I am a crime writer and crime fiction scholar. My first novel, A Very Vexing Murder – a cosy crime retelling of Jane Austen’s Emma featuring con-woman-turned-detective Harriet Smith – will be published by Corvus (Atlantic Books) in the UK and William Morrow (HarperCollins) in the US in early 2026.

This novel was shortlisted for the Penguin Michael Joseph Undiscovered Writers’ Prize: Crime and Thriller 2022-23, was a finalist at Bloody Scotland’s Pitch Perfect 2023, highly commended in the Spread the Word Case Closed First Chapter competition 2023 and runner up in the A.M. Heath/Orion Criminal Lines Competition 2023. I am represented by Euan Thorneycroft at A.M. Heath.

I am a former Senior Lecturer in English Literature with research specialisms in crime fiction, children’s and YA fiction, popular culture and creative writing. My published research includes my academic monograph, The Boy Detective in Early British Children’s Literature: Patrolling the Borders between Boyhood and Manhood, edited collections Crime Fiction in the City: Capital Crimes (with Catherine Phelps) and The Detective’s Companion in Crime Fiction: A Study in Sidekicks (with Samuel Saunders), and academic book chapters on Harry Potter, Batman and Robin, Veronica Mars, and supernatural detective fiction for young readers. I have appeared on BBC radio, the Rippercast podcast, crime documentary series Murder Maps and at the Wolverhampton Literature Festival to discuss my research on Jack the Ripper.