‘The Bologna Vendetta’ by Tom Benjamin

Published by Constable,
13 May 2025.
ISBN 978-1-4087-1554-3 (PB)

It’s high summer and Daniel Leicester has been left in charge of his father-in-law’s family-run private detective agency while the rest of the family escape the searing heat of Bologna to their cooler summer residence in the mountains. While he’s out on an assignment trailing a suspect, he sees his dead wife’s bicycle chained to a lamp post. Lucia had been riding the bike when she had died in a road accident at a junction. The bike had gone missing from the police store soon after the accident.

Daniel decides to wait until the current owner returns and try to buy back the bike. Standing in the shade of a nearby portico, he is distracted by a dog which nuzzles the back of his hand. When he turns back, the bike has gone.

In the course of his quest to find the bike, Daniel has to venture into the ancient secretive world of freemasonry and discover more about the ‘Reclaim Bologna’ activist movement.  Its members – mostly student squatters – are determined to rid the city of the rising number of properties being bought up to turn into hotels and accommodation for the tourists which are pricing out the local people from the centre.

Daniel’s mission becomes more urgent as he seeks to uncover Lucia’s links to the two groups. Was her death really an accident or was she murdered?

‘The Bologna Vendetta’ is the sixth novel in Benjamin’s series featuring English expat, Daniel Leicester but it is somewhat different from the previous five books in that it’s told in two different time periods, alternating between the present day and his time with Lucia just before her death.  
------
Reviewer: Judith Cranswick
www.judithcranswick.co.uk

Tom Benjamin started off as a reporter covering crime in North London. After a stint on the nationals, he joined Scotland Yard as one of its famous spokesmen. He went on to pursue a career in international aid before emigrating to Italy, where he credits his language skills on the time he spent working as a bouncer on the door of a homeless canteen. A Quiet Death in Italy, the first in a series featuring Bologna-based gumshoe Daniel Leicester, was published in ebook by Little, Brown in November 2019, and in paperback in May 2020. Book Two in the series, The Hunting Season, will be published in November 2020.  

Judith Cranswick was born and brought up in Norwich. Apart from writing, Judith’s great passions are travel and history. Both have influenced her two series of mystery novels. Tour Manager, Fiona Mason takes coach parties throughout Europe, and historian Aunt Jessica is the guest lecturer accompanying tour groups visiting more exotic destinations aided by her nephew Harry. Her published novels also include several award-winning standalone psychological thrillers. She wrote her first novel (now languishing in the back of a drawer somewhere) when her two children were toddlers, but there was little time for writing when she returned to her teaching career. Now retired, she is able to indulge her love of writing and has begun a life of crime! ‘Writers are told to write what they know about, but I can assure you, I've never committed a murder. I'm an ex-convent school headmistress for goodness sake!’ 

http://judithcranswick.co.uk/ 

New Blood for CWA Daggers with Awards Sponsor

The crime writing genre’s oldest and most famous award has had an injection of new blood thanks to a new sponsor. 

The ghostwriters and editing firm Kevin Anderson & Associates are the new sponsors of the coveted Crime Writers’ Association’s (CWA) Gold Dagger. 

The Gold Dagger recognises the best crime novel of the year, and has been given annually since 1960; between 1955 and 1959, it was called the Crossed Red Herring Award. 

Since its inception it’s been awarded to iconic authors, including John le Carré, P.D. James, Colin Dexter, and Ruth Rendell, who won it a record four times.
 More recent awardees include Mick Herron, Ann Cleeves, Ian Rankin, and Chris Whitaker. 

Kevin Anderson & Associates is a premier editorial services firm specialising in ghostwriting, editing, and publishing consultation for ambitious authors. Staffed by Sunday Times and New York Times bestselling publishing professionals, it operates in the UK and USA, empowering authors on their publishing journey with ghost-writing services, book editing, book coaching and writer retreats. 

Kevin Anderson, CEO and Editor-in-Chief, said: “We’re very proud to sponsor the CWA Gold Dagger, one of the most esteemed awards in crime fiction. Celebrating outstanding storytelling and literary excellence, the values of the prize align perfectly with our mission to empower authors through our top-tier book coaching, ghostwriting, and editorial services, along with our deep commitment to helping authors to achieve their publishing dreams.” 

