HULL NOIR

A.A. Dhand was raised in Bradford and spent his youth observing the city from behind the counter of a small convenience store. After qualifying as a pharmacist, he worked in London and travelled extensively before returning to Bradford to start his own business and begin writing. The history, diversity and darkness of the city have inspired his Harry Virdee novels.

Alan Parks has worked in the music industry for over twenty years. His debut novel Bloody January was one of the top crime debuts of 2018 and was shortlisted for the prestigious international crime prize the Grand Prix de Littérature Policière. He lives and works in Glasgow.

Ali Harper writes feminist crime fiction. Her first novel, The Disappeared, introduces No Stone Unturned, a missing persons' bureau run by Lee and her best friend, Jo. The second book in the series, The Runaway, was published in November 2019. Ali lives in Leeds, where she works as an unpaid butler to two truculent teenagers and teaches creative writing. She's obsessed with missing people, mainly because her own father disappeared the day she was born. When not writing she can often be found venting her frustrations on a netball court.

One of Britain’s most acclaimed authors in any genre, having been nominated or won 21 awards, including winning the UK’s top crime awards, the Theakstons and McIlvanney. Little Brown has sold over 2 million novels of Chris Brookmyre, making him one of the country’s biggestselling crime writers. Multiple Brookmyre novels are being adapted for film and TV, including his multi-award-winning bestseller Black Widow.

HARRIET TYCE grew up in Edinburgh and studied English at Oxford University before doing a law conversion course at City University. She practised as a criminal barrister in London for nearly a decade, and recently completed an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at the University of East Anglia.

She lives in north London. Her first novel, Blood Orange, published in 2019 to huge critical acclaim, was a Sunday Times bestseller in paperback and a Richard & Judy Book Club pick. The Lies You Told was published summer 2020.

Ian McGuire grew up near Hull and studied at the University of Manchester and the University of Virginia, USA. In 2007, he co-founded the University of Manchester’s Centre for New Writing. He is the author of Incredible Bodies and the 2016 Man-Booker longlisted novel The North Water. The Abstainer is his third novel. 

Laura Shepherd-Robinson worked in politics for nearly twenty years before re-entering normal life to complete an MA in Creative Writing at City University. Blood & Sugar, her first novel, won the Historical Writers’ Association Debut Crown and the Specsavers/Crimefest Best Debut Novel prize; was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month; and a Guardian and Telegraph novel of the year. It was also shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger and the Sapere Historical Dagger; the Goldsboro Glass Bell; and the Amazon Publishing/Capital Crime Best Debut Novel, as well as being longlisted for the Theakston’s Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year. Daughters of Night is her second novel.

Louise Beech is an exceptional literary talent, whose debut novel How To Be Brave was a Guardian Readers’ Choice for 2015. Her second book, The Mountain in My Shoe was shortlisted for Not the Booker Prize. Both of her previous books Maria in the Moon and The Lion Tamer Who Lost were widely reviewed, critically acclaimed and number-one bestsellers on Kindle. The Lion Tamer Who Lost was shortlisted for the RNA Most Popular Romantic Novel Award in 2019. Her short fiction has won the Glass Woman Prize, the Eric Hoffer Award for Prose, and the Aesthetica Creative Works competition, as well as shortlisting for the Bridport Prize twice. Louise lives with her husband on the outskirts of Hull, and loves her job as a Front of House Usher at Hull Truck Theatre, where her first play was performed in 2012.

Mark Billingham started his career, 20 years ago, as the new young voice in crime fiction. He brought a fresh, edgy and terrifying twist to the genre and Tom Thorne was every bit as quirky and different a character as his creator. The intervening two decades have seen Billingham grow from a young maverick, pushing the boundaries and challenging the assumptions of crime writing by both the trade and the readers themselves, into the role of statesman of the genre, supporting new writers and confronting his own social conscience through his work. We all acknowledge that the crime novel can (in the words of Billingham himself) ‘shine a light into some of the darker corners of society’ and the commentary writers like him give to contemporary political and social issues has an important role to play in today’s tumultuous world.

