Val McDermid

Val McDermid grew up in a Scottish mining community then read English at Oxford. She was a journalist for sixteen years, spending the last three years as Northern Bureau Chief of a national Sunday tabloid. She is now a full-time writer and lives in south Manchester.

Val McDermid has written six crime novels featuring Kate Brannigan, the third of which, Crack Down, was shortlisted for CWA's Gold Dagger Award and the Anthony award. She has also written a non-fiction book, A Suitable Job for a Woman, lifting the lid on the world of female private detectives, and five novels featuring journalist sleuth Lindsay Gordon.

The Mermaids Singing, which introduced clinical psychologist Tony Hill, won the 1995 CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year. Tony Hill is also featured in her novel The Wire in the Blood.