One of the UK’s most prominent writers’ societies, the CWA was founded by the prolific author John Creasey in 1953. 

In 1956, it hosted its first awards ceremony for the best crime book of the year, which went to Winston Graham, best known for Poldark.
Agatha Christie was the principal guest. 

Heather Fitt, General Co-ordinator at the CWA, said: “We’re incredibly grateful to Kevin Anderson & Associates for supporting the Gold Dagger. As a membership organisation, the support of authors and organisations who work in the genre is crucial. It helps us deliver these prestigious annual awards, which in turn puts new and emerging authors on the map, as well as celebrating established talent.” 

The prestigious Dagger awards celebrate the best in crime writing and has 13 Dagger Awards in total. 

It recognises established authors with the Diamond Dagger for careers marked by sustained excellence to new talent, with the Emerging Author Dagger, open to unpublished authors. To date, agents and editors have signed over two dozen of these emerging authors. 

Other sponsors of the awards include the family-owned company that looks after the James Bond literary brand, Ian Fleming Publications, who sponsor the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for best thriller, the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS), a not-for profit organisation that supports authors to receive fair payment, sponsor the ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction. 

Sponsors of the John Creasey First Novel Dagger is the intellectual property specialists, International Literary Properties (ILP). Other sponsors include the author Maxim Jakubowski in honour of his wife Dolores, the editorial consultancy Fiction Feedback, and Morgan Witzel in memory of his wife, the writer Dr Marilyn Livingstone. 

The CWA’s founding aims were to provide a social network, as well as help crime writers with business matters. Today, the CWA’s determination to promote the genre remains central to its mission.

 www.thecra.co.uk 

'Private Beijing' by James Patterson and Adam Hamdy

Published by Penguin Books,
3 August 2023. 
ISBN: 978-1-52915-735-2 (PB).

Jack Morgan, Private’s owner, is enjoying a relaxing evening when he receives a phone call from the Private Beijing office second-in-command, Zhang Daiyu, informing him that three operatives have been killed and the head of the office, Shang Li, is missing.  He immediately arranges to fly to Beijing, but as he is on his way news comes of another attack on Private operatives, this time in New York.  He has to assume that the attacks are connected and is totally reliant on Zhang Daiyu for support.  David Zhou, one of Beijing’s most wealthy and powerful men has been under surveillance and the two colleagues take up this trail again. Meanwhile in New York, Justine, Jack’s partner, is meeting Rafael Lucas, who is coping with the death of one operative and the serious injury of another and feels the need for some leadership.

Jack and his colleagues, Justine, Maureen Roth (a tech expert) and Seymour Kloppenberg (who leads a team of 12 forensic scientists) have to deal with this twin attack and try to understand how they might be linked.  The answer is suitably complex.

This is a well-written, fast moving story, with tense action scenes.  It’s the 17^th in this series and the main characters are well-established.  The action involves lots of bravery, not a small amount of luck, but the tension never drops.  
--------
Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books in this series:  Private Moscow (2020), Private Rogue (2021), Private Rome, Private Monaco (2024) and Private Dublin (2025

Adam Hamdy is an author, screenwriter and filmmaker. In addition to his own original work, Adam has adapted a number of comic books and novels for the screen, including the forthcoming film version of David Mitchell’s novel, Number9Dream. Adam has a law degree from Oxford University and a philosophy degree from the University of London.  He is a seasoned rock climber, skier and CPSA marksman. Adam lives in Shropshire with his wife and three children.  

http://www.adamhamdy.com/

 

James Patterson is one of the best-known and biggest-selling writers of all time. His books have sold in excess of 385 million copies worldwide.  James is passionate about encouraging children to read. Inspired by his own son who was a reluctant reader, he also writes a range of books for young readers.  James has donated millions in grants to independent bookshops and has been the most borrowed author in UK libraries for the past thirteen years in a row. He lives in Florida with his family.

www.jamespatterson.com  

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.

'Butcher City’ by Jennifer Lee Thomson

Published by Diamond Crime,
28 September 2022.
ISBN: 978-1-91564915-7 (PB)

DI Duncan Waddell is facing the most bizarre case of his career.  It seems that a killer is stalking victims on Glasgow’s streets.  Men unfortunate enough to be caught are being abducted, tied up, force-fed, then strangled and their livers removed. 