Billingham’s novels have now sold over 6 million copies. He has had 19 Sunday Times bestsellers (every one of his titles), has spent 120 weeks in the top ten and has already had a 2020 number one with the paperback of his previous novel THEIR LITTLE SECRET. SLEEPYHEAD has now sold in 30 languages and two TV series have been made of Mark’s books – Thorne by Sky starring David Morrissey, and In the Dark by the BBC. A third is currently in development.

After studying English at university, Nell Pattison became a teacher and specialised in Deaf education. She has been teaching in the Deaf community for 13 years in both England and Scotland, working with students who use British Sign Language. Nell began losing her hearing in her twenties, and now wears hearing aids. She lives in North Lincolnshire with her husband and son. Nell is the author of novels The Silent House and Silent Night, featuring BSL interpreter Paige Northwood.

Nick Triplow researched and wrote the social history books Family Ties, The Women They Left Behind, Distant Water, and Pattie Slappers that explored the working lives of people in largely vanished Humber industries. In 2012, his novel Frank’s Wild Years, took him back to south London. 

After almost a decade researching the life and work of British crime fiction pioneer, Ted Lewis, the biography Getting Carter: Ted Lewis and the Birth of Brit Noir was published by No Exit Press in 2017. By then, he’d met Hull crime writer, Nick Quantrill. They set up crime fiction events under the tag The Humber Beat. With Hull as City of Culture on the horizon, they got together with Nikki East and, between them, curated the first Hull Noir crime fiction festival. 

Rhiannon Ward is the author of the gothic thriller, The Quickening, a Radio Times book of 2020. She is also, as Sarah Ward the author of four DC Childs novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. Sarah was a 2015 Amazon Rising Star, A Patient Fury was The Observer's Thriller of the Month in 2017 and The Shrouded Path an Amazon kindle top ten bestseller. She is a board member of the Derby Book Festival.

Abir Mukherjee is the bestselling author of the award-winning Wyndham & Banerjee series of crime novels set in Raj-era India. He is a two-time winner of the CWA Historical Dagger and has won the Wilbur Smith Award for Adventure Writing.  His books have also been shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger and the HWA Gold Crown. His novels, A Rising Man and Smoke and Ashes were both selected as Waterstones Thriller of the Month. Smoke and Ashes was also chosen as one of The Times' Best Crime and Thriller novels since 1945. Abir grew up in Scotland and now lives in Surrey with his wife and two sons.

Alex North is the pseudonym of a prolific, award-winng crime writer. His first novel, The Whisper Man, was an international top ten bestseller and has been optioned for film. His most recent novel, The Shadow Friend, deals with the insidious, murderous effects of a lucid dreaming cult among a group of troubled teenage outsiders. Alex was born in Leeds, where he lives with his wife and son.

Cathi Unsworth is the author of six pop-cultural noir novels, and the co-author of Defying Gravity, the life and times of punk icon Jordan. As a journalist she has contributed to Sounds, Bizarre Fortean Times, The Guardian and Mojo and she has given many talks and walks for The Sohemian Society, The London Fortean Society, The Barbican Centre and The Bishopsgate Institute. Her latest novel is Bad Penny Blues (Strange Attractor Press, 2021), based on the the ‘Jack the Stripper’ case of 1959-65, which sparked the biggest manhunt in Metropolitan Police history but was never solved. She teaches creative fiction for Curtis Brown Creative and Arvon Foundation, and lives and works in Ladbroke Grove, London.

​Derek Farrell is the author of five Danny Bird Mysteries - ‘Death of a Diva’ ‘Death of a Nobody,’ ‘Death of a Devil,’ ‘Death of an Angel’ and the novella ‘Death of a Sinner’- all published by Fahrenheit Press. The sixth in the series will be published in early 2021.  

The books have been described, by Neil Broadfoot, as having “Heart, humour and enough twists to give you whiplash,” by Chris McCrudden as “Like M.C. Beaton on MDMA,” and - by no less an expert than Monty Python’s Eric Idle – as “Quite Fun.”

Derek is married and lives with his husband in West Sussex. They have no cats dogs goats or children, though they do have every Kylie Minogue record ever recorded. Twice.

