About the Author

Born to soldiering parents and raised in the British Royal Air Force with one younger sister, I enjoyed an incredible childhood living in the armed forces community. I learned to ride my first bicycle on the runway in between Tornado and Hercules planes landing in a Cold War locked West Germany.

…I refused to learn phonetics.

My mother taught me to read and write at the age of three, something the poor woman later regretted. Crayon is impossible to remove from carpet. Starting school aged four, I refused to learn phonetics. It sounded like baby talk and I wouldn’t join in. It earned me a black mark with the teacher and wasn’t the first. I seemed destined to stray away from the beaten track to do my own thing in life, a trait which has continued.

A crazy twist of fate…

Travelling to Wales to obtain an English degree, I found a Scotsman and an American at the helm. Their passion for the written word stayed with me, lasting through a lengthy and enlightened thesis on Daniel Defoe and three winters at the mercy of Cardigan Bay. I left with my Bachelor of Arts with Honours certificate clutched in my sticky little hand, but a crazy twist of fate sent me straight into law enforcement. And that’s another story.

Over the next decade I fortuitously gained a husband, four gorgeous children and a fair bit of weight. I shed the weight, but wisely kept the family members.

A Risky Adventure

In 2006 we climbed onto an international flight as a family with a suitcase and a little bit of cash, bound for a different life in New Zealand. We arrived at Auckland airport and saw the huge blue sky for the first time. The one way ticket proved a great idea because fear may have driven us all home many times.

My husband found a job and my children reluctantly went to school, leaving an author with a dangerous amount of time on her hands. I remembered the immortal words of my father who once said, “When do you plan to use that darn English degree?”

I have no intention of going back into the bush…

In between working part-time in a school for children with special needs and taking care of my family, I wrote a novel. After a few job changes, I produced another and another. Twenty published books later, including a few bestsellers and I’m still writing. My experience as an archivist shows up often in story lines, alongside the law enforcement and other varied roles. I meticulously research all my story lines. My favourite piece of information gathering involved a Russian who translated some phrases for The Actuary and added a few swear words thinking I wouldn’t notice. I did notice. My least favourite meant spending four freezing nights in the Kaimai Ranges in the winter so I could write A Trail of Lies. I will happily chat to the Russian, but I have no intention of going back into the bush.

My New Zealand Home

I jog slowly, horse ride badly and am a dreadful cook. I’m a Christian, but not a very good one. Apparently it’s all about the trying and I’m told I’m very trying.

A head full of fake people…

I live in a little house on a riverbank in the north island of New Zealand. I’m grateful for my husband’s IT skills and occupy him with my technical accidents. These are numerous and often heralded by shouting. A ginger cat rules over us all and occasionally permits the entrance of visiting grown up children. A head full of fake people and scary Internet searches gives me lots to obsess about.

After more than a decade, I call New Zealand home. The view from my window is Taupiri Mountain and the Waikato River, two strongholds which feature often in my writing.

My novels can be purchased at all major retailers. Check out the BOOKS pages or snag the free ones.

I gave an author interview in November 2015 for That’s Life Magazine which can be seen in their back issues.

 If you want to listen to my BBC radio interview from 2016, it’s here.