Growing up on a North East council estate, my love of writing stories had to be secondary to getting a job and escaping. After spells as a care assistant, then having my own laboratory at ICI, I finally ended up as a freelance business analyst in Bristol, producing dry, technical documents that few people will ever read. Then I felt the itch to write fiction again, and after a couple of false starts I finished my first adult crime novel. It’s set in St. Petersburg and features the heady mixture of Russian culture, politics, and corruption that I’ve been fascinated with for many years. I loved writing it, and now the itch is a full-blown addiction.