HULL NOIR

MARTINA COLE

MARTINA COLE 

The record-breaking facts… 

More No.1 original fiction bestsellers than any other author. 

£63.2 million worth of books sold, making her the bestselling British-born female crime writer since Nielsen records began in 1998. 

Her books have spent a total of 62 weeks atop The Bookseller’s Original Fiction chart in the Nielsen BookScan era – a record.

Martina Cole’s debut novel Dangerous Lady, caused a sensation when it was published by Headline in 1992, and launched one of the bestselling fiction writers of her generation .Twenty-five years later Martina is the undisputed queen of crime drama with twenty-three novels to her name of which 15 have been No.1 bestsellers, and total sales stand at over 16 million copies. She won the British Book Award for Crime Thriller of the Year with The Take, which then went on to be a hit TV series for Sky 1. Four of her novels have made it to the screen, with more in the pipeline, and three have been adapted as stage plays. 

Her unique, powerful storytelling is acclaimed for its hard-hitting, true-to-life style – there is no one else who writes like Martina Cole. 

DAMAGED Published by Headline 19th September at £20.00 Hardback 

A town full of secrets. A serial killer leaving no trace. DCI Burrows is put to the ultimate test. 

DCI Kate Burrows might be retired, but once a policewoman, always a policewoman, and when the bodies of local girls start turning up in Grantley, without a trace of evidence leading to their killer, she’s the first person DC1 Annie Carr calls for help. 

Life has been sweet for Kate and ex-gangster Patrick Kelly, when out of the blue a young man turns up on their doorstep claiming to be his son. Joseph is the spit of him and Patrick has a strong feeling this is his flesh and blood. But something about Joseph’s wife, Bella, definitely seems off, and Kate can smell trouble. As the Grantley killer picks up the pace, it becomes clear that someone local must be responsible. 

But will Kate and the rest of the force be able to catch him before the body count gets higher? There’s more to this killer than meets the eye…

JOHN CONNOLLY

John Connolly is the Sunday Times, Irish Times, New York Times bestselling Irish author of the Charlie Parker novels.

John Connolly’s first novel, Every Dead Thing, was published in 1999 introducing the character of Charlie Parker. He has since written twelve more Charlie Parker novels, A Song of Shadows, went straight in at No.3 on the Sunday Times Hardback bestseller list. The newest in the series, A Time of Torment, will be published in April 2016.

John has also written three books for children in the Samuel Johnson series, a young adult fantasy, Conquest, with Jennifer Ridyard and a stand-alone coming-of-age, The Book of Lost Things. His short story collection, Nocturnes, was adapted for BBC Radio Four. 

John Connolly is the first non-US author to win the Shamus Award. He has also won the Barry and Agatha awards. He is sold in 28 languages. 

MARK BILLINGHAM

Mark Billingham was born and brought up in Birmingham. Having worked for some years as an actor and more recently as a TV writer and stand-up comedian his first crime novel was published in 2001.

Sleepyhead was an instant bestseller in the UK. It has been sold widely throughout the world and was published in the USA in the summer of 2002.

The series of crime novels featuring London-based detective Tom Thorne continued with Scaredy Cat and was followed by Lazybones, The Burning Girl, Lifeless, Buried, Death Message, Bloodline, From The Dead, Good As Dead, The Dying Hours, The Bones Beneath, Time Of Death and the most recent, Love Like Blood. Mark is also the author of the standalone novels In The Dark, Rush Of Blood and his latest, Die Of Shame.

An acclaimed television series based on the Thorne novels was screened on Sky One in Autumn 2010, starring David Morrissey as Tom Thorne. A new series, based on the novels In The Dark and Time Of Death will be screened on BBC1 in 2017.

NICK QUANTRILL

Nick Quantrill was born and raised in Hull, an isolated industrial city in East Yorkshire. His latest crime novel, The Dead Can't Talk, is published by Caffeine Nights. The Joe Geraghty trilogy, Broken Dreams (2010), The Late Greats (2012) and The Crooked Beat (2013) are also published by Caffeine Nights. His standalone novella, Bang Bang You're Dead (2012) is published by Byker Books. 

