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.

David Quantick is an Emmy-winng television writer for such shows as Veep, The Thick of It and The Day Today.

He is the author of Sparks, The Mule, two writing manuals, How To Write Everything and How To Be A Writer.

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.