Victoria Dowd

Ex-criminal defence barrister Victoria Dowd is the award-winning author of the bestselling Smart Woman’s mystery series. She has been shortlisted for the CWA Dagger. Her debut novel, The Smart Woman’s Guide to Murder, won the People’s Book Prize for fiction, and was In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel’s Book of the Year for 2020. Her fifth book, Murder Most Cold, won the Grand Puzzly award of 2023 and was a finalist in the Feathered Quill Book Awards. Victoria was awarded the Gothic Fiction prize for her short fiction, which has been published widely in literary journals and anthologies. She also writes the Adapting Agatha series, and has appeared at many literary festivals. Victoria is on the board of the Crime Writers’ Association and head of the London Crime Writers’ Association.

Calum MacLeod

A former newspaper journalist from the Highlands of Scotland, Calum Macleod is currently a communications officer for a major Third Sector organisation. A long-time contributor to Shotsmag, dating back to when the crime and thriller ezine was a print publication, he has also reviewed crime fiction for Ink magazine, wrote a regular column on contemporary crime fiction for Sherlock Magazine, and has been a contributor to on-line fiction sites Gingernuts of Horror and The Rap Sheet.

Karen Robinson
Karen Robinson was a senior editor at The Sunday Times. She devised the paper’s Crime Club newsletter and ran it for five years. She now reads crime fiction purely for fun.

Sarah Ward

Sarah Ward is the author of four DC Childs novels set in the Derbyshire Peak District where she lives. She also writes Gothic historical thrillers under the name Rhiannon Ward. Her first, The Quickening, was a 2020 Radio Times book of the year and her second historical novel The Shadowing was a Daily Express critic’s favourite. She has also written Doctor Who audio dramas. She was an inaugural judge of the Petrona Award for translated Scandinavian crime fiction.