[1][2] A series of four novels by Ward – In Bitter Chill (2015), A Deadly Thaw (2017), A Patient Fury (2018, chosen as "Thriller of the Month" by The Observer) and The Shrouded Path (2019) – are set in the Derbyshire Dales, where she lives.
The Northern English Lancashire Evening Post noted that the fourth novel is "moody, menacing and with more than a hint of the macabre... a mystery that grips like a raw day in the Peaks.
[6] She has written frequent accounts of work by others, in the British newspapers The Guardian and the Sunday Express magazine, in the freeby Metro and elsewhere, including the Los Angeles Review of Books.
[9] Ward related in a press interview: "I grew up in the neighbouring county of Cheshire and then after university in Liverpool, I lived first in London and then in Athens, Greece.
When I returned to the UK I briefly lived in London but decided I preferred to be out of the capital so moved to Derbyshire.... [This] coincided with changes in my personal life.