Douglas Watt
I was born in Edinburgh in 1965 and grew up there and in Aberdeen. I have an MA and PhD in history from Edinburgh University.
I’m the author of a series of historical crime novels and a prize-winning account of Scotland’s Darien Disaster. I live in East Lothian and work as a financial writer.
I’ve loved Scottish History since reading John Prebble’s Glencoe as a teenager – the book brought the past alive for me. I’ve written six historical crime novels set in 17th century Scotland featuring investigative advocate John MacKenzie and his side-kick Davie Scougall. The books are first and foremost crime fictions but they are also journeys through the paradox of late 17th century Scotland – a time of witch hunting, religious fanaticism and blasphe
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Her debut novel, 'The Death Mask Murders', the first in the Reggie da Costa Mysteries, was published by Level Best Books, in 2021. 'Deadly Intent' followed in May 2022, with 'A Deadly Game' in 2023, ‘Lies and Deception’ in 2024 and ‘The White Feather Murders’ in 2025.
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Leona Francombe is an author, pianist and composer living in Belgium. Her novels include: The Heron Legacy (Merle Books Brussels, 2024); The Universe in 3/4 Time: A Novel of Old Europe (Merle Books Brussels, 2021, shortlisted for the Eric Hoffer Award Grand Prize); The Sage of Waterloo (W.W. Norton, 2015); Madame Ernestine und die Entdeckung der Liebe (Random House Germany, 2014). She is also the author of many short stories and essays. Her work is inspired by, among other things: European history and atmosphere, music, ancient mysteries, Nature, and the otherworldly. The Heron Legacy came to life after the discovery of a medieval ruin in a remote part of the Ardennes forest. An encounter with an abandoned piano on a Brussels street one win
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Colm McNamee
Colm McNamee works for the Northern Ireland Assembly. He studied at Queen's University, Belfast, and Worcester College Oxford, and has a DPhil in Medieval History.
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Linda Lappin
Linda Lappin is a prize-winning poet, novelist, travel writer, literary translator and writing teacher who divides her time between Italy and the USA. She has published four novels, Katherine’s Wish, Signatures in Stone, which won the 2014 Daphne Du Maurier Award for mystery writing, and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne, and The Etruscan
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Her creative writing book: The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci published by Travelers Tales in 2015 won the gold medal in the Nautilus Awards in the field of creativity. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Writing Workshop. For her work in literary translation, she received the Poggioli Prize from PEN and two National Endowment for the Arts grants -
Philip K. Dick
Philip Kindred Dick was a prolific American science fiction author whose work has had a lasting impact on literature, cinema, and popular culture. Known for his imaginative narratives and profound philosophical themes, Dick explored the nature of reality, the boundaries of human identity, and the impact of technology and authoritarianism on society. His stories often blurred the line between the real and the artificial, challenging readers to question their perceptions and beliefs.
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Raised in California, Dick began writing professionally in the early 1950s, publishing short stories in various science fiction magazines. He quickly developed a distinctive voice within the genre, marked by a fusion of science fiction concepts with deep existenti -
James Joyce
A profound influence of literary innovations of Irish writer James Augustine Aloysius Joyce on modern fiction includes his works, Ulysses (1922) and Finnegans Wake (1939).
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Sylvia Beach published the first edition of Ulysses of James Augustine Aloysius Joyce in 1922.
John Stanislaus Joyce, an impoverished gentleman and father of James Joyce, nine younger surviving siblings, and two other siblings who died of typhoid, failed in a distillery business and tried all kinds of other professions, including politics and tax collecting. The Roman Catholic Church dominated life of Mary Jane Murray, an accomplished pianist and his mother. In spite of poverty, the family struggled to maintain a solid middle-class façade.
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Val McDermid
Val McDermid is a No. 1 bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than thirty languages, and have sold over eleven million copies.
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She has won many awards internationally, including the CWA Gold Dagger for best crime novel of the year and the LA Times Book of the Year Award. She was inducted into the ITV3 Crime Thriller Awards Hall of Fame in 2009 and was the recipient of the CWA Cartier Diamond Dagger for 2010. In 2011 she received the Lambda Literary Foundation Pioneer Award.
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James Richardson
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Angus Peter Campbell
Angus Peter Campbell (b. 1952) is an award-winning Scottish poet, novelist, journalist, broadcaster and actor. He writes in Gaelic as Aonghas Pàdraig Caimbeul.