A prolific short story writer, Nick's work has appeared in Volumes Eight, Nine and Ten of The Mammoth Book of Best British Crimealongside the genre's most respected names. In 2011, Nick became the first person to hold the role of Writer in Residence at Hull Kingston Rovers, contributing sports-based fiction to the match day programme and assisting with the club's literacy programme. Nick has also worked as Writer in Residence with the National Railway Museum. His first story for children is included in the Toad Tales anthology published by Wrecking Ball.

With a growing reputation as an event chair, Nick has interviewed a series of writers on stage including Lee Child, Martina Cole, Val McDermid, Peter Robinson and Mark Billingham. Nick is also co-founder of Hull Noir, an official 2017 UK City of Culture event.

When not writing fiction, Nick interviews and writes for a variety of publications, including the 2017 UK City of Culture website and magazine. He lives in Hull with his wife, daughter, cat and the constant fear Hull City will let him down.

NICK TRIPLOW

Nick Triplow is the author of the South London crime novel Frank's Wild Years and the social history books The Women They Left Behind, Distant Water and Pattie Slappers. His acclaimed short story, Face Value, was a winner in the 2015 Northern Crime competition. Originally from London, now living in Barton upon Humber, Nick studied English and Creative Writing at Middlesex University and, in 2007, earned a distinction on Sheffield Hallam University’s MA Writing. Since completing his biography of British noir pioneer, Ted Lewis, Nick has been working on new fiction.

QUENTIN BATES

Quentin Bates dates back to the year of the Cuban Missile Crisis and was brought up in the south of England. In the year that Margaret Thatcher became Britain’s Prime Minister, he was offered the opportunity to spend a gap year working in Iceland and jumped at the chance of escape.

The gap year turned into a gap decade, during which he worked as a netmaker, factory hand and trawlerman, started a family and generally went native.  

‘Back in England, I worked as a truck driver, teacher, fisherman and as a freelance journalist writing about nautical stuff, while gradually spending less time at sea. I’ve always been a big reader, and gradually writing started to take over.’

Seagoing was followed by many years as a journalist for an obscure nautical trade magazine, a dream job for anyone who gets a kick out of visiting industrial estates and obscure harbours miles from anywhere. From there it was a series of sidestep into fiction.

Gunnhildur and the book that became Frozen Out (Frozen Assets in the US) grew out of a university writing course that enabled him to take an afternoon off work once a week.

LILJA SIGURDARDOTTIR

Lilja Sigurdardóttir is an Icelandic crime-writer and award-winning playwright, born in 1972. She has been writing crime since 2009 and her latest series, the Reykjavík Noir Trilogy was an instant success, with publishing rights sold to many countries and film rights sold to Palomar Pictures in the USA.

The first book in the Reykjavík Noir Trilogy, Snare, is published in English in October this year by Orenda books in the translation of Quentin Bates.

Lilja lives in Reykjavík with her partner and dog.

DAVID MARK

David spent more than fifteen years as a journalist, including seven years as a crime reporter with the Yorkshire Post - walking the Hull streets that would later become the setting for the Detective Sergeant Aector McAvoy novels.

He has written six novels in the McAvoy series: Dark Winter, Original Skin, Sorrow Bound, Taking Pity, Dead Pretty and Cruel Mercy, as well as a McAvoy novella, A Bad Death, which is available as an ebook.

LUCA VESTE

Luca Veste is a writer of Italian and Scouse heritage, married with two young daughters, and one of nine children. He is the author of the Murphy and Rossi novels, with the third in the series - Bloodstream - released October 2015. The first in the series - Dead Gone - was also published in Germany and Czech Republic. 

Part psychological thriller, part police procedural, the Murphy and Rossi novels take place in the city of Liverpool. Taking in both sides of a contrasting city, they explore the changing landscape of Liverpool and "bad" things which can happen within it. 

