Chris Simmons  (Chair)

Chris Simmons is the online editor of his brainchild, Crimesquad.com – a crime review website, running since March 2005. Chris is a past judge for the John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger, which has highlighted the debuts of authors such as Louise Penny (John Creasey Dagger winner), S J Watson, Sarah Hilary, James Oswald and two-time Dagger winner, Wiley Cash.

Harriet Tyce

Harriet Tyce was born and grew up in Edinburgh. She graduated in 1994 with a degree in English Literature before working as a criminal barrister for nearly a decade. Having escaped law and early motherhood, she started writing, and completed the MA in Creative Writing – Crime Fiction at the University of East Anglia. She has written three novels to date, the Sunday Times bestsellers Blood Orange and The Lies You Told. It Ends At Midnight was published in April 2022 to critical acclaim.

Laura Wilson

Laura Wilson’s psychological crime novels have been critically acclaimed. Stratton’s War won the CWA Ellis Peters Award for Historical Crime Fiction and both The Lover – which won the Prix du Polar Europeen – and A Thousand Lies were shortlisted for the CWA Gold Dagger. She also writes for young adults as Jamie Costello. She has taught on the Crime/Thriller MA course at London’s City University, written a series of Crime Fiction Masterclass columns for Mslexia magazine, judged both the CWA John Creasey Dagger and the Debut Dagger, programmed the Harrogate Crime Writing Festival, and co-organised the Killer Women Festival. She is also the Guardian’s crime and thriller fiction reviewer.