Caroline is the CWA Dagger shortlisted author of psychological thrillers BENEATH THE SKIN, MY HUSBAND'S LIES, BETRAY HER, TRUTH GAMES, THE SINNER, THE STRANGER BESIDE ME. She also writes gothic-tinged psychological thrillers as CE Rose - THE HOUSE OF HIDDEN SECRETS, THE HOUSE ON THE WATER'S EDGE, THE SHADOWS OF RUTHERFORD HOUSE, THE ATTIC AT WILTON PLACE

Caroline writes multi-layered, dark and edgy ‘domestic suspense’ stories that delve into complicated relationships, secrets and the moral grey area.Drawing on her days as a divorce and professional indemnity lawyer, she loves to create ordinary, relatable characters who get caught up in extraordinary situations, pressures, dilemmas or crime. She admits to a slight obsession with the human psyche, what goes on behind closed doors and beneath people’s façades. She also enjoys performing a literary sleight of hand in her novels and hopefully surprising her readers!

WATCHING HORSEPATS FEED THE ROSES and HANGED BY THE NECK are her dark, twisty short story collections.

Chris McGeorge is a graduate of MA Creative Writing (Crime/Thriller) from City University London where he wrote debut thriller Guess Who as his thesis. He told stories from an early age, writing and drawing comics and then scripts and finally novels. He loves Golden Age crime and gets incredibly excited about anything a little out of the ordinary. In his spare time, he is an actor with Durham Dramatic Society.

He lives in Durham with his hamster, Agatha Christie.

Mark Ellis is a thriller writer from Swansea and a former barrister and entrepreneur.

He is the creator of DCI Frank Merlin, an Anglo-Spanish police detective operating in World War 2 London. His books treat the reader to a vivid portrait of London during the war skilfully blended with gripping plots, political intrigue and a charismatic protagonist.

Mark grew up under the shadow of his parents' experience of the Second World War. His father served in the wartime navy and died a young man. His mother told him stories of watching the heavy bombardment of Swansea from the safe vantage point of a hill in Llanelli, and of attending tea dances in wartime London under the bombs and doodlebugs.

In consequence Mark has always been fascinated by WW2 and in particular the Home Front and the fact that while the nation was engaged in a heroic endeavour, crime flourished. Murder, robbery, theft and rape were rife and the Blitz provided scope for widespread looting.

This was an intriguing, harsh and cruel world. This is the world of DCI Frank Merlin.

DCI Frank Merlin appears in five novels: 'The Embassy Murders’ (previously Princes Gate), 'In The Shadows Of The Blitz’ (previously Stalin’s Gold), ‘The French Spy’ (previously Merlin at War), 'A Death In Mayfair' and the recently published ‘Dead In The Water’.

Mark Ellis is a member of the Crime Writers Association and his third book was longlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018.

Visit www.markellisauthor.com

Robert Scragg had a random mix of jobs before taking the dive into crime writing; he's been a bookseller, pizza deliverer, Karate instructor and Football coach. He lives in Tyne & Wear, and is a founding member of the Northern Crime Syndicate crime writers group.

What Falls Between The Cracks, the first in his Porter & Styles series, was a New Writing North pick as one of the 2019 Read Regional books of the year. Rob’s work has also seen him win the Lindisfarne Prize for Crime Fiction in 2021, and be shortlisted twice for a CWA Dagger in 2021 and 2022.

Rob's next book is coming out under a pen name - Robert Rutherford - called Seven days, due out on 11th April 2024. Available to pre-order now.

F.E. Birch is an ex-cop from the North East but she's not a Geordie. She is a prolific short story writer with a trail of pseudonyms and publications behind her. With a penchant for dark, deep and the disturbing, her crimes are rarely cosy. Her debut novel, 'She’s Not There' was published early 2023. Maman, a stand-alone suspense thriller is due 20th April 2024. She has self-published two collections of competition winning short stories, 'Bowl of Cherries' and 'Rather Like Marzipan' with their third due in July 2024, 'Blood Oranges, My Love'. She is also published by Harper Collins (2013) with stories about being an undercover cop …

With a bendy EDS body, GSOH and a tad clumsy, she wears many hats and loves wigs. Her friends call her Effie.

James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries. The first two of these, Natural Causes and The Book of Souls were both short-listed for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award. Set in an Edinburgh not so different to the one we all know, Detective Inspector Tony McLean is the unlucky policeman who can see beneath the surface of ordinary criminal life to the dark, menacing evil that lurks beneath.

James has also introduced the world to Detective Constable Constance 'Con' Fairchild, whose first outing was in the acclaimed No Time To Cry.

As J D Oswald, James has written a classic fantasy series, The Ballad of Sir Benfro. Inspired by the language and folklore of Wales, it follows the adventures of a young dragon, Sir Benfro, in a land where his kind have been hunted near to extinction by men. The whole series is now available in print, ebook and audio formats.

James has pursued a varied career - from Wine Merchant to International Carriage Driving Course Builder via Call Centre Operative and professional Sheep Shit Sampler (true). He moved out of the caravan when Storm Gertrude blew the Dutch barn down on top of it, and now lives in a proper house with two dogs, two cats and a long-suffering partner. He farms Highland cows by day, writes disturbing fiction by night.

DG Penny is the alter-ego of David Penny, used when he writes contemporary crime novels as opposed to Historical Mysteries.

He was first published in his 20s, with four novels and several short stories appearing during the 1970s. He enjoyed a dissipated and wasteful (but not wasted) youth, doing little other than writing, growing his hair (a pursuit sadly no longer available to him) and following an alternative lifestyle. In his late twenties, real life intruded into this blissful state of affairs and in order not to starve he sought paid employment. After a number of jobs – including melting old lead type in a print works and storeman in a frozen food warehouse where he worked for eight hours a day in minus 18 degrees – David managed to find a real job. But he never forgot he was really a writer, and has now returned to his first love with the Thomas Berrington Historical Mysteries set in Moorish Spain and Tudor England in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. He also writes short stories under the DG Penny pen name. His most recent appears in An Unnecessary Assassin, a book produced in aid of a charity to help eradicate polio.

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Rob Parker lives near Warrington, UK. The author of the Ben Bracken thrillers, the Thirty Miles Trilogy and the standalones Crook’s Hollow and Blackstoke.

​Rob writes full time, as well as organising and attending various author events across the UK. Passionate about inspiring a love of the written word in young people, he spends a lot of time in schools across the North West, encouraging literacy, storytelling and creative-writing. ​He is also a co-host of the For Your Reconsideration film podcast, and a regular voice on both the Blood Brothers crime book podcast and the Really, 007! podcast.