I have been fascinated by crime for as long as I can remember, mainly due to watching Edgar Lustgarten on the television at an impressionable age. An early ambition to be a policewoman lasted the five minutes it took me to realise I was six inches too short,  so I began to collect true crime books. After qualifying as a chemist’s dispenser I took a degree in psychology and entered the civil service. Writing was always a hobby and being published was something I never seriously thought would happen, then in 2001 I was commissioned to write a history of chloroform. This was followed by several non-fiction crime history titles, and three biographies. My first novel, a Victorian whodunit The Poisonous Seed featuring lady sleuth Frances Doughty was published in 2011, and the sixth in the series will be out in 2016. A new series the Mina Scarletti mysteries set in Brighton was launched in 2015. I live in Walthamstow but am often to be encountered in libraries