The first indication is a reported kidnap – the victim is Kevin Drummond, a well-known career criminal, who has been found unconscious near a hospital.  When he comes to, he claims that he had been abducted, but had managed to escape - his story is supported by physical evidence, but he is very confused and does not know who he is.  However, he does insist that his abductor apologised for making a mistake.  Then another victim is found - Daniel Adams.  The investigation into this murder reveals some unexpected information, but does it support the idea of a serial killer, or is there something else behind the killings? 

During the investigation, Waddell, as is his habit, visits his friend and colleague at the Intensive Care unit, where he has been since receiving injuries which had left him comatose.  Waddell updates Stevie on his current case and they talk things over.  Waddell seems at ease with this unusual and unlikely state of affairs, but no-one else, staff or family, knows about it.  For them the question is how long Stevie will be kept on life support if there no evidence of any improvement in his condition. 

The story moves forward with a number of unexpected events before the individual ribbons of evidence are neatly tied up and provide a disturbing solution.  The characters are well-developed, all adding their own flavour and knowledge to the investigation.  Waddell holds his team together and deals with the twists and turns confidently.  This is the second in the Detective in a Coma series and it will be interesting to see how the storyline involving the actual detective in a coma is handled.  
------
Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood

Jennifer Lee Thomson is an award-winning crime writer who has been scribbling away all her life. She also writes as Jenny Thomson and is an animal and human rights advocate.

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.

‘This Wild, Wild Country’ by Inga Vesper.

Published by Manilla Press,
25 May 2023. 
ISBN:978 1 83877-669-5 (PB)  

Boldville is a small town in the New Mexico Desert.  In the 1930s Cornelia Stover is trying to run a business there when she mysteriously vanishes.  In the 1970s Joanna Riley, a former cop, flees from an abusive marriage and runs out of gas in Boldville.  She is looking for somewhere to hide and finds a room locally. 

There’s a commune on the edge of the town, which is not popular with the local residents and one of its members, a young man, has been found dead.  The police decide the death is the result of an overdose, but Joanna suspects a cover-up.  She meets Glitter, a young woman who has links to the commune and who was a close friend of the dead man.  Together they become caught in a mystery that reaches back many years to the unexplained disappearance of Cornelia, who is revealed to be Glitter’s Grandmother.

The story seethes with secrets and lies, with mysterious family history and with supressed threats and violence.  The descriptions of the country and its inhabitants are atmospheric and convey the feeling of heat and dust, and the claustrophobia of a small town from the 1930s to the 1970s.  The commune and its members evoke the moods and feelings of the 1970s. The story manages to mix slow country life with the tension of the hunt, and keeps the reader’s attention to the end.
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Reviewer: Jo Hesslewood
Other books by this author:  The Long, Long Afternoon

Inga Vesper is a journalist and editor. She moved to the UK from Germany to work as a carer, before the urge to write and explore brought her to journalism. As a reporter, she covered the coroner's court and was able to observe how family, neighbours and police react to a suspicious death. 

Jo Hesslewood.  Crime fiction has been my favourite reading material since as a teenager I first spotted Agatha Christie on the library bookshelves.  For twenty-five years the commute to and from London provided plenty of reading time.  I am fortunate to live in Cambridge, where my local crime fiction book club, Crimecrackers, meets at Heffers Bookshop .  I enjoy attending crime fiction events and currently organise events for the Margery Allingham Society.

‘Galway Confidential’ by Ken Bruen

Published by Head of Zeus,
27 March 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-03590988-9 (HB)

Galway Confidential is the 19th (and penultimate – the author died in March this year) of Ken Bruen’s gritty novels featuring Jack Taylor. Ex garda and now private detective. Taylor has spent 18 months in a coma during the Covid pandemic following a violent assault. He wakes to find a new world, although his tendency towards copious amounts of whiskey remains unchanged: before he is discharged a doctor says ‘It would be beyond madness to give a revived patient alcohol,’ but that has no effect. Before he knows it, Taylor is asked to investigate a series of attacks on nuns committed by a hammer-wielding maniac (‘some psycho is attacking nuns,’ as Taylor puts it). It doesn’t help that one or two nuns take no notice of advice that they shouldn’t leave the convent alone. The Garda appear to be dragging their heels, and Taylor is on his own. Before long the plot is complicated by a couple of teenagers who delight in setting fire to the alcoholic homeless. A friend meets his maker in this way, and Taylor decides the best way to trap the youngsters is to act as a wino himself. This leads to more problems and a further stay in hospital. Another old friend of Taylor is murdered. Father Pat, a dipsomaniac priest, hovers around the fringes, as does an apparently suave solicitor.

