Fiona Veitch Smith writes Golden Age mysteries and inter-war historical fiction. Her latest series, The Miss Clara Vale Mysteries, is about a lady forensic scientist who inherits a detective agency, set in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1929. The Miss Clara Vale Mysteries are published by Embla Books (Bonnier UK). The first, The Picture House Murders is out now, The Pantomime Murders will follow in November 2023 and The Pyramid Murders in May 2024.

Fiona made her mark in the historical fiction world with her Poppy Denby Investigates books (Lion Fiction), set in the Roaring Twenties, which immerse readers in the culture of the time, while weaving intricate mysteries packed with whodunits and red herrings. Book 1, The Jazz Files, was shortlisted for the CWA Historical Dagger, while subsequent books have been shortlisted for the Foreword Review Mystery Novel of the Year and the People’s Book Prize. Fiona has also written for the children’s picture book market, with 14 books published by SPCK.

When not writing, Fiona mentors other novelists and was up until recently the Communications Manager for the Crime Writers’ Association. This is a ‘second career’ following on from her years working as a journalist and lecturing in journalism at Newcastle University, and creative and dramatic writing at Northumbria University. She lives in Newcastle upon Tyne with her husband and teenage daughter. She is represented by Sara Keane of Keane Kataria Literary Agency.

Marianne Kavanagh is a writer and journalist who has worked for a wide variety of national magazines and newspapers. She is a Fellow of the Royal Literary Fund, and the author of four novels, most recently published by Hodder & Stoughton.

Naomi Clifford’s crime novel 13 Park Lane was published by Bloodhound Books in 2024.

She also writes non-fiction, focusing on women on the margins of history.

---

On the Wings of Love: Georgian Elopement Stories (2023)

Out of the Shadows: Essays on 18th and 19th Century Women (2022)

Under Fire: The Blitz Diaries of a Volunteer Ambulance Driver (2021)

The Murder of Mary Ashford: The Crime That Changed English Legal History (2018)

Women and the Gallows 1797-1837: Unfortunate Wretches (2017)

The Disappearance of Maria Glenn: A True Life Regency Mystery (2016)

 

Louisa Treger began her career as a classical violinist and worked as a freelance orchestral player and teacher. She subsequently turned to literature, gaining a PhD in English at University College London. Married with three children and a dog, she lives in London. The Lodger is her first novel.

The Lodger

 

 

 

Matthew Harffy is the author of the Bernicia Chronicles, an action-packed historical fiction series set during the turbulent times of seventh century Britain. The first, a tale of vengeance and coming of age, is THE SERPENT SWORD. This was followed by THE CROSS AND THE CURSE, BLOOD AND BLADE, KILLER OF KINGS, WARRIOR OF WODEN, STORM OF STEEL, FOR LORD AND LAND, FORTRESS OF FURY and FOREST OF FOES.

November 2019 saw the publication of WOLF OF WESSEX, a new adventure set in the ninth century against the backdrop of the Viking attacks on the British Isles.

His latest early medieval series begins with A TIME FOR SWORDS. Set in 793, it follows the tale of Hunlaf, a young monk, who decides not to turn the other cheek when his monastery is attacked by Norse raiders. Hunlaf’s story continues in A NIGHT OF FLAMES and A DAY OF RECKONING.

July 2024 sees the publication of Matthew’s first foray into the 19th century with DARK FRONTIER, set in the wilds of Oregon where Lieutenant Gabriel Stokes seeks to escape the misery and murder that has hitherto dominated his life, first on the battlefields of Afghanistan and then as a detective inspector in the Metropolitan Police. He soon realises that the Amercian West is far from the idyll he has yearned for. The frontier is a complex patchwork of feuds and felonies, and ranchers as vicious as any back alley cut-throat in London.

Matthew Harffy lived in Northumberland as a child and the area had a great impact on him. The rugged terrain, ruined castles and rocky coastline made it easy to imagine the past. Decades later, a documentary about Northumbria’s Golden Age sowed the kernel of an idea for the Bernicia Chronicles.

Matthew has had many diverse jobs. He’s worked in the IT industry, as an English teacher and translator in Spain, as a rock singer and has co-authored several academic articles, ranging in topic from the ecological impact of mining to the construction of a marble pipe organ. He lives in Wiltshire, England, with his wife and two daughters.

Emily Hauser is an award-winning classicist and the author of the acclaimed Golden Apple trilogy, For the Most Beautiful, For the Winner and For the Immortal.

Featured on BBC Radio 4 Woman’s Hour and The Guardian alongside Colm Tóibín and Natalie Haynes, she is a Lecturer in Classics at the University of Exeter and has won multiple awards including the University of Cambridge Chancellor’s Medal. She lives in Devon with her husband Oliver.

Emily is an author, classicist and academic with a Ph.D. in Classics from Yale University, and is a lecturer in Classics at the University of Exeter. She studied at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge (BA Hons in Classics, 2009; MA Hons 2012), and at Harvard University as a Fulbright Scholar from 2010-2011. Emily received a double first with distinction at Cambridge and has received numerous awards, including the Battie Scholarship, Hallam Prize and Chancellor’s Medal for Classical Proficiency at Cambridge, and the Alice Derby Lang Prize at Yale. Her research focuses on women in antiquity, gender studies, Greek and Latin poetry, and the theory and practice of classical reception, particularly in contemporary fiction.