He was the editor of the Spinetingler Award nominated charity anthology 'Off The Record', and co-editor of 'True Brit Grit', also an anthology of short stories for charity.

He is a former civil servant, actor, singer and guitarist (although he still picks it up now and again). In his acting days, he appeared as a "background artist" - read: extra - on a number of Brookside and Hollyoaks episodes and also once spent three nights in a black leather mini-skirt and high-heels, in front of an ever dwindling audience in a Liverpool theatre.

JAY STRINGER

Jay Stringer was born in 1980, and he’s not dead yet. He was nominated for the Derringer award in 2010. Because he didn't win, it's important to point out that just being nominated was an honour. 

He’s English by birth and Scottish by rumour; born in the Black Country, and claiming Glasgow as his hometown.

Jay is dyslexic, and came to the written word as a second language, via comic books, music, and comedy. He writes hard boiled crime stories, dark comedies, and social fiction.

Jay is represented by Stacia Decker at Dunow, Carlson & Lerner. 

His first three books, the Eoin Miller Trilogy explored the political and criminal landscape of the West Midlands. 

He now writes books set in Glasgow and New York. 

Jay won a gold medal in the Antwerp Olympics of 1920. He did not compete in the Helsinki Olympics of 1952, that was some other guy. 

DANIELLE RAMSAY

Danielle Ramsay is a proud Scot living in a small seaside town in the North-East of England. Always a storyteller, it was only after initially following an academic career lecturing in literature that she found her place in life and began to write creatively full-time. After much hard graft her work was short-listed for the CWA Debut Dagger in 2009. Always on the go, always passionate in what she is doing, Danielle fills her days with horse-riding, running and murder by proxy.

PAUL FINCH

PAUL FINCH #1 ebook Bestseller and top 10 Sunday Times Bestseller.

Paul Finch studied History at Goldsmiths, London, before becoming a cop in the north west of England. He then let his passion for writing allow him to follow a career in journalism. Now a full time writer, he first cut his literary teeth penning episodes of the British TV crime drama, THE BILL, and has written extensively in the field of children's animation. However, he is probably best known for his work in thrillers and horrors.

His crime debut novel, STALKERS, was a no 1 ebook best seller in 2013 and introduced DS Mark 'Heck' Heckenburg. This was followed in July 2013 by the sequel, SACRIFICE. He now has THE KILLING CLUB, DEAD MAN WALKING and HUNTED in the series which is also published in Germany, Poland, Turkey, Hungary, and Japan and Croatia.

In 2016 Heck took a break to be replaced by DC Lucy Clayburn. The opening novel, STRANGERS, became an immediate success reaching the top ten in the Sunday Times Bestseller list.

His next Heck novel is due out in April 2017 with a further Lucy novel expected in September of the same year.

JAKE ARNOTT

Jake Arnott is the author of six novels including the bestselling and critically acclaimed The Long Firm that was adapted as an award-winning BBC2 drama serial.

His latest novel is The Fatal Tree

JOSEPH KNOX

Joseph Knox was born and raised in and around Stoke and Manchester, where he worked in bars and bookshops before moving to London. He runs, writes and reads compulsively. Sirens is his first novel.

EMMA FLINT

Emma Flint grew up in Newcastle upon Tyne, and has been writing fiction since she knew what stories were. She graduated from the University of St. Andrews with an MA in English Language and Literature, later completing a novel-writing course at the Faber Academy. She worked in Edinburgh for four years, and now lives in north London.

Since childhood, she has been drawn to true crime stories, developing an encyclopaedic knowledge of real-life murder cases. She is equally fascinated by notorious historical figures and by unorthodox women – past, present and fictional.

All of these themes informed and inspired Little Deaths, a heady blend of sex, murder, obsession, noir and a femme fatale. Set in 1960s suburban New York, the novel re-tells a horrifying true story with a modern feminist slant.