There are a number of other themes. A central part of the mystery concerns someone called Raftery, who apparently saved Taylor’s life during the attack which led to his coma and who spends time at Taylor’s bedside. Who exactly is he?

Galway Confidential is a podcast which appears to be giving help to Taylor’s investigation but then turns out to be not what it seems. Taylor discovers the identity of the killer well before the end of the story, and it is then a question of ensnarement. One or two other characters become involved as the investigation speeds up towards the end, and we have to work out their motives and honesty. The end comes quickly, and quite violently, with a question left hanging in the air to tantalize us. Irish Noir it certainly is.

If you’ve read any of the earlier books in the series, as I confess I have not, you will be prepared for the pared-back style which I was warned about by our Mystery People leader as she handed the novel over to me. Not a word is wasted. To say Bruen’s style is pithy is something of an understatement, but this helps to carry the story in a very speedy manner. There are many references to contemporary events which give the novel even more vibrancy: Covid is the obvious one, but the attack on Salman Rushdie in New York, the FBI raid on Trump’s house, refugees from Ukraine, a Tory MP watching porn in the House, Monkey Pox, Boris Johnson’s resignation and the death of Queen Elizabeth I are amongst the others. Bon mots appear between sections. Sometimes these are quotations (Edna O’Brien, for instance), others are disembodied comments on proceedings.

If you’ve read Bruen before, I imagine you will be keen to read Galway Confidential. If like me you have not, I urge you to discover a genuinely individual voice in crime fiction. It is difficult not to warm to the irreverence of an investigator who can observe that ‘I was up to my arse in nuns’.

 PS Perhaps it’s worth quoting the lines from Edna O’Brien on page 45:

 “When anyone asks me about the Irish character,

I say,

‘Look at the trees.
Maimed,
Stark
and
Misshapen,

But
Ferociously tenacious.'

------
Reviewer: David Whittle

Ken Bruen was born 3 January 1951 in Galway, Republic of Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College Dublin.  He spent 25 years as a teacher in Africa, Japan, SE Asia & South America. An unscheduled stint in a Brazilian prison, where he suffered physical & mental abuse, spurred him to write. After a brief spell teaching in London, he returned to Ireland. He died in 2025.  

David Whittle is firstly a musician (he is an organist and was Director of Music at Leicester Grammar School for over 30 years) but has always enjoyed crime fiction. This led him to write a biography of the composer Bruce Montgomery who is better known to lovers of crime fiction as Edmund Crispin, about whom he gives talks now and then. He is currently convenor of the East Midlands Chapter of the Crime Writers’ Association.

‘The Troubled Deep’ by Rob Parker

Published Raven Books,
16 January 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-52668190-4 (HB)

Forced to retire on medical grounds at the age of 40, Cam Killick is an ex-marine and ex-SBS officer who suffers from PSTD and struggles to rebuild his life. He is happiest when he is underwater and at night prefers to sleep submerged in a bath of water with a snorkel serving as his breathing apparatus. A loner by nature, he seeks solace in the company of his devoted dog Nala.

The Brindley mystery has fascinated Cam for years. They were a family who appeared to have it all – a successful husband, adoring wife and two young children. One summer evening, they attended a party in Norwich and were later seen getting into their car and driving away. But tragically they never arrived back at Brindley Hall and, along with their car, were never seen again.

Forty years later, following his move to the Norfolk Broads, Cam has a theory that the Brindleys might have gone to a watery grave in Hickley Broad. Employing the strategies taught to him as a marine, he goes scuba diving for their car and finds it – empty. Where are the Brindleys? As far as the police are concerned, the discovery of the vehicle heralds the end of the mystery. Could there be pressure from above to keep the case closed? When a group of vicious thugs beat Cam up and warn him to let sleeping dogs lie, his resolve is far from dented. Luckily, he has an ally in DS Claire Rogers who is just as anxious as him to find out what happened to the Brindleys – even if it means risking her job.

