Finn Clarke lives on the edge of Dartmoor, which she explores far less than she’d like, and returns regularly to Quebec, where she worked for many years. Past jobs include assistant psychologist and prison project worker – both of which she preferred to shelf stacking – and she currently works in management training. Her short stories have been published in anthologies such as Endangered Species, edited by Val McDermid, and in British and North American magazines ranging from Big Pulp to Descant. One of her other novels was long-listed for the Debut Dagger in 2012.

Call Time: Jon Harlow has stopped stalking women. Mostly. But when he overhears a murder, Jon needs to find the killer before the police pin it on him – a task that will take all his old stalking skills if he hopes to survive.

The judges thought this story was tense, with an unexpected twist in the plot.