Elly Griffiths is a multi-award-winning author and a No. 1 bestseller. She has written twenty-eight crime novels for adults; four for children, and a volume of short stories. Her books for adults include the Dr Ruth Galloway Mysteries, the Brighton Mysteries and the Detective Harbinder Kaur series, as well as The Frozen People and The Killing Time, the first two books in the Ali Dawson Mysteries.Elly's many accolades include the CWA Dagger in the Library, the Edgar Award, the Fingerprint Award for Crime Novel of the Year and the Theakston Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution Award, as well as the Theakston Crime Novel of the Year Award.Elly has two grown-up children and lives near Brighton with her archaeologist husband and their cat, Pip.

A piquant mixture of humour, period detail . . . and truly beguiling characterisation - Financial TimesGriffiths pulls a truly startling rabbit out of the hat, demonstrating that this is more than the cosy mystery it initially appears - Sunday Times on The Blood CardThe lively beginning ... broadens out into an excellent whodunnit, matched by the terrific down-at-heel atmosphere of postwar Brighton - The Times on Smoke and MirrorsMixes cosiness and sharpness in a way that recalls the best of Agatha Christie - Sunday Express on Smoke and MirrorsEnormously engaging ... Post-war Brighton and its Theatre Royal are beautifully captured in all their seedy glory ... subtle, charming and very good - Daily Mail on The Zig Zag GirlWry, emotionally intelligent and quietly satisfying - Sunday TimesFull of fun and expertly plotted, this is in many ways a cosy read but there is real depth to the way the characters cope not only with changing times but changes in themselves as they mature - Sunday ExpressElly Griffiths, who is better known for her series about the forensic archaeologist Dr Ruth Galloway, relishes depicting a benighted age in which WPCs aren't allowed to drive or even carry radios... The tension - and frustration - builds to an exciting climax - The Times