The first in a new series featuring Cam Killick, The Troubled Deep – weighing in at 353 pages – is high in descriptive passages and much leaner when it comes to dialogue. A ratio of approximately 60 to 40. Cam Killick’s determination not to give up, along with the help he receives from DS Claire Rogers and a pair of odd-ball conspiracy theorists, who almost steal the show at the eleventh hour, is offset by an intriguing rogues’ gallery of characters. The Troubled Deep is an absorbing crime thriller that closes around the reader like a riptide and never releases its hold until the end.

At the heart of the narrative is a beguiling mystery that culminates in an explosive, action-packed finale. High in thuggery and violence, it makes for an excellent Sunday read.
------
Reviewer: Jared Cade

Robert Parker is a married father of three, who lives in a village near Manchester, UK. The author of the Ben Bracken books A Wanted Man and Morte Point, and the standalone post-Brexit country-noir Crook’s Hollow, he enjoys a rural life on an old pig farm (now minus pigs), writing horrible things between school runs. He writes full time, as well as organising and attending various author events across the UK - while boxing regularly for charity. Passionate about inspiring a love of the written word in young people, he spends a lot of time in schools across the Northwest, encouraging literacy, story-telling, creative-writing and how good old fashioned hard work tends to help good things happen.

Jared Cade is the bestselling author of Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days. He is a former tour guide for a luxury bespoke travel company, escorting parties around Agatha Christie’s former home, Greenway, which is now open to the public courtesy of the National Trust. He is also the creator of the Lyle Revel and Hermione Bradbury mysteries –
The Elusive Dietrich, Murder on London Underground, Murder in Pelham Wood and Deadly Fortune which is landing in August 2025. His latest book Secrets from the Agatha Christie Archives is longlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association’s ALCS Gold Dagger for Non-Fiction Award.

‘The Wooden Library’ by Barbara Nadel

Published by Headline,
8 May 2025.
ISBN: 978-1-03541897-5 (HB)

Opening the 27^th book in the Ikmen series is like welcoming an old friend. 

One is quickly taken on a journey to both unknown and strangely familiar places.  Inspector Mehmet Suleyman is on holiday in Romania with his Roma wife visiting her family. 

A distant cousin has purchased an ancient building - a wooden library - and he is cataloguing the priceless contents.  Ikmen is called upon to help with the task as he is now retired.  However, there is a body in the library!  A rotting corpse and Suleyman's cousin becomes a suspect. 

The story involves old feuds and familial relationships which go back many generations.  As in all this series the regular minor characters add their own dramas to the tapestry of events and there is a fascinating intermingling of both Istanbul and its history and the lives of all the various characters both in Turkey and Romania. 

This novel is a welcome addition to Nadel's oeuvre and leaves one wanting more!
------
Reviewer: Toni Russell  

Barbara Nadel was born and brought up in the East End of London. She has a degree in psychology and, prior to becoming a full-time author, she worked in psychiatric institutions and in the community with people experiencing mental health problems. She is also the author of the award-winning Inspector Ikmen series and received the Crime Writers' Association Silver Dagger for the seventh novel in the series Deadly Web. There are now 24 books in the series. She is also the author of the award-winning Inspector Ikem series now adapted by the BBC as The Turkish Detective. Barbara now lives in Essex.

 

Toni Russell is a retired teacher who has lived in London all her life and loves the city.  She says, ‘I enjoy museums, galleries and the theatre but probably my favourite pastime is reading.  I found myself reading detective fiction almost for the first time during lockdown and have particularly enjoyed old fashioned detective fiction rather than the nordic noir variety.  I am a member of a book club at the local library and have previously attended literature classes at our local Adult Education Centre.

