John Connolly is author of the Charlie Parker mysteries, The Book of Lost Things, the Samuel Johnson novels for young adults and, with his partner, Jennifer Ridyard, co-author of the Chronicles of the Invaders.

John Connolly's debut Every Dead Thing introduced the character of Private Investigator Charlie Parker, and swiftly launched him right into the front rank of thriller writers.

All his subsequent novels have been Sunday Times bestsellers. He was the winner of the 2016 CWA Short Story Dagger for On the Anatomization of an Unknown Man (1637) by Frans Mier from Night Music: Nocturnes Vol 2.

In 2007 he was awarded the Irish Post Award for Literature. He was the first non-American writer to win the US Shamus award and the first Irish writer to win an Edgar award.

Books to Die For, which he edited with Declan Burke, was the winner of the 2013 Anthony, Agatha and Macavity awards for Best Non-Fiction work.

After a peripatetic childhood in Glasgow, Denise Mina left school at 16 before doing her law degree at Glasgow University. Her first novel, Garnethill, was published in 1998 and won the CWA John Creasey Dagger for Best First Crime Novel.

She has published twelve novels including the Garnethill trilogy, the Paddy Meehan series and the Alex Morrow series. She has been nominated for many prizes including the CWA Gold Dagger and has won the Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year Award twice. In addition to novels, Denise has also written plays and graphic novels including the adaptation of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

In 2014, she was inducted into the Crime Writers’ Association Hall of Fame. She has also presented TV and radio programmes as well as appearing regularly in the media. She lives and works in Glasgow.

Mark Billingham has twice won the Theakston's Old Peculier Award for Crime Novel of the Year, and has also won a Sherlock Award for the Best Detective created by a British writer.

Each of the novels featuring Detective Inspector Tom Thorne has been a Sunday Times bestseller.

Sleepyhead and Scaredy Cat were made into a hit TV series on Sky 1 starring David Morrissey as Thorne, and a new series based on the novels In the Dark and Time of Death will be broadcast on BBC1 in 2017.

Mark lives in north London with his wife and two children.

Peter Robinson's DCI Banks is now a major ITV1 drama starring Stephen Tompkinson (Wild at Heart, Ballykissangel) as Inspector Banks, and Andrea Lowe (The Bill, Murphy's Law) as DI Annie Cabbot.

The first series aired in Autumn 2011 with an adaptation of Friend of the Devil, the second in Autumn 2012, and the third in February 2014, with the show consistently pulling in ratings of over 5 million.

Peter's recent 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. 

Karin Slaughter is one of the world's most popular and acclaimed storytellers.

Published in 36 languages, with more than 35 million copies sold across the globe, her sixteen novels include the Grant County and Will Trent books, as well as the Edgar-nominated Cop Town and the instant New York Times bestselling novel Pretty Girls.

A native of Georgia, Karin currently lives in Atlanta. Her Will Trent series, Grant County series, and standalone novel Cop Town are all in development for film and television.