Presenters

In-Person Conference

MICHAEL SLADE is a criminal lawyer/crime writer who has acted in more than 100 murder cases. His specialty is psychopathology. He argued the last hanging appeal in Canada’s Supreme Court. His 15 Mountie Noir thrillers about the Special X psycho-hunters of the RCMP fuse police and legal procedure, whodunit, history, horror, and suspense.

2025 is Slade’s 41st anniversary as a professional novelist and playwright. HEADHUNTER was published in 1984. TOO MANY HYDES: The Last Stand of Special X, the climactic novel in his series, is finished. The Sword of Damocles – fear of series incompletion – no longer hangs over his head.

He’s been to the Mounties’ Red Serge Ball, was guest speaker at several regimental dinners and the International Police Leadership Conference, and was GoH at the World Horror Convention.

“Crime writer Michael Slade is the real deal! If reading Slade makes you react, ‘Wow! Serial killers don’t really do that to people, do they?’, I can tell you, yes, they do.” – RCMP Staff Sergeant Christine Wozney (ret.), CO of the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis team (West Coast).

As the Mad Hatter, Slade has written and produced SHOCK THEATRE at SiWC for almost two decades. This year’s production will be THE TIME MACHINE.

Presentations