Capital Crime: Thrillers that Go Bump in the Night

 Leonardo St Paul's, London 

 Friday 13 June 2025
19:25 - 20:15

Linwood Barclay, and Andrew Child
Interviewed by Nadine Matheson

Linwood Barclay was born 1955 in Darien, Connecticut.  After graduating high school Barclay studied literature at Trent University in Peterborough. While at university, he began a correspondence with Ross Macdonald that proved inspirational for Barclay. They met once, at which time Macdonald inscribed one of his books to Barclay, "For Linwood, who will, I hope, someday outwrite me." After graduation, he could not sell any of his novels so he found work on a number of local newspapers, starting his journalism career in 1977 at the Peterborough Examiner, moved on to a small Oakville paper in 1979, and then to the Toronto Star in 1981 where he was, successively, assistant city editor, news editor, chief copy editor and Life section editor. He lives in Toronto with his wife, Neetha and two children. 

www.linwoodbarclay.com

Andrew Child was born in Birmingham, England. He graduated from the University of Sheffield, ran an independent theatre company, then worked in the telecommunications industry for fifteen years before establishing himself as a critically acclaimed author. He published nine novels under his own name then – writing as Andrew Child – began a collaboration with his brother Lee to continue the internationally-bestselling Jack Reacher series. He is married to novelist Tasha Alexander and lives in Wyoming, USA. 

www.andrewgrantbooks.com 

www.jackreacher.com 

Nadine Matheson has always been passionate about writing and storytelling even though she studied History and American Studies at university. She was born and lives in South-East London, is a criminal solicitor and also teaches criminal law. 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. The Jigsaw Man, the first novel in the D.I. Anjelica Henley series, was partly inspired by Nadine witnessing a body being pulled out of the River Thames near her home when she was a teenager. Her most recent novel is The Kill List.

Capital Crime: Criminal Minds Throughout History

Leonardo St Paul's, London 

 Friday 13 June 2025
18:20 - 19:10

Conn Iggulden, Kate Williams & Hallie Rubenhold. 

Conn Iggulden was born in London in 1971. He read English at London University and worked as a teacher for seven years before becoming a full-time writer.  He is one of the most successful authors of historical fiction writing today. He is married with four children and lives in Hertfordshire, England.

Kate Williams studied her BA at Somerville College, Oxford where she was a College Scholar and received the Violet Vaughan Morgan University Scholarship. She then took her MA at Queen Mary, University of London and her DPhil at Oxford, where she received a graduate prize. She also took an MA in Creative Writing at Royal Holloway. She now teaches at Royal Holloway.  

Hallie Rubenhold was born in Los Angeles, California. Hallie received her B.A. in History from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and an M.A. in British History and History of Art from the University of Leeds. Remaining at Leeds, she embarked on her studies for a PhD and later completed her thesis on the subject of marriage and child-rearing in the eighteenth century. Before making a full-time commitment to her computer keyboard, she pursued a more visually stimulating career in the world of museums and galleries, working for a Bond Street art dealer and as a curator at the National Portrait Gallery in London. Hallie has also taught university courses on the history of London and on eighteenth-century painting, and has lectured widely on a variety of aspects of British social, literary and art history in the Stuart and Georgian periods (1660 1830.

Capital Crime: Goldsboro Books' Class of 2025.

 Leonardo St Paul's, London  

 Friday 13 June 2025
17:15 - 18:05

Sarah Pinborough, Beth Lewis,  Steph McGovern, 
and A A Dhand  in conversation with MD David Headley.

Sarah Pinborough was born in 1972 in Buckinghamshire. She is the number one Sunday Times Bestselling and New York Times Bestselling author. During her career, she has published 28 novels and has written for the BBC. Sarah lives in the historic town of Stony Stratford, the home of the Cock and Bull story. Her latest novel, Insomnia, came out in March 2022.  You can follow Sarah on Twitter at @sarahpinborough.

https://sarahpinborough.com   

Beth Lewis is a managing editor at Titan Books in London. She was raised in the wilds of Cornwall and split her childhood between books and the beach. She has traveled extensively throughout the world and has had close encounters with black bears, killer whales, and great white sharks. She has been a bank cashier, a fire performer, and a juggler. 

Stephanie Rose McGovern is an English journalist and television presenter. She hosted Steph's Packed Lunch on Channel 4 from 2020 to 2023. She worked for the BBC as the main business presenter for BBC Breakfast, often co-hosting the entire programme.  

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.

David  Headley is the Managing Director of the D H H Literary Agency which he founded in 2008 and represents an eclectic range of best-selling and award-winning authors. David has won awards for bookselling, and in the last ten years, has been included in the Top 100 most influential people in publishing by The Bookseller, a number of times. He created the UK’s largest collectors’ book club and is influential in selling large quantities of hardback fiction in the UK.