 Helen FitzGerald is the bestselling author of ten adult and young adult thrillers, including The Donor (2011) and The Cry (2013), which was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year, and is now a major drama for BBC1. Her 2019 dark comedy thriller Worst Case Scenario was a Book of the Year in both The Guardian and Daily Telegraph. Helen worked as a criminal justice social worker for over fifteen years. She grew up in Victoria, Australia, and now lives in Glasgow with her husband.

Dr Jacky Collins aka Dr Noir, formerly Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University in Literature, Film & TV and Spanish Language & Culture, is currently based at Stirling University. In 2014 Jacky established the International Crime Fiction Festival that is Newcastle Noir. More recently, she has been venturing into local radio, co-hosting a fortnightly crime fiction programme on SpiceFM, hosting on-line literary events with the Honey & Stag events team, and is part of the Corylus Books team, a new indie publisher of crime fiction in translation: from Romania, Iceland and beyond.

Struggling with severe clinical depression and anxiety for a large number of years, Liz often includes mental health themes in her writing. She credits the MA in Creative Writing she took at Leeds Trinity University with helping her find a way of using her writing to navigate her ongoing mental health struggles. Being a debut novelist in her fifties was something Liz had only dreamed of and she counts herself lucky, whilst pinching herself regularly to make sure it’s all real. She also teaches creative writing. 

In her spare time, Liz loves pub quizzes (although she admits to being rubbish at them), dancing (she does a mean jig to Proud Mary – her opinion, not ratified by her family), visiting the varied Yorkshire landscape, with Robin Hoods Bay being one of her favourite coastal destinations, listening to music, reading and blogging about all things crime fiction on her blog, The Crime Warp.  

Luca Veste is a writer of Italian and Scouse heritage, married with two young daughters. He studied psychology and criminology at university in Liverpool. He is the author of seven novels, Dead Gone, The Dying Place, Bloodstream, Then She Was Gone, The Bone Keeper, The Six and The Game. Luca is also a member of the Fun Lovin’ Crime Writers band and co-presents the Two Crime Writers and a Microphone Podcast.

Marnie Riches grew up on a rough estate in north Manchester. Exchanging the spires of nearby Strangeways prison for those of Cambridge University, she gained a Masters in German & Dutch. She has been a punk, a trainee rock star, a pretend artist and professional fundraiser. 

Her best-selling, award-winning George McKenzie crime thrillers, tackling the subject of trans-national trafficking, were inspired by her own time spent in The Netherlands. Dubbed the Martina Cole of the North, she is also the author of Born Bad and The Cover-Up - the critically acclaimed hit series about Manchester’s notorious gangland. 

Tightrope was the start of a brand new series, set mainly in the famous footballer-belt of Hale, Cheshire, and introducing quirky northern PI, Bev Saunders. The second Bev Saunders novel, Backlash, published in early January to the delight of fans. So far, Marnie has sold an impressive 250,000 books and counting…

When she isn’t writing gritty, twisty crime-thrillers, Marnie also regularly appears on BBC Radio Manchester, commenting about social media trends and discussing the world of crime-fiction.

Nick Quantrill was born and raised in Hull, an isolated industrial city in East Yorkshire. His Private Investigator novels featuring Joe Geraghty are published by Fahrenheit Press with the latest being ‘Sound of the Sinners’. Nick is also the co-founder of the Hull Noir crime writing festival.

Peter Robinson's DCI Banks is a major ITV1 drama starring Stephen Tompkinson as Inspector Banks, and Andrea Lowe as DI Annie Cabbot. Peter's standalone novel BEFORE THE POISON won the IMBA's 2013 Dilys Award as well as the 2012 Arthur Ellis Award for Best Novel by the Crime Writers of Canada. This was Peter's sixth Arthur Ellis award. His critically acclaimed DCI Banks novels have won numerous awards in Britain, the United States, Canada and Europe, and are published in translation all over the world.
Peter grew up in Yorkshire, and now divides his time between Richmond and Canada.

Russ Thomas was born in Essex, raised in Berkshire and now lives in Sheffield. After a few 'proper' jobs (among them: pot-washer, optician's receptionist, supermarket warehouse operative, call-centre telephonist, and storage salesman) he discovered the joys of bookselling, where he could talk to people about books all day. His highly-acclaimed debut novel, Firewatching, is the first in the DS Adam Tyler series and published in February 2020. Nighthawking, the second book in the series, will publish in February 2021.