“Laura Wilson's earlier novel The Lover, set in wartime London, was rightly praised for its evocation of place and period, and she is equally successful with Stratton's War. This is not simply a question of period detail ... it is deep in the language of the novel, in the speech of the characters, even in the narrative voice. Everything sounds authentic.” TLS

“What's most memorable, though, is Wilson's vivid picture of London itself – shabby and scorched, without the time or opportunity to lick its own wounds.” Literary Review

“...this is a tense and intelligent psychological thriller that confirms Laura Wilson's seat at the high table of British crime writing.”Guardian

R. J. Ellory talks about his life and influences.

Unsafe, the next novel in the Karen Sharpe series takes place in Yorkshire. John Connor worked for fourteen years with the CPS and has been involved with the prosecution of over 40 homicide cases, his writing showcases his knowledge of the British justice system. John Connor is a featured author in our Best of British Series.

“British women have a softer spot for Joe Pike than Elvis Cole, he says, referring to the crime-cracking buddies who feature in most of his novels. In the US it is the other way around. “I guess your women like the strong silent type.”

“When you talk about my books being tightly plotted with driving narratives, I guess, those are the books I like to read. All writers are readers first. I want to tell myself a good story and those are the types of story I enjoy.”

View Robert Crais' Elvis Cole and stand-alone novels, listed in chronological order.

Alan Bradley is a former professor at the University of Saskatchewan, where he lectured on screen writing. He is the author of a memoir, The Shoebox Bible. The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is his first Orion title.

Elmore Leonard is the author of many successful books, with many of his novels made into bestselling films to include Jackie Brown and Get Shorty.

Leonard had his first success in 1951 when Argosy published the short story "Trail of the Apaches". During the 1950s and early 1960s, he continued writing westerns, publishing over 30 short stories. He wrote his first novel, The Bounty Hunters, in 1953 and followed this with four other novels. Two of his stories were turned into movies at this time, The Tall T and 3:10 to Yuma.

Leeds-based author Steve Mosby is the writer of The 50/50 Killer, The Cutting Crew and The Third Person and is currently topping the bestsellers list in France with Cry for Help.

A Hollywood mogul is accused of killing his family; down-at-heel lawyer Mickey Haller is defending him and Harry Bosch in investigating in this compelling courtroom drama where no-one is as they seem.

“There are many pernicious influences at work in American society. The real issue of the 20th century will be the biggest issue of the 21st century, and that is energy and resources.”

Is this the finale for Rebus? Nobody knows. Not even Rankin himself. But one thing is for sure: this book certainly does not disappoint. With Rebus trying to follow up loose ends before his retirement, law of nature would guarantee that something will occur to ensure his walk into the sunset isn’t smooth; that’s if he makes it into the sunset at all. Cue the brutal murder of a dissident Russian poet, an enthralling plot linking a group of Russian businessmen, politicians and bankers trying to close the case, Rebus himself in the dock and the result is Rankin at his very very best.

“I think in visual terms, and storyboard my screenplays myself, and writing was the way in I chose, rather than, say, directing shorts or music videos. But the writing got more and more interesting, and the move to directing kept getting pushed back further and further. Now, with the success of the novel, which I enjoyed writing immensely, I think that ambition's going to be on hold for the foreseeable future.

“Writing novels is by far the most satisfying writing I do. I love it for a purely selfish reason: what I write in a novel is what gets read by my audience. That does not happen in film or TV.”

Chris says that he’s always been drawn to books that give insights into unusual minds. The twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles’ The Collector, the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene’s The Heart of the Matter, the murderous urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe’s Butcher Boy: all had an influence in shaping him as a writer.

His own books – tense psychological thrillers set very firmly in Manchester – follow the fortunes of DI Spicer as he pursues mad, bad and deadly individuals through the city’s ever changing landscape. Alongside detailed descriptions of Manchester itself, Chris covers a variety of issues, including the violent theft of high performance cars, the shady end of the cosmetic surgery industry and the consequences of Britain’s ‘war on terror’. He does so with ‘intelligence and subtlety’, according to The Bookseller. In 2007, Chris was selected by Waterstone’s as one of their top ‘25 Authors for the Future’.

“It's a corny cliché, but anything can stimulate an idea. The hard part is recognizing which ideas will work, and developing those ideas into a workable story. An idea is not a plot. An idea is not a novel. Turning it into a story – that's where the real work comes in.”