CATHI UNSWORTH

Cathi Unsworth is a novelist, writer and editor who lives and works in London. She began her career on the legendary music weekly Sounds at the age of 19 and has worked as a writer and editor for many other music, film and arts magazines since, including The Guardian, Financial Times, Fortean Times, Bizarre, Melody Maker, Mojo, Uncut, Volume and Deadline. 

Her first novel The Not Knowing was published in 2005, followed the next year with the award-winning short story compendium London Noir, which she edited, and in 2007 with the punk noir novel The Singer, large amounts of which was set in Hull. Her third novel, Bad Penny Blues, inspired by the unsolved ‘Jack the Stripper’ murders of 1959-65 was published in 2010 to great critical acclaim. 

Her 2012 book Weirdo, a tale of teenage trauma and female transgression set on the Norfolk coast was translated into seven languages, shortlisted for the 2013 EDP-Jarrolds East Anglian Book of the Year and longlisted for the 2014 Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, 2014 Grand Prix de Littérature Policiére, 2013 Gordon Burn Prize and the 2013 New Angle Prize for Literature.   

Her latest work Without The Moon, based on two true crimes that occurred during the dark days of February 1942, was also longlisted for the 2016 Gordon Burn Prize and made The Times' Crime Book of the Month on publication. Her next novel, That Old Black Magic, which is also set during World War II, based on two real cases and follows on from Without The Moon, will be published next March. 

SEAN O'BRIEN

Sean O’Brien has written seven collections of poetry. The Drowned Book (2007) won the Forward and T. S. Eliot prizes. Cousin Coat: Selected Poems 1976–2001 appeared in 2002. His other work includes the book of essays The Deregulated Muse (1998), the verse plays The Birds (2002) and Keepers of the Flame (2003) and a verse translation of Dante’s Inferno (2006). In 2008 his collection of short stories, The Silence Room, was published, followed in 2009 by his novel Afterlife. He is Professor of Creative Writing at Newcastle University.

HOWARD LINSKEY

Howard is an author with Penguin Random House. 'The Search' published on 4th May 2017 is the third in a series of books for Penguin that are set in the north east of England, featuring journalists Tom Carney & Helen Norton with detective Ian Bradshaw, who also appear in 'Behind Dead Eyes’ and ‘No Name Lane'.

His David Blake books have been optioned for TV by Harry Potter producer, David Barron, They are published in the UK by No Exit Press, in Germany by Droemer Knaur and in the US by Harper Collins. The audio books are recorded by the hugely talented Dave Nellist and produced by W.F.Howes. The Times newspaper voted 'The Drop' one of its Top Five Thrillers of the Year and 'The Damage' one of its Top Summer Reads. Both books broke into the top five Amazon Kindle chart.

He's also the author of the WW2 historical novel, ‘Hunting The Hangman’, which tells the story of the attempt to assassinate Nazi General, Reinhard Heydrich, in Prague in 1942.

ANDREW SPICER

Dr Andrew Spicer was educated at the universities of Sussex (BA), York (MA) and Westminster (PhD). He has taught in schools, further education and universities since 1978. He has been at the University of the West of England Bristol since 2000 and is currently Professor of Cultural Production in the Department of Arts and Cultural Industries. He teaches on BA Hons Film Studies; MA Contemporary Film Culture; MA Creative Producers; Masters in Research (MRes) for which he is the Programme Leader; and is currently Director of Studies for 6 doctoral students.  

Andrew has been awarded several research grants including: 

• ‘Investigating and Analysing the Film and Television Industries in Bristol and Their Impact on the Creative Economy of the Bristol Region’;  

• ‘What Makes for Success in the Film and Television Industries?’, a comparative study of 4 countries (Norway, Denmark, The Netherland and the UK)  

• ‘Michael Klinger, the Role of the Film Producer and the British Film Industry in the 1960s and 1970s’. 

