Denise Ryan grew up in a historic West Lancashire market town which the council has almost but not quite managed to ruin. She was deputy editor of her primary school magazine and won a national school prize for creative writing.

She has studied law and history, and written six crime novels. She has lived and worked in various places, most recently Washington D.C and now The Hague. She loves reading, writing and painting, and has an award-winning husband.

Her latest book is a historical novel set in the 18th Century and follows the destiny of a young Irish woman who survives her own hanging for stealing.