Russell Wate

Dr Russell Wate QPM

Russell Wate is a world renowned and royalty honoured, senior homicide detective. He was the SIO in over 100 major crime enquiries, including homicides, international kidnappings and large-scale paedophile investigations. His most high-profile case was that of Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman, two ten-year-old girls from Soham, who were murdered by Ian Huntley in 2002. Russell subsequently received the Queen’s Police Medal for his work as a detective. Russell is also well known for his current work relating to safeguarding children and has published numerous serious case reviews involving the death of children, where he has established the lessons that can be learnt from these deaths. The most recent one is the Sara Sharif review.

Writing crime fiction started as a Covid lockdown project, and his first novel, Greed is a Powerful Motive, received such positive feedback that it inspired Russell to write three more books in the DCI McFarlane series. The books are written in an authentic manner based on how Russell would have investigated the suspicious deaths, using all the modern-day techniques available. His recent book Body Overboard based on the Natalie Wood- Robert Wagner relationship is receiving great praise both in the UK and in the USA, especially as the book is set in the exotic and romantic island of Barbados. The current book is ‘Getting away with murder.’ Was published in April 2026. ‘It was better to have loved and lost, than to never have loved at all.’ These are the words that Alfred Lord Tennyson used when talking about his best friend from Trinity College Cambridge, Arthur Hallam who died as a 22 year old in a hotel room in Vienna. Russell thought 22 year olds are not meant to die and off to Vienna (set in modern day) went his DCI Sandy McFarlane to work out why a 22 year old has died in a hotel room there!