Andrew has published widely in: genre (film noir); gender (the construction of masculinities); film and television studies (especially British Cinema and Television); stars and stardom; and media industry/production studies. He has published over fifty books, journal articles and chapters in books. He was a member of a European project, ‘Success in the Film and Television Industries’ (SiFTI, 2013-16) and is currently leading an investigation into the ecology of the film and television industries in Bristol and working on a monograph: Sean Connery: Stardom and National Identity. His co-authored book, TheMan Who Got Carter (2015), won the British Association for Film, Television and Screen Studies (BAFTSS) Best Book Prize for 2015. 

RUSSEL MCLEAN

Russel D McLean was born in Fife, and moved to Dundee where he studied philosophy at the University of Dundee. His speciality was philosophy of mind, but after he discovered the difficulty of funding a PhD he fell into the disreputable company of the booktrade.

Russel's path to publication started at sixteen when he submitted his first full length novel to Virgin Publishing New Doctor Who Adventures. The novel was summarily rejected and he spent the next fourteen years perfecting his style before finally switching genres and writing dark crime fiction. His first paid credit was in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in 2004 and his first novel, THE GOOD SON, was released in 2008.

He has since been published in the US, translated into Italian, French and German, and was nominated for best first PI novel by the Private Eye Writers of America.

BARRY FORSHAW

Barry Forshaw’s latest books are Nordic Noir and British Crime Film. Other work includes Death in a Cold Climate: A Guide to Scandinavian Crime Fiction, The Rough Guide to Crime Fiction and British Crime Writing: An Encyclopedia, along with books on Italian cinema, film noir and the first biography of Stieg Larsson; he also writes on classical music. His next books are British Gothic Cinema and a study of Thomas Harris and The Silence of the Lambs. He writes for various national newspapers and magazines, edits Classical CD Choice, DVD Choice and Crime Time, and broadcasts for ITV and BBC TV documentaries. He has been Vice Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association, and has taught an MA course at City University on the history of crime fiction.

RACHEL RHYS

Tammy Cohen (who previously wrote under her formal name Tamar Cohen) has a growing backlist of acclaimed novels including: The Mistress’s Revenge, The War of the Wives, and Someone Else’s Wedding. Her break-out psychological suspense thriller was 

The Broken, followed by Dying for Christmas, First One Missing and When She Was Bad. 

RACHEL RHYS is the pen-name of a the successful psychological suspense author, Tammy Cohen. A Dangerous Crossing is her debut under this name and is inspired by a real life account of a 1930s ocean voyage. She lives in North London with her family. 

ABIR MUKHERJEE

Abir Mukherjee is the Times bestselling author of the Sam Wyndham series of novels, including the award-winning debut, A Rising Man, which was a Times Book of the Month and Sunday Times Crime Book of the Month, and is currently longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the Endeavour Historical Dagger for best historical crime novel of the year. Abir grew up in Scotland and works as a chartered accountant. His second novel, A Necessary Evil, has just been published.

MATT WESOLOWSKI

Matt Wesolowski is an author from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in the UK. He is an English tutor and leads Cuckoo Young Writers creative writing workshops for young people in association with New Writing North. Matt started his writing career in horror and his short horror fiction has been published in Ethereal Tales magazine, Midnight Movie Creature Feature anthology, 22 More Quick Shivers anthology and many more. His debut novella The Black Land, a horror set on the Northumberland coast, was published in 2013 and a new novella set in the forests of Sweden will be available shortly. Matt was a winner of the Pitch Perfect competition at Bloody Scotland Crime Writing Festival in 2015. He is currently working on his second crime novel Ashes, which involves black metal and Icelandic sorcery.

AYO ONATADE

Ayo Onatade is a freelance crime fiction critic/commentator and blogger. She has written a number of articles on different aspects of crime fiction and has also given papers on the subject as well.  She was a contributor to British Crime Writing: An Encyclopaedia (2008) edited by Barry Forshaw and The American Thriller (Critical Insights) (2014) edited by Gary Hoppenstand. She is co-editor with Len Tyler of the anthology Bodies in the Bookshop (2014). She is the Chair of the CWA Short Story Dagger and she also currently judges the Ngaio Marsh Award and the HWA (Historical Writers Association) Debut Novel.  