“Coben plucks...strings like a virtuoso.” Publishing Weekly

“As with a lot of my writing, the idea for The 50/50 Killer came from an event that actually happened to me. It was ten years ago, and I was on holiday with my girlfriend at the time, backpacking around Italy. Our first night was at a campsite on the West coast, and in the early evening we set off from a deserted beach and swam in the sea – only to be caught in a current and find ourselves in trouble. I got back to shore first, and had to make a choice about whether to go back in and help my girlfriend. Readers of the book will recognise the situation – although in real-life (no thanks to me) it had a far happier outcome.

But the event got me thinking. We often tell people we love them and couldn’t live without them – but they’re easy words to say, and we rarely have to prove it. And it’s often emotional suffering that builds up over time and causes relationships to end. So I imagined a killer who forced people to confront their promises, and who asked the question ‘how much suffering will you endure for this person you claim to love?’ in a very literal and physical way. As well as creating a scary and entertaining thriller, I hoped that readers might ask themselves the same questions.

What would you do?

And when was the last time you looked in your attic.”

“John Connor's day job as a barrister involves heading up a team responsible for the prosecution of serious crime – experience that shows in this novel's meticulous attention to detail and complex characterisation.” Daily Record

All of Lisa Gardner’s books are inspired by true crime. Hide is based upon the case of a man who targeted a young girl by leaving gifts on her front porch. The police then discovered he’d broken into a house across the street and was living in the attic. Lisa is always on the look-out for a case that will give her goose bumps – and the basis of a new book.

The author of 22 books, Lisa calls herself a ‘research geek’ and spends time with the law enforcement agencies featured in her novels. She has close contact with the FBI and local police departments. In fact, the crime scene in Hide, where the bodies of six girls are discovered, was actually chosen by Boston Police department homicide detectives.

“The Night Gardener had its seeds in a series of killings, the Freeway Phantom Murders, which occurred in the 1970’s in the poorer sections of Washington D.C.. Seven girls were slain and the killer was never found. Many of the police who worked on the case were haunted by their inability to solve it. It remained an obsession for the detectives and also for the families of the victims. I set out to write a novel about the long-term effect of an unsolved, horrific crime. How does one find spirituality in a world gone wrong?

Gus Ramone is a homicide detective investigating a murder with similarities to crimes that occurred twenty years in the past. Among the three lead characters, he alone manages to lead a healthy life through his ability to put away his gun and badge at the end of the work day and tend to his wife and mixed-race children. In the novel, I explore the importance of family, the dilemma of kids stuck in a dysfunctional school system and the challenge of raising children of colour in a street tough environment and still-racist society.”

“My philosophy towards my writing has always been the same: work hard, be talented and get lucky. The only thing that we have control over of those three is to work hard and to be true to what we want to accomplish and to say through our writing.”

At the age of twenty-four, Finder published his first book, Red Carpet: The Connection Between the Kremlin and America's Most Powerful Businessmen, a controversial expose about multi-millionaire Dr. Armand Hammer's ties to Soviet intelligence. Though Hammer threatened a libel suit, Finder was eventually vindicated when the fall of the Soviet Union opened archives that verified the truth of his account.

In the late 1980's, Finder turned to writing fiction, discovering in the process that his secret sources (Finder is a member of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers) revealed classified information more willingly to a novelist than they did to him as a journalist.

His first novel, The Moscow Club, based on the premise of a KGB coup against Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, was published in 1991, six months before the actual coup took place. Considered far-fetched by some at the time of its release, the book received wide critical acclaim

Finder's second novel, Extraordinary Powers, about the discovery of a Soviet mole in the highest ranks of the CIA, was published just days before the unmasking of CIA mole Aldrich Ames. The Zero Hour, which featured a female FBI agent tracking a terrorist in Manhattan was the first novel ever written with the official co-operation of both the CIA and the FBI.

Finder's fourth novel, High Crimes, has been made into a major motion picture starring Ashley Judd and Morgan Freeman and directed by Carl Franklin.

John Connor arrived on the crime fiction scene with his dark police procedural Phoenix which introduced DC Karen Sharpe in a novel set in Yorkshire. Since then, Connor, a former barrister involved in some of the biggest drug and gang related cases with the Crown Prosecution Service has continued writing about the investigations of Karen Sharpe with The Play Room, and now the third novel in the series, A Child's Game is out in paperback.