Fiona Cummins is an award-winning former Daily Mirror showbusiness journalist and a graduate of the Faber Academy Writing A Novel course. She lives in Essex with her family.

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.

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.

Sarah Hilary’s debut novel, Someone Else’s Skin, won the 2015 Theakston Old Peculier Crime Novel of the Year and was a World Book Night selection. The Observer’s Book of the Month (‘superbly disturbing’) and a Richard and Judy Book Club bestseller, it has been published worldwide.

No Other Darkness, the second in the series, was shortlisted for a Barry Award in the U.S. Her D.I. Marnie Rome series continues with Tastes Like Fear, Quieter Than Killing, Come and Find Me, and Never Be Broken. Fragile is her first standalone novel.

Martyn Waites was born in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He trained at the Birmingham School of Speech and Drama and worked as an actor for many years before becoming a writer. He has been nominated for every major British crime fiction award and won the 2014 Grand Prix du Roman Noir Award for his novel, Born Under Punches. He has enjoyed international commercial success with eight novels written under the name Tania Carver and also writes Doctor Who audio adventures for Big Finish.

Dennis Lehane is the author of bestsellers Mystic River, Shutter Island, Gone Baby Gone, and Live By Night, all of which have been made into award-winning films.

He is one of the most celebrated and critically acclaimed authors of his generation and the recipient of the Shamus Award for Best First Novel, the Edgar, Anthony and Barry awards for Best Novel, and the Massachusetts Book Award in Fiction.

His work has been translated into over three dozen languages. He has written for The Wire, Boardwalk Empire, Bloodline, and the forthcoming Mr Mercedes, based on the Stephen King novel. Dennis was born and raised in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and lives in California with his family.

Christopher Fowler is the creative director of a film promotion company and lives in London.

He is the author of the novels Roofworld, Rune, Red Bride, Darkest Day, Spanky, Psychoville and Disturbia and of the short story collections City Jitters, The Bureau of Lost Souls, Sharper Knives and Flesh Wounds.

Dean Koontz is the author of more than a dozen New York Times No. 1 bestsellers. His books have sold over 500 million copies worldwide, and his work is published in 38 languages.

He was born and raised in Pennsylvania and lives with his wife Gerda, and their dog Elsa, in southern California. 

James Oswald is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling Inspector McLean series of detective mysteries, as well as the new DC Constance Fairchild series.

James's first two books, Natural Causes and The Book of Souls, were both short-listed for the prestigious CWA Debut Dagger Award.

As Cold as the Grave is the ninth book in the Inspector Mclean Series. James farms Highland cows and Romney sheep by day, writes disturbing fiction by night.

Joe R. Lansdale is the author of more than a dozen novels, including Sunset and Sawdust, Rumble Tumble and The Bottoms.

He has received the British Fantasy Award, the American Mystery Award, the Edgar Award, the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature, and seven Bram Stoker Awards. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas.

Paul Finch is a former cop and journalist, now turned full-time writer.

He cut his literary teeth penning episodes of the British crime drama, The Bill, and has written extensively in the field of film, audio drama and children's animation.

He is also well known for his work in the thriller and horror fields. Paul lives in Lancashire, with his wife Catherine and his children, Eleanor and Harry.

Alex Gray was born and educated in Glasgow. After studying English and Philosophy at the University of Strathclyde, she worked as a visiting officer for the DHSS, a time she looks upon as postgraduate education since it proved a rich source of character studies. She then trained as a secondary school teacher of English.

Alex began writing professionally in 1993 and had immediate success with short stories, articles and commissions for BBC radio programmes. She has been awarded the Scottish Association of Writers' Constable and Pitlochry trophies for her crime writing.

A regular on the Scottish bestseller lists, her previous novels include Five Ways to Kill a Man, Glasgow Kiss, Pitch Black, The Riverman, Never Somewhere Else, The Swedish Girl and Keep the Midnight Out. She is the co-founder of the international Scottish crime writing festival, Bloody Scotland, which had its inaugural year in 2012.

Louise is a USA Today bestselling author, and lives in Northamptonshire with her husband, children, dog and a rather naughty cat.

Louise's first two novels, The Sister and The Gift, were both No.1 bestsellers, and have been sold for translation in sixteen territories. The Sister was nominated for The Goodreads Awards Debut of 2016.

Steph Broadribb was born in Birmingham and grew up in Buckinghamshire. Most of her working life has been divided between the UK and USA. As her alter ego - Crime Thriller Girl - she indulges her love of all things crime fiction by blogging, where she interviews authors and reviews the latest releases. Steph is an alumnus of the MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) at City University London, and she trained as a bounty hunter in California.

She lives in Buckinghamshire surrounded by horses, cows and chickens. Deep Down Dead, her debut novel, published by Orenda Books, was the first in the Lori Anderson series, and was shortlisted for two Dead Good Reads Awards, including Best Debut and Most Fearless Female Protagonist.

Steph also writes under the name Stephanie Marland. The first Stephanie Marland book, My Little Eye, will come out in ebook in November 2017 and paperback in April 2018 with Trapeze Books (Orion).

Marie O’Regan is a British Fantasy Award-nominated writer and editor of horror and dark fantasy fiction.