Clare Littleford is the author of psychological crime novels Beholden (Pocket Books, 2003) and Death Duty (Pocket Books, 2004), a crime novella The Quarry (Five Leaves, 2008), and several short stories. She took a break from writing to complete a PhD in environmental psychology, but is now getting back into fiction again. She spent twenty years in Nottingham, where her novels were set, but now lives in Southend-on-Sea in Essex.