She has degrees in English Literature from Somerville College, Oxford, and University College London, and has worked as a teacher and editor of non-fiction.

Her fifth novel, The Lover, won the Prix du Polar Européen in 2005, and her eighth, Stratton’s War, won the Crime Writers' Association's 2008 Ellis Peters Award for Best Historical Mystery.

Both The Lover and A Thousand Lies were shortlisted for the Crime Writers' Association's Gold Dagger, and A Little Death, The Lover and An Empty Death were shortlisted for the Ellis Peters Award.

She also writes novels for young adults as Jamie Costello.

This article about a novelist from the United Kingdom is a stub.