Graham Bartlett was a Sussex police officer for thirty years. In 1989 he was posted to Brighton and Hove, becoming a detective the following year. Quite uniquely he served the city through every rank, rising to become a homicide senior investigating officer and Detective Superintendent for Public Protection as well as a strategic firearms and public order commander. He then achieved his life's ambition, as Chief Superintendent, to become the city's Police Commander ¿ or, as Peter James jokingly called him ¿ the 'Sheriff of Brighton', a job he held and loved for four years. He pioneered Operation Reduction, the enduring approach to slashing