Multi-award winning author/screenwriter Mari Hannah is the creator of the Kate Daniels police procedurals, the Ryan & O'Neil and Stone & Oliver series. She lives in a small Northumberland village with her partner, a former murder detective.
Her career as a Probation Officer was cut short following an assault on duty. It was then that the idea that she might one day become a writer began to form in her head. She first pitched her idea for a crime series to the BBC, winning a place on their North East Voices Drama Development Scheme. When it ended, she adapted the screenplay The Murder Wall into a book she’d started years before but somehow never finished.
Fast forward a few years and Mari was named Programming Chair for Theakston Old Peculier Crime Writing Festival 2019, the biggest of its type in the world. Her Kate Daniels series is in development for TV with Sprout Pictures and Atlantic Nomad.
Ed James is a Scottish author who writes crime fiction novels across multiple series and in multiple locations.
His latest series is set in the Scottish Borders, where Ed now lives, starring DI Rob Marshall – a criminal profiler turned detective, investigating serial murders in a beautiful landscape.
Putting Dundee on the tartan noir map, the DS Vicky Dodds books feature a driven female detective struggling to combine her complex home life with a heavy caseload.
Formerly an IT project manager, Ed filled his weekly commute to London by writing on planes, trains and automobiles. He now writes full-time and lives in the Scottish Borders with a menagerie of rescued animals.
Mason Cross's debut novel The Killing Season was longlisted for the Theakstons Old Peculier Crime Book of the Year 2015.
His second novel, The Samaritan, was selected as a Richard & Judy Book Club pick. These were followed by The Time to Kill, Don't Look For Me, Presumed Dead and What She Saw Last Night.
He has also published two standalone thrillers, Hunted and Darkness Falls under the name Alex Knight.
Mason lives in Glasgow with his wife and three children.
Oli Munson is a literary agent and director at AM Heath and says “I’ve always been a sucker for commercial fiction that has the Holy Trinity of pace, plot and character. Those are the three elements I’m looking for in any novel. I also love books that have a clear pitch; a hook that has me immediately wanting to know more.
“A significant part of my list is comprised of award-winning, bestselling authors of crime, suspense, and thrillers. Between Mari Hannah, Trevor Wood, Julia Chapman and David Jackson, I think my authors have killed most of northern England. I’m eager to find authors who are plotting the demise of other victims, wherever they may be.”
Noelle Holten is an award-winning blogger at www.crimebookjunkie.co.uk. She is the PR & Social Media Manager for Bookouture, a leading digital publisher in the UK, and worked as a Senior Probation Officer for eighteen years, covering a variety of risk cases as well as working in a multi agency setting. She has three Hons BA's - Philosophy, Sociology (Crime & Deviance) and Community Justice - and a Masters in Criminology. Noelle's hobbies include reading, attending as many book festivals as she can afford and sharing the booklove via her blog.
Graham Smith is a former farmworker and joiner. He’s turned his hand to many skills to put food on the table and clothes on his back. A life-long bibliophile, he eventually summoned the courage to try writing himself, and his Grant Fletcher novels (written as John Ryder) have drawn inspiration from authors such as Lee Child, Tom Cain, Zoe Sharp and Matt Hilton. When it comes to future novels, he says he has more ideas than time to write them.
When not writing, Graham enjoys spending time with his son, reading and socialising with friends. A fanatical supporter of his local football team, he can often be found shouting encouragement to men much younger and fitter than he is.