Match Up

This collaboration between twenty-two of the world's bestselling crime writers is edited by Lee Child. Sandra Brown is the author of sixty-eight New York Times bestsellers, including Mean Streak, Deadline, Low Pressure, and Smoke Screen. Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, most of which remain in print. Sandra and her husband, Michael Brown, live in Arlington, Texas. Val McDermid is an international number one bestselling author whose books have been translated into more than forty languages. Her multi-award-winning series and standalone novels have been adapted for TV and radio, most notably the Wire in the Blood series featuring clinical psychologist Dr Tony Hill and DCI Carol Jordan. The Karen Pirie novels have now been adapted for a major ITV series.Val has been chair of the judges for the Wellcome Book Prize and the Gordon Burn Prize, and has served as a judge for the Women's Prize for Fiction, the Man Booker Prize and the Royal Society Book Prize. She is the recipient of eight honorary doctorates and is an Honorary Fellow of St Hilda's College, Oxford. She is a visiting professor in the Centre of Irish and Scottish Studies at the University of Otago in New Zealand. Among her many awards are the CWA Diamond Dagger recognising lifetime achievement and the Theakston's Old Peculier award for Outstanding Contribution to Crime Writing. Val is also an experienced broadcaster and much-sought-after columnist and commentator across print media.www.valmcdermid.comInstagram @quineofcrimePeter James is an international bestselling thriller writer. He is a #1 Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller and he is published in thirty-seven languages. His DS Roy Grace crime novels have sold 18 million copies worldwide. Prior to becoming a full-time author, he was responsible for twenty-five movies. In 1994 his novel Host was the world's first electronic novel, published on two floppy discs. He received the CWA Diamond Dagger in 2016. Michael Koryta is the New York Times bestselling author of twelve suspense novels. His books have won or been nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Edgar® Award, Shamus Award, Barry Award, Quill Award, International Thriller Writers Award, and the CWA Gold Dagger. Michael has written for the screen in both feature film and television, writing scripts for Fox, Universal, and Amazon Studios. Charlaine Harris is a New York Times bestselling author who has been writing for over thirty-five years. Born and raised in the Mississippi Delta, she is the author of the Aurora Teagarden mysteries, basis for the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Aurora Teagarden original movies; the Midnight, Texas series, now airing on NBC; the Sookie Stackhouse urban fantasy series, basis for the HBO show True Blood; the Lily Bard mysteries; the Harper Connelly mysteries; and the co-author of the graphic novel trilogy Cemetery Girl. Harris now lives in Texas with her husband and two rescue dogs. With an ancestry stretching back to the Mayflower, Lara Adrian lives with her husband in coastal New England, surrounded by centuries-old graveyards, hip urban comforts and the endless inspiration of the dark Atlantic ocean. Christopher Rice's debut novel, A Density Of Souls, was published when the author was just twenty-two years old. A controversial and overnight bestseller, it was greeted with a landslide of media attention, much of it devoted to the fact that Christopher is the son of famed vampire chronicler, Anne Rice. Christopher has received a Lambda Literary Award and been declared one of People Magazine's Sexiest Men Alive. His two novels of dark supernatural suspense, The Heavens Rise and The Vines, were both finalists for the Bram Stoker Award. Nelson DeMille was the New York Times bestselling author of twenty-three novels, seven of which were #1 New York Times bestsellers, with sales of over 55 million copies in 24 languages. With his son Alex DeMille, he cowrote The Deserter, Blood Lines, and The Tin Men. Nelson DeMille was a combat-decorated US Army veteran, a member of Mensa, Poets & Writers, and the Authors Guild, and past president of the Mystery Writers of America. He was also a member of the International Thriller Writers, who honoured him as 2015 ThrillerMaster of the Year. Nelson DeMille passed away in 2024.

'A perfect book for the sun lounger . . . a delicious confection of fast-moving stories with emotional heart'