Karen Maitland

Writing as KJ Maitland, Karen Maitland’s Jacobean crime thriller quartet is published by Headline Review. The first, The Drowned City, begins in 1606, in the aftermath of the Gunpowder Plot, when Daniel Pursglove finds himself embroiled in the dark world of spies, treason and murder. The second novel, Traitor in the Ice, is set in Battle Abbey in 1607 and the 3rd of the quartet, Rivers of Treason, in which Daniel finds himself accused of a series of brutal murders, was published by Headline in Apirl 2023. The final book in the quartet, A Plague of Serpents, will be published in April 2024.

Karen has written eight medieval thrillers published by Penguin and Headline. Company of Liars, The Owl Killers, The Gallows Curse, The Vanishing Witch, The Raven’s Head and The Plague Charmer are set in Medieval England and France, while Falcons of Fire & Ice is during the Inquisition in Portugal and the Reformation in Iceland. Her latest medieval thriller, A Gathering of Ghosts, is set among the deadly tors and mires of Dartmoor.

Karen is also one of six historical crime writers – Philip Gooden, Susannah Gregory, Michael Jecks, Bernard Knight and Ian Morson – together known as the Medieval Murderers. Karen has written five historical crime novels with the Medieval Murderers, which include The Sacred Stone, Hill of Bones, The First Murder, The False Virgin and The Deadliest Sin, all published by Simon & Schuster.

She now lives in Devon. She is a member of the Historical Novelist Association, Historical Novel Society and the Society of Authors. She is also one of The History Girls bloggers.

CWA Awards

CWA Historical Dagger - Longlisted

Other Awards

Karen won the Prix du Balai d’or in Paris 2015 for her novel La Malédiction du Norfolk (The Gallows Curse). French translation published by Sonatine.

Her modern thriller The White Room was shortlisted for The Authors’ Club Best First Novel Award 1997.

Company of Liars was shortlisted for the Macavity Award, for Best Historical Mystery in 2008.

The Owl Killers was shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson Award, 2009, and also selected by the ALA (American Library Association) as one of the best Historical Novels of 2010.