Clare Grant was an award-winning journalist when she began researching and writing her first novel. She is now a full-time author. Her debut historical crime thriller Winter of Shadows is set in York in the 1860s. It is the first in a series about Ada Fawkes, the country’s one and only crime scene photographer. The book is now under option for screen development.

She was inspired to create her heroine Ada Fawkes while working on a project exploring the historical role of women in policing.

“It struck me how extraordinary it was that until 1919 women could not legally become police officers and yet as I read I realised that women have actually been doing detective work for centuries. They were recruited by husbands, sweethearts and employers as sleuths but without proper recognition of their work – or a pay packet. Women would investigate, go undercover, shadow suspects in ways and places men were denied access. I knew then I wanted to write a series about such a woman.”

She has a masters in heritage interpretation from Newcastle University and lives in the North of England. www.claregrant.org.uk