Tony Parons first topped the bestseller lists more than a decade ago with his novel Man and Boy. Now he has done it again after embarking on a life of crime.

Parsons has penned his first detective thriller, The Murder Bag, which shot into the number one fiction slot within days of publication last month. No mean feat given the rich seam of competition from established crime writers such as Ian Rankin, Lee Child and PD James.

Now he headlines the first ever Flamstead Book Festival this weekend.

The 60-year-old, a former music journalist whose semi-autobiographical Man and Boy sold millions and won the 2001 British Book of the Year prize as well as helping to kick-start shelves full of “men's lit“ from fellow writers, admits: “It was a big deal for me to change genres.

“People who read thrillers know their stuff. I only had one shot to get it right and it just couldn’t be ok! I feel as if I’ve used every muscle in my brain to get this right.

“I’ve loved crime fiction all my life and I know that the very best of it honours the form will adding something fresh, an unexpected twist. That’s what I tried to do with The Murder Bag at every step of the way.“

The book sees the debut of detective Max Wolfe, a coffee-drinking, dog-walking insomniac and single parent who is charged with tracking down a serial killer targeting former pupils at a posh private school 20 years earlier.

Wolfe is based at the Homicide and Serious Crime Command at 27 Savile Row in London’s West End.

Parsons says: “One of the things I wanted to do was give my crime novel an evocative sense of place, like Edinburgh in the Rebus novels by Ian Rankin – and my home city is London.

“The address felt like an original location and had a nice ring to it, like Sherlock Holmes at home strumming the violin in Baker Street. It’s set in contemporaray London but the past weighs heavily because the city is full of ghosts.

“Max has got a five-year-old daughter Scout. I want everyone to love him as much as I do now.“

The Murder Bag is the first of a trilogy of crime novels featuring Wolfe’s world. Parsons is already working on the second, The Slaughter Man.

St Leonard’s CofE Church, Trowley Hill Road, Flamstead, Saturday, June 7, 7pm.

Details: flamsteadbookfestival.com