Abigail Rieley

After being born in London during that bit of the 70s when polo necks were high, skirts were short and paranoia was booming, I seem to have spent most of my life finding excuses to write. From early experiments which involved the adventures of a red bear written in red pen on old rolls of wallpaper or minuscule stories in minuscule books that came out of an early obsession with the Bronte sisters to theoretically more lucrative options like journalism and true crime I've always told stories.

Moving to Ireland in my teens, the prospect of living the artistic life seemed even better but reality quickly dawned and I realised that I would need a proper job. The proper job never really materialised. After several years of random jobs including wrangling actors as an Assistant Stage Manager, avoiding fake Titanic ephemera working on an antiques stall and dodging ghosts and peacocks as a tour guide in a medieval castle I did what countless aspiring novelists have done over the decades and got a job in radio. Eventually I worked out that radio doesn't have that many opportunities for writing and switched to print.

I've spent most of the last seven years writing about murders for the national and local press around Ireland. Based in the Central Criminal Court in Dublin I've written about all the big cases and it was here I found the subjects of my first two books.

I'm still based in Dublin, where I live with my husband and the obligatory cat. I'm working on my next book. This one actually will be a novel.