete and less polished edge.
The fair uses several of FÆNGSLET’s rooms as stages and exhibition areas. Names such as Trykkeriet, Snedkeriet, Gymnastiksalen, Arresten and Indergården say something about the place before anyone has even switched on the microphone. It is a literature festival where you can move from book stalls to author interviews while still being surrounded by the heavy walls of the former state prison.
FÆNGSLET is today a museum, cultural centre and experience venue, but the buildings still clearly bear the marks of their former function. During the Crime Fair, that history is not explained in detail everywhere; instead, it lies like a dark undertone beneath the conversations about guilt, clues and motives.
