About Maxim Jakubowski
Maxim Jakubowski is a noted anthology editor based in London, just a mile or so away from where he was born. With over seventy volumes to his credit, including Invisible Blood, thirteen annual volumes of The Mammoth Book of Best British Mysteries, and titles on Professor Moriarty, Jack the Ripper, Future Crime, and Vintage whodunits. A publisher for over twenty years, he was also the co-owner of London’s Murder One bookstore and the crime columnist for Time Out and then The Guardian for twenty-two years. Stories from his anthologies have won most of the awards in the field on numerous occasions. He is currently the Chair of the Crime Writers’ Association and a Sunday Times bestselling novelist in another genre.
About Ian Rankin
Ian Rankin, a New York Times bestselling author, is the recipient of an Edgar Award, a Gold Dagger for fiction, and a Chandler-Fulbright Fellowship.
About Jeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is the #1 international bestselling and award-winning author of more than forty novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages. A former journalist, folksinger, and attorney, he was born outside of Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.
About John Connolly
John Connolly is a New York Times bestselling author known for his detective Charlie Parker mysteries and supernatural and fantasy novels. His twenty-five novels, nonfiction, and short stories have won the Agatha, Barry, Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, as well as being finalists for the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, H. R. F. Keating Award, and Bram Stoker Award.
About John Harvey
John Harvey, best known as a writer of crime fiction, his work translated into more than twenty languages, is also a dramatist, poet, publisher, and occasional broadcaster. The first of his Charlie Resnick novels, Lonely Hearts, was named by the Times as one of the “100 Best Crime Novels of the Century.” The recipient of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Nottingham and Hertfordshire, Harvey was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.
About Denise Mina
Denise Mina is the author of mystery, horror, and historical fiction. She has written novels for four series, as well as stand-alone novels and graphic novels. The Field of Blood won the Barry Award for Best British Crime Novel, The Long Drop won the Gordon Burn Prize, and Garnethill.
About Martin Edwards
Martin Edwards is an award-winning crime author and novelist. His nonfiction book, The Life of Crime: Detecting the History of Mysteries and Their Creators, won the Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical Book of 2022. He has received the CWA Diamond Dagger, the highest honor in British crime writing, given for the sustained excellence of his contribution to the genre. His Lake District mystery series have been optioned by ITV. Renowned as the leading expert on the history of Golden Age detective fiction, he won the Crimefest Mastermind Quiz three times and possesses one of Britain’s finest collections of Golden Age novels. Elected to the Detection Club in 2008, he became the first archivist of the club and is also archivist of the Crime Writers’ Association.
About Peter Lovesey
Peter Lovesey (1936–2025) wrote more than thirty highly praised mystery novels, including the Peter Diamond mysteries, the Sergeant Cribb historical mysteries, and the Bertie Prince of Wales novels. His book have won the British Crime Writers’ Association Silver and Gold Dagger awards, the Cartier Diamond Dagger, the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere, the Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement, and the Strand Magazine Lifetime Achievement Award. In the United States, his books won an Anthony Award, a Macavity Award, and the Ellery Queen Readers Award, among others. He was named a Grand Master of the Swedish Academy of Detection and a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master.
About Stella Duffy
Stella Duffy was born in London, grew up in New Zealand, and now lives in London. She is the author of seven literary novels, including The Room of Lost Things and State of Happiness, both of which were Longlisted for the Orange Prize. The Room of Lost Things won the Stonewall Writer of the Year 2008, and she won the Stonewall Writer of the Year 2010 for Theodora. She is also the author of the Saz Martin detective series. She has written over 45 short stories, including several for BBC Radio 4, and won the 2002 CWA Short Story Dagger for Martha Grace. Her ten plays include an adaptation of Medea for Steam Industry, and Prime Resident and Immaculate Conceit for the National Youth Theatre (UK). In addition to her writing work she is an actor and theatre director.
About Cath Staincliffe
Cath Staincliffe is an established novelist, radio playwright, and the creator of ITV’s
hit series, Blue Murder, starring
Caroline Quentin as Detective Inspector Janine Lewis. Cath’s books have been
shortlisted for the British Crime Writers Association best first novel award
and for the Dagger in the Library and selected as Le Masque de l’Année. Cath is
one of the founding members of Murder Squad—a group of Northern crime writers
who give readings, talks, and signings around the country. Cath was born in
Bradford, Yorkshire, UK and now lives in Manchester, Lancashire with her
partner and children.
About Margaret Murphy
Margaret Murphy writes internationally acclaimed psychological thrillers. A past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), the founder of Murder Squad, and a former RLF Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector, she’s been a country park ranger, a biology teacher, a dyslexia specialist, and a visiting professor in creative writing. A Short Story Dagger and CWA Red Herring award winner, she has also been shortlisted for the “First Blood” Critics Award and the CWA Dagger in the Library.
