Val McDermid

McDermid comes from Kirkcaldy and was educated at St Hilda's College, Oxford, where she was the first ever student from a state school in Scotland, and became President of the Junior Common Room. After graduation, she became a journalist, and had some success as a dramatist. However, her first success as a novelist, with Report for Murder, was not until 1987.

Her books mainly fall into three series: first came the Lindsay Gordon series and then the Kate Brannigan series (the latter beginning in 1993 with Kick Back -- it was not until then that the readership was felt to be "ready" for a lesbian heroine). 1997 saw the start of the Tony Hill & Carol Jordan series with The Wire in the Blood.