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She can be found blogging at Shotsmag Confidential and writes articles and interviews at Shotsmag an online crime fiction e-zine.  She has been a regular contributor to Crimespree Magazine since 2007 and is a very occasional contributor to Mystery Readers Journal.  She is an Associate Member of the Crime Writers Association of Great Britain (CWA). 

EVA DOLAN

Eva Dolan is the critically acclaimed author of the Zigic and Ferreira series, set in a rural Hate Crimes department. Tell No Tales and After You Die were shortlisted for the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year Award and After You Die was also longlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. 

STAV SHEREZ

Stav Sherez is the author of The Devil's Playground, The Black Monastery and the Carrigan and Miller series – A Dark Redemption, Eleven Days and The Intrusions. He has been shortlisted for prizes four times. He also co-wrote Great Lost Albums with Mark Billingham, Martyn Waites and David Quantick. He is currently at work on book six. 

KATI HIEKKAPELTO

Kati Hiekkapelto was born in 1970 in Oulu, Finland. She made up her first stories at the age of  two and recorded them on cassette tapes. The main characters in these early tales were elephants, elves and little girls. Kati worked as a local private detective between 1979 and 1982, and solved many serious crimes committed by her neighbours. By the age of  twelve she had read all Agatha Christie’s novels, and was sure that her mother is going to poison her. In 1984 she had a bad hairdresser experience and became a punker. She´s been punker, environmental and human rights activist since then.

WILLIAM RYAN

William Ryan’s novels have been shortlisted or longlisted for numerous awards, including the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year, The Kerry Group Irish Fiction Award, the CWA’s Historical, Steel and New Blood Daggers and the Irish Crime Novel of the Year. His latest novel The Constant Soldier, was described by the Daily mail and “subtle, suspenseful and superb”. William is currently a Teaching Fellow on the Crime Writing programme at the University of East Anglia. 

DAVID YOUNG

Born and raised in Cottingham, David Young now lives in Twickenham – but still supports Hull City. His debut Stasi Child – a crime thriller set in 1970s East Germany – won the 2016 CWA Endeavour Historical Dagger. Stasi Child was an official top twenty paperback bestseller, with rights sold to eleven territories. The follow-up Stasi Wolf, published in February 2017, was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Three more novels in the series were recently signed by his publisher, Bonnier Zaffre. 

DANIEL PEMBREY

DANIEL PEMBREY grew up in Nottinghamshire beside Sherwood Forest and studied history at Edinburgh University. He spent over a decade working in America and, more recently, Luxembourg, coming to rest in Amsterdam and London – dividing his time now between these two great maritime cities. 

Daniel is the author of The Harbour Master – the first book in the Henk van der Pol detective series, the sequel title Night Market, and several short thriller stories. He contributes articles to publications including The Financial Times, The Times, The Guardian, The New European and The Field. His Henk van der Pol series is the product of time spent living in the docklands area of East Amsterdam, where Daniel counted De Druif bar as his local. 

SARAH WARD

Sarah Ward is the author of  three  DC Childs novels, In Bitter Chill, A Deadly Thaw  and  A Patient Fury  (Faber and Faber)  set in the  Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. She is currently writing the fourth book in the series and a collection of  ghost  stories.  On her blog, Crimepieces (www.crimepieces.com), she reviews the best of current crime fiction published around the world. She is a judge for the Petrona Award for translated Scandinavian crime novels. 

JACKY COLLINS

Jacky Collins, aka Dr Noir, is responsible for creating and organising the Newcastle Noir international crime festival, now in its 4th year. When not engaging with all things noir, Jacky works at Northumbria University as Senior Lecturer in Literature, Film and TV and Spanish Language and Culture. Her research here she focuses on crime fiction from Europe and the Scandinavian countries in particular. As part of this study, she set up the European Crime Fiction book club at Newcastle City Library in 2011 (still going strong). 

