We have a fabulous line up of authors and editors for you this year – scroll down to find out more about them and their books (alphabetial order)
Following a lifelong love for everything British, over twenty-three years ago Stefanie Bierwerth moved from Germany to London. During her final year at university she became the ‘press cuttings girl’ at Pan Macmillan, a role which taught her everything about photocopiers, publishing parties (which still existed at the time) and the kind of things that make an editor tick. She ended up staying for ten years at Macmillan, where she started building her own list with a strong focus on crime and thriller fiction, including the launch of the bestselling Roy Grace series by Peter James.
In 2009 Stefanie moved to Penguin as Editorial Director for crime &thrillers at Michael Joseph where she worked with authors like P. D. James and Tim Weaver. Stefanie has been with Quercus since late 2013 and her current suspense list includes JP Delaney, Jo Spain, Romy Hausmann, Olivia Kiernan and Lucy Atkins. Most of Stefanie’s books tend to have a darker edge. She’s always on the hunt for novels with unique characters, a twist that she didn’t see coming and new international writers that haven’t yet been discovered in the UK. Follow Stefanie on Twitter @stef_bier
Sam Blake has been writing fiction since her husband set sail across the Atlantic for eight weeks and she had an idea for a book. Her debut novel Little Bones (Bonnier 2016) was a runaway bestseller, staying at No 1 in Ireland for four weeks, and remaining in the top 10 for another four. Little Bones was nominated for Irish Crime Novel of the Year and launched the bestselling Cat Connolly trilogy.
Sam loves strong female characters, and after the Cat series, began writing psychological thrillers for Corvus Books. Keep Your Eyes On Me went straight to No 1 in January 2020 and The Dark Room was an Eason Ireland No 1 for three weeks in January 2021. A spiderweb thriller that links the Cat Connolly trilogy with Sam’s standalones, High Pressure, was released as a worldwide digital exclusive in September 2021 and her next standalone Remember My Name is out in January 2022. She is the founder of the Murder One festival and of Writing.ie
Sam is originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire but has lived at the foot of the Wicklow mountains for more years that she lived in the UK. She has two teenagers, three cats and lives in a 200-year-old cottage with an occasional poltergeist who moves things at the most inconvenient moments.
Follow Sam on all social @samblakebooks Visit www.samblakebooks.com for news and events and get a bonus free short story in audio & text when you subscribe to her newsletter.
Declan Burke is an award-winning author and editor. His novel Absolute Zero Cool won the Goldsboro Award in 2012. Books to Die For (2013), co-edited with John Connolly, won the Anthony Award for Best Non-Fiction Crime. The Lammisters, a comic novel, is published by No Alibis Press.
Find out more and follow Declan’s Crime Always Pays blog here.
Crime is a family affair for Jane Casey. Married to a criminal barrister, she has a unique insight into the brutal underbelly of urban life, from the smell of a police cell to the darkest motives of a serial killer. This gritty realism has made her books international bestsellers and critical successes; while Detective Constable Maeve Kerrigan has quickly become one of the most popular characters in crime fiction.
Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award for The Stranger You Know, Jane has been shortlisted four times for the Irish Crime Novel of the Year Award and longlisted for the CWA Dagger in the Library Award. She is a top ten Sunday Times bestselling author. Her No 1 bestseller, standalone thriller The Killing Kind is out now. Follow Jane on Facebook here and on Twitter @JaneCaseyAuthor
Dr. Marie Cassidy was Ireland’s State Pathologist from 2004 until 2018. During that time, she was involved in many high-profile cases, including the Stardust exhumation and the deaths of Siobhan Kearney, Rachel O’Reilly, Robert Holohan and Tom O’Gorman. In her memoir, Beyond the Tape, she invites us into the world of forensic pathology, and shares her remarkable personal journey, from working-class Glasgow to becoming Ireland’s head pathologist.
Professor Jim Fraser is a forensic investigator who has been involved in hundreds of murder investigations as an expert witness and cold case reviewer. He has given evidence many times as an expert witness. A Research Professor in Forensic Science at the University of Strathclyde and a Commissioner on the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission, he has advised many public agencies including police organisations in the UK and abroad, the Home Office, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. He is the author of Murder under the Microscope. Find out more at http://www.jimfraser.net
Sophie Hannah is a Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling writer of crime fiction, published in 49 languages and 51 countries. Her books have sold millions of copies worldwide. In 2014, with the blessing of Agatha Christie’s family and estate, Sophie published a new Poirot novel, The Monogram Murders, which was a bestseller in more than fifteen countries. She has since published three more nationally and internationally bestselling Poirot novels: Closed Casket, The Mystery of Three Quarters and The Killings at Kingfisher Hill.
