A.D. Garrett is the pseudonym for prize-winning novelist Margaret Murphy working in consultation with policing and forensics expert, Helen Pepper.

Margaret Murphy has published nine internationally acclaimed psychological thrillers under her own name, both stand-alone and police series. She is  former Writing Fellow and Reading Round Lector for the Royal Literary Fund, a past Chair of the Crime Writers Association (CWA), and founder of Murder Squad. A CWA Short Story Dagger winner, she has been shortlisted for the First Blood critics award for crime fiction as well as the CWA Dagger in the Library.

Her lifelong passion for science is reflected in her painstaking research for her novels. In 2013, writing as A.D. Garrett, Margaret began a new forensic series, featuring Professor Nick Fennimore and DCI Kate Simms. Everyone Lies, which Ann Cleeves rated ‘thriller writing at its best?’, was a bestseller, and both Everyone Lies and the sequel, Believe No One, garnered starred reviews from Publishers’ Weekly. Jeffery Deaver commented, ‘A.D. Garrett has done for Manchester what The Wire did for Baltimore. And Simms and Fennimore are complex, compelling, and just plain marvellous.’

Truth Will Out, the third in the series, was published in November 2016. Helen Pepper is a Senior Lecturer in Policing at Teesside University. She has been an analyst, Forensic Scientist, Scene of Crime Officer, CSI, and Crime Scene Manager. As a Crime Scene Investigator, she examined over 10,000 crime scenes, ranging from thefts and fires to rapes and murders. Later, as Crime Scene Manager for Durham Police, she supervised CSIs in over 50 major incidents. She is a member of the Chartered Society of Forensic Sciences, and has a wealth of experience in the investigation of all crime types, from simple thefts to murders and terrorism.

An author in her own right, Helen has co-authored, as well as contributed to, professional policing texts. Her expertise is in great demand with crime writers: she is a judge for the CWA’s Non-Fiction Dagger award, and is Forensic Consultant on both the Vera and Shetland TV series, among others.

Twitter: @adgarrett1

https://margaret-murphy.co.uk

Crime Fiction, Short Stories

Truth Will Out

Believe No One

Everyone Lies

Now You See Me (2005), Hodder

The Dispossessed (Nov 2004), Hodder & Stoughton

Weaving Shadows (2003), Hodder & Stoughton

Darkness Falls (2002), Hodder & Stoughton

Murder Squad Anthology (2001),

Flambard Dying Embers (2000)

Macmillan Past Reason (1999)

Macmillan Desire of the Moth (1998)

Macmillan Caging the Tiger (1997)

Macmillan Goodnight, My Angel (1996)

Macmillan Short Fiction: Margaret’s short fiction has appeared in The Mammoth Book of Best British Crime, Liverpool Stories 1, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and two Murder Squad anthologies (The Message, in Best Eaten Cold and Other Stories (Mystery Press)

Joint winner of the 2012 CWA Short Story Dagger.

Margaret has been reading and performing her work for almost 20 years and is known for her dramatic readings. She has appeared at a wide range of festivals and conferences, including The Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, Wirral Bookfest, Chester Literary Festival, Guildford Book Festival, The Forensic Science Society Annual Conference and the BA Science Festival, as well as being a regular at library events from Scotland to Plymouth.

Margaret has taught on creative writing courses at Arvon, in libraries and community centres, right up to Masters level. She has contributed to panel discussions at Chester Festival, Ampthill, Harrogate Crime Festival, and many others. She is a former RLF Reading Round Lector on the Wirral, and  RLF Writing Fellow at the University of Manchester.

Margaret is known for her dramatic readings. In addition to lecturing in policing and forensic science, Helen is a popular contributor on discussion panels at Harrogate Crime Festival, Noirwich, Shetland Noir as well as many others. Recently, Margaret and Helen co-tutored a very popular Fact and Fiction Arvon Writing course, presented workshops and conducting tutorials over the course of a week at Lumb Bank. Margaret and Helen have also developed a fun CSI library event, in which readers can examine a ‘crime scene’ and discuss how they would work the scene. Please ask if you would like more information!

Agent: Felicity Blunt, Curtis Brown: felicity@curtisbrown.co.uk

Claire Oxley or Diane Moore, Wirral libraries; Jennifer Stewart, Fife Cultural Trust; Pauline Martin, South Tyneside Libraries; Helen Eddon, Gateshead Libraries; Claire Pratt, Stockton on Tees libraries; Denise Sparrowhawk, Hartlepool Library; Debbie Williams at Wrexham Library; Cathy Barber at Flintshire Libraries; Helen Meller at Arvon Foundation, Lumb Bank.