HARRY BRETT

Harry Brett is a pseudonym for Henry Sutton, who is the author of nine previous novels including My Criminal World and Get Me Out of Here. He also co-authored the DS Jack Frost novel, First Frost, under the pseudonym James Henry. His work has been translated into many languages and he has judged numerous literary prizes, including the John Lewellyn Rhys Prize and the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. He is the co-founder of the Noirwich crime festival and has been the Literary Editor of Esquire magazine and the Daily Mirror. He teaches Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia, where he is a Senior Lecturer and the co-director of the MA Prose Fiction course. He is also the director of the new Creative Writing MA Crime Fiction. He lives in Norwich with his family and is available for interview and to write features. 

MICK HERRON

Mick Herron is a novelist and short story writer whose books include the Sarah Tucker/Zoë Boehm series and the standalone novel RECONSTRUCTION. His work has been shortlisted for the Macavity, Barry and Shamus awards, and his novella DOLPHIN JUNCTION was joint winner of the 2009 Ellery Queen Readers Award. His second standalone, NOBODY WALKS, was shortlisted for the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger in 2015, and was one of Booklist Magazine’s Best 101 Crime Novels of the Decade.

He is the author of the acclaimed Jackson Lamb series, the first of which, the Steel Dagger-nominated SLOW HORSES, was hailed by the Daily Telegraphas one of the “the twenty greatest spy novels of all time”. The second in the series, DEAD LIONS, won the 2013 CWA Goldsboro Gold Dagger, and was picked by the Sunday Times as one of the best 25 crime novels of the past five years. The third, REAL TIGERS, was shortlisted for both the Gold and Steel Daggers. It won the Last Laugh Award at Crimefest 2017, for the best humorous crime novel of 2016, and has been shortlisted for the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year.

SPOOK STREET, the fourth Jackson Lamb novel – praised by Ian Rankin for its “sublime dialogue and frictionless plotting” – has been longlisted for both the Gold and Steel Daggers.

The fifth Jackson Lamb novel, LONDON RULES, will appear in 2018.

Mick was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, and now lives in Oxford. He writes full time.

STEPH BROADRIBB

Crime Thriller Girl (aka Steph Broadribb aka Stephanie Marland) leads a triple life …

By day she's a corporate suit, but by night (and early morning) she's a writer, avid reader, and book reviewer of all things crime thriller.

Her debut novel as Steph Broadribb – DEEP DOWN DEAD – came out in paperback on 5th January 2017 published by Orenda Books. The second book in the Lori Anderson series – DEEP BLUE TROUBLE – will be out in eBook at the end of 2017 and paperback in January 2018.

Her first novel as Stephanie Marland – MY LITTLE EYE – will come out in eBook in November 2017 and March 2018 as a paperback with Trapeze Books (Orion).

Steph was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been spent between the UK and USA. She's an alumni of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and trained as a bounty hunter in California. Currently, she lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cows and chickens.

CRAIG ROBERTSON

Craig Robertson had a 20-year career with a Scottish Sunday newspaper before becoming a full-time author. He interviewed three Prime Ministers, reported on major stories including 9/11, Dunblane, the Omagh bombing and the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. He was pilloried on breakfast television, beat Oprah Winfrey to a major scoop, spent time on Death Row in the USA and dispensed polio drops in the backstreets of India. 

He is an intrernational bestseller and the the author of seven crime novels. His first novel, Random, was shortlisted for the 2010 CWA New Blood Dagger, longlisted for the 2011 Crime Novel of the Year and was a Sunday Times bestseller. His latest book, Murderabilia, revolves around the grisly pursuit of collecting items related to serial killers and has been longlisted for both the Theakstons Crime Novel of the Year and for the McIlvanney Prize for Scottish crime book of the year. 

His new novel The Photographer is due out in late 2017. 

JAKE KERRIDGE

Jake Kerridge writes on arts and books for a number of publications including the Telegraph and takes an unhealthy interest in violence and murder as the Telegraph's crime fiction critic.