Simon’s first novel, The Business of Dying, about a cop who moonlights as a hit man named Dennis Milne, was published in 2002 and described as ‘the crime debut of the year’ by The Independent.

Since then Simon has written a book a year (fifteen in all now) as well as three novellas. He specialises in very fast-paced thrillers set over a short space of time which grab the reader from the very first page and don’t let go. His fifth novel, Relentless, was a Richard and Judy summer read, and the ninth and tenth, The Last Ten Seconds and The Payback, both reached number 1 in the UK book charts.

Simon doesn’t have a series as such and most of the books can be read as standalones, but he has recurring characters. Dennis Milne, the vigilante cop, returns in A Good Day to Die and The Payback, and his female detective, Tina Boyd – a woman who finds herself in dangerous situations seemingly at every turn – appears in the vast majority of Simon’s recent books.