Country music and crime fiction have merged to bring a unique collaboration to audiences.

Country music and crime fiction have merged to bring a unique collaboration to audiences.

In The Other Half acclaimed crime writer Mark Billingham joins forces with country duo My Darling Clementine at the Corn Exchange, Newbury on June 26.

In a rundown Memphis bar, three couples tell their very different stories. The bliss and the heartbreak; desire, death and domestic horror. That long and difficult search for the other half… Pain, loss, violence are the lifeblood of crime fiction, but also the coal-black seam that runs through the very best country music.

It is no accident that the novels of bestselling crime-writer Mark Billingham feature a lot of country music. The playlist for his latest novel The Bones Beneath features Billingham’s favourite contemporary country artists, My Darling Clementine and now the novelist and the band have come together to create an original show combining story and song.

The Other Half features Billingham reading his story and My Darling Clementine, performing as a duo, punctuating the narrative with those songs that inspired it.

Billingham said “The Other Half is about people looking for something, so there’s hope too and there’s always the possibility of redemption. Let’s not forget that I’m a crime-writer though, so I may sneak a murder or two in there as well…”.

After the interval, audiences will be able to enjoy a full live set from My Darling Clemtine. Mark Billingham is one of the UK’s most acclaimed and popular crime writers.

His series of London-based novels featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne has twice won him the Theakston’s Crime Novel Of The Year Award and his debut novel, Sleepyhead was chosen by the Sunday Times as one of the 100 books that had shaped the decade.

Each of his novels has been a Sunday Times Top Ten bestseller.Comprising husband-and-wife duo My Darling Clementine are the leading lights of the British Americana/country music scene that have to date released two highly acclaimed albums.

Tickets cost just £14 (£11 concessions) and can be purchased online at www.cornexchangenew.com or at the Corn Exchange Box Office on 0845 5218 218.