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Linda Lappin
Linda Lappin is a prize-winning poet, novelist, travel writer, literary translator and writing teacher who divides her time between Italy and the USA. She has published four novels, Katherine’s Wish, Signatures in Stone, which won the 2014 Daphne Du Maurier Award for mystery writing, and Loving Modigliani: The Afterlife of Jeanne Hébuterne, and The Etruscan
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Her creative writing book: The Soul of Place: Ideas and Exercises for Conjuring the Genius Loci published by Travelers Tales in 2015 won the gold medal in the Nautilus Awards in the field of creativity. She holds an MFA from the University of Iowa Writing Workshop. For her work in literary translation, she received the Poggioli Prize from PEN and two National Endowment for the Arts grants -
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Rosie Genova
Proud Jersey girl Rosie Genova is a multi-genre author. Her work includes a Jersey shore cozy series, The Italian Kitchen Mysteries, and the upcoming Tess Mancini Time Travel Mysteries, set in 1955 Atlantic City. She is also the author of standalone suspense and a couple of rom-coms that presently live in her computer files (but are longing to be released into the wild). A former teacher and journalist, Rosie’s non-fiction has appeared in Entrepreneur magazine and The New York Times. The mother of three sons, Rosie still lives in her favorite state with her husband, too many dusty antiques, and a charming mutt named Lucy.
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Leona Francombe
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C.J. Cooke
C.J. (Carolyn) Cooke is an acclaimed, award-winning poet, novelist and academic with numerous publications as Carolyn Jess-Cooke and Caro Carver. Her work has been published in twenty-three languages to date. Born in Belfast, C.J. has a PhD in Literature from Queen’s University, Belfast, and is currently Reader in Creative Writing at the University of Glasgow, where she also researches the impact of motherhood on women’s writing and creative writing interventions for mental health. Her books have been reviewed in The New York Times, The Guardian, Good Housekeeping, and the Daily Mail. She has been nominated for an Edgar Award and an ITW Thriller Award, selected as Waterstones’ Paperback Book of the Year and a BBC 2 Pick, and has had two Boo
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Ambrose Parry
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Elizabeth Macneal
Elizabeth Macneal was born in Edinburgh and now lives in East London. She is a writer and potter and works from a small studio at the bottom of her garden. She read English Literature at Oxford University, before working in the City for several years. In 2017, she completed the Creative Writing MA at UEA in 2017 where she was awarded the Malcolm Bradbury scholarship.
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The Doll Factory, Elizabeth's debut novel, won the Caledonia Noel Award 2018. It will be published in twenty-eight languages and TV rights have sold to Buccaneer Media. -
Luke Richardson
WANTED, adventure lovers for hazardous journey. Must be prepared for nail-biting action, constant danger, fear around every corner, with safe return doubtful.
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If that sounds like your sort of thing, in your choice of books at least, then come with me...
Hey there, I’m Luke Richardson, and I’m applying for the job as your next favorite author!
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Jolie Tunnell
Award-winning author Jolie Tunnell brings the past to life in suspenseful historical mysteries. Bringing the flavor of the turn-of-the-century Wild West to the isolated mountain town of Idyllwild and the writhing underbelly of Old San Francisco, her books gallop to the last page.
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A Southern California native, she loves on her sprawling family, forces her freeloading tomcat to cuddle, and can drink her weight in Yorkshire Gold tea.
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Laraine Stephens
After nearly forty years of working as a teacher-librarian and Head of Library, Laraine Stephens decided to experience life on the other side of the bookshelves and became a writer of historical crime fiction.
Buy books on Amazon
Her debut novel, 'The Death Mask Murders', the first in the Reggie da Costa Mysteries, was published by Level Best Books, in 2021. 'Deadly Intent' followed in May 2022, with 'A Deadly Game' in 2023, ‘Lies and Deception’ in 2024 and ‘The White Feather Murders’ in 2025.
Laraine is a member of Sisters in Crime Australia, the Australian Crime Writers Association, the Crime Writers Association of the UK, and International Thriller Writers.
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Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr.
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Miguel Angel Hernandez Jr. is an Amazon bestselling and award-winning author who specializes in murder and mystery novellas. However, he loves to keep things fresh and interesting by dabbling in thrillers, horror, suspense, humor, action, adventure, and even Sci-Fi.
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J.S. Savage is a London-based author who specializes in impossible crime. His debut novel, The Mystery of Treefall Manor, nods to the golden age of detective fiction where the tyrannical master of Treefall manor is found stabbed to death inside his locked study. The second Inspector Graves story finds the protagonist investigating the murders of ravens and Beefeaters at the Tower of London in The Riddle of the Ravens.
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J.S. Savage has also written another locked-room mystery novel, Sun, Sea, and Murder which features amateur sleuth Penny Haylestone as she tries to unmask the murderer of her friend at a luxury Spanish resort.
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Loretta Miles Tollefson
Loretta Miles Tollefson writes historical fiction set in New Mexico prior to statehood in 1912, with a special emphasis on the 1800s. She grew up in the American West and lives in the shadows of New Mexico's Sangre de Cristo mountains. Her novels and short stories are deeply researched and richly imagined.
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Jody Vorra
A former military officer who has taken to writing to deal with his own demons of the past. Having served across three continents, he brings his experiences working with foreign allies from diverse cultures into his works of fiction. He now spends his days reading about ancient civilizations, walking his dogs, and world-building while mowing the lawn.
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