In 2013, Sophie’s novel The Carrier won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. She has also published two short story collections and five collections of poetry – the fifth of which, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A Level and degree level across the UK. Most recently, she has published a self-help book called How to Hold a Grudge: From Resentment to Contentment – The Power of Grudges to Transform Your Life and launched the How To Hold a Grudge Podcast. Sophie is co-creator and course director of the University of Cambridge’s new Masters programme in Crime and Thriller Writing, and founder and CEO of the DREAM AUTHOR coaching programme for writers. She lives with her husband, children and dog in Cambridge, where she is an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.
Joanne Harris is an Anglo-French writer, whose books include fourteen novels, two cookbooks and many short stories. Her work is extremely diverse, covering aspects of magic realism, suspense, historical fiction, mythology and fantasy. In 2000, her 1999 novel CHOCOLAT was adapted to the screen, starring Juliette Binoche and Johnny Depp.
CHOCOLAT has sold over a million copies in the UK alone and was a global bestseller. She is an Honorary Fellow of St Catherine’s College, Cambridge, and in 2013 was awarded an MBE by the Queen.
Joanne is a judge for the Whitbread Prize, the Orange Prize, the Desmond Elliott Prize, the Betty Trask Award, the Prima Donna Prize and the Royal Society Winton Prize for Science, as well as for the Fragrance Foundation awards for perfume and perfume journalism (for which she also received an award in 2017).
She is a passionate advocate for authors’ rights, and is currently the Chair of the Society of Authors (SOA), and member of the Board of the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS). Find out more here, and follow Joanne on Twitter @Joannechocolat
Sarah Hodgson is the Publishing Director of Corvus, the commercial fiction imprint of independent publisher Atlantic. She has over twenty years’ experience as an editor, previously with Harper Collins, and has worked with many bestselling authors, including Stuart MacBride, Elizabeth Buchan, Catherine Ryan Howard, Eithne Shortall and Sam Blake. Follow Sarah on Twitter @SarahHeditor
Femi Kayode has spent the last two decades in advertising. In fits and starts. In between, he was a Packard Gates Fellow in Film at the University of Southern California and a Gates Fellow in International Health at the University of Washington. He also managed to build an impressive resume on prime-time television by creating, writing and developing several award-winning TV dramas.
He recently completed an MA in Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia, where his novel Lightseekers won the Little, Brown / UEA Crime Fiction Award. Lightseekers is his first novel and the beginning of a series of books based on the investigations of Dr Philip K. Talwo. He lives in Namibia with his wife, two sons and two overly friendly dogs. Follow Femi on Twitter @FemiKay_Author
Awais Khan is a graduate of the University of Western Ontario and Durham University, and studied creative writing with Faber Academy. His debut novel, In the Company of Strangers, was published to much critical acclaim, and he now regularly appears on TV and radio. Awais also teaches a popular online creative writing course to aspiring writers around the world. He lives in Lahore and is currently working on his third novel. Follow Awais on Twitter @AwaisKhanAuthor
Vaseem Khan is the author of two crime series set in India, the Baby Ganesh Agency series set in modern Mumbai, and the Malabar House historical crime novels set in 1950s Bombay. His first book, The Unexpected Inheritance of Inspector Chopra, was a Times bestseller, now translated into 15 languages. The second in the series won the Shamus Award in the US. In 2018, he was awarded the Eastern Eye Arts, Culture and Theatre Award for Literature. Vaseem was born in England, but spent a decade working in India. In 2021, Midnight at Malabar House won the Crime Writers Association Historical Dagger. His latest book is The Dying Day about the theft of one of the world’s great treasures, a 600-year-old copy of Dante’s The Divine Comedy, stored at Bombay’s Asiatic Society. Find out more at https://vaseemkhan.com/
Olivia Kiernan is an Irish writer of crime thrillers and suspense fiction. Kiernan’s fourth novel, The Murder Box, was released in 2021 and sees Detective Frankie Sheehan receive a murder mystery game only to discover that the fictional victim at the game’s centre bears a striking resemblance to a missing woman. On release, the Irish Independent said of The Murder Box: “A clever, original story is augmented by Kiernan’s masterful writing, credible characters, and a smashing finale”. The Daily Mail said, “The plot crackles from first page to last, and the tension never lifts until the darkest of twists brings it to a superb conclusion.” Olivia grew up just outside the town of Kells in County Meath, Ireland and currently lives in Oxford with her partner and daughter. Find out more at https://oliviakiernan.com/
Andrea Mara is an Irish Times Top Ten bestselling author, who has been shortlisted for a number of awards, including Irish Crime Novel of the Year at the An Post Book Awards. Her most recent novel, All Her Fault, was Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month, and a Kindle Top 5 bestseller.
