P.J. Quinn

PJ Quinn is the pen name of mother and daughter team Pauline Kirk and Jo Summers. Jo challenged her mother to write a crime novel and they somehow ended up writing it together. They have collaborated on five DI Ambrose Mysteries to date, all published by Stairwell Books: Foul Play, Poison Pen, Close Disharmony. Poetic Justice and the most recent, Skull Days, which appeared in October 2023. An extended and updated edition of Foul Play was published in 2020 and second editions of Poison Pen and Close Disharmony have been issued. All are police procedurals set in the late 1950’s and early ‘60’s, a fascinating period which now seems an era ago. Though the central characters DI Ambrose, DS Winters and WPC Meadows feature throughout the series, each novel can be read on its own. WPC Meadows has become more important, reflecting the changing role of women.

Their latest book is a collection of eighteen short stories, Night Call and Other Stories: Tales of murder and mystery, published by Fighting Cock Press in November 2024. Many of the stories have been published in journals, or broadcast on local radio and websites (including the CWA). Some are new. All are mysteries or mysterious. Normal events slide into the unexpected.

Pauline lives near York. Three novels have been published under her own name: Waters of Time (Century Hutchinson 1988, Ulverscroft 1991), The Keepers (Virago 1996; Little, Brown 1997), and Border 7 (Stairwell Books 2015). Border 7 is also available as an audiobook, read by the author. Stairwell Books reissued Waters of Time in 2020, and a new edition of The Keepers in 2021. She is also a published poet. Jo is a qualified lawyer, who lives in East Yorkshire with her husband, two sons and various pets. She writes for the legal press, national newspapers and legal textbooks. Her books Islamic Wills, Trusts and Estates with Mufti Talha Ahmad Azami and Shahzad Siddiqui, and The Offshore Trustees’ UK Tax Handbook are published by Euromoney.