She lives in Dublin, Ireland, with her husband and three young children, and also runs multi-award-winning parent and lifestyle blog, OfficeMum.ie.
Val McDermid’s novels have been translated into forty languages, and have sold over seventeen million copies. A remarkably versatile writer, as well as novels, Val has written radio plays, short stories, non-fiction and even a children’s book and has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009, was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger in 2010 and received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award in 2011. In 2016, Val received the Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award at the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival and in 2017 received the DIVA Literary Prize for Crime. Find out more here https://www.valmcdermid.com/
Nadine Matheson has always been passionate about writing and storytelling. She was born and lives in London and is a Criminal Solicitor. In 2016, she won the City University Crime Writing Competition and completed the Creative Writing (Crime/Thriller Novels) MA at City University of London with Distinction in 2018.
Her crime novel, The Jigsaw Man is out now. Find out more at https://www.nadinematheson.com/
Before becoming a full-time writer, Liz Nugent worked in Irish film, theatre and television. Her novels – Unravelling Oliver, Lying in Wait and Skin Deep and Our Little Cruelties have been Number One bestsellers in Ireland and she has won four Irish Book Awards (two for Skin Deep). She lives in Dublin with her husband.
Find out more at http://www.liznugent.ie/
Adele Parks was born in North Yorkshire. Selling over 4 million books in the UK and translated into 31 languages, she is the author of twenty bestselling novels including the recent Sunday Times Number One hits Lies Lies Lies and Just My Luck. Both optioned for development for TV in conjunction with Netflix producers. She’s an ambassador for The National Literacy Trust and a judge for the Costa. Adele has lived in Botswana, Italy and London, and is now settled in Guildford, Surrey, with her husband, son and cat. Both of You is Adele’s 21st book in 21 years.
Find out more at https://www.adeleparks.com/
William Ryan is the author of six novels, including the Captain Korolev series set in 1930s Moscow and The Constant Soldier. They have been shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Irish Fiction Award, the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and the Crime Writer Association’s Steel, Historical and New Blood Daggers. A House of Ghosts (2018), set in 1917, was described as ‘an atmospheric, hugely entertaining mystery that offers all the pleasures of a classic ghost story – with an appealing dash of romance’. His next novel, The Winter Guest is set in the Irish War of Independence and will be published in January 2021.
William is also the author, with Matthew Hall, of Writing Crime Fiction for Guardian Masterclasses (2015) and Writers & Artists Guide to How to Write: How to plan, structure and write your novel (2021). He has taught creative writing at the University of East Anglia and City, University of London as well as regular courses for Writers & Artists and The Irish Writers Centre. Find out more at https://www.william-ryan.com/
Icelandic crime-writer Lilja Sigurðardóttir was born in the town of Akranes in 1972 and raised in Mexico, Sweden, Spain and Iceland. An award-winning playwright, Lilja has written four crime novels, with Snare, her English debut shortlisting for the CWA International Dagger and hitting bestseller lists worldwide. Trap soon followed suit, with the third in the trilogy Cage winning the Best Icelandic Crime Novel of the Year, and was a Guardian Book of the Year. Lilja’s standalone Betrayal, was shortlisted for the Glass Key Award for Best Nordic Crime Novel. The film rights have been bought by Palomar Pictures in California. Lilja is also an award-winning screenwriter in her native Iceland. She lives in Reykjavík with her partner. Find out more at http://www.liljawriter.com/
Vanda Symon is a crime writer, TV presenter and radio host from Dunedin, New Zealand, and the chair of the Otago Southland branch of the New Zealand Society of Authors. The Sam Shephard series has climbed to number one on the New Zealand bestseller list, and has also been shortlisted for the Ngaio Marsh Award for Best Crime Novel and for the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger. She currently lives in Dunedin, with her husband and two sons.
Find out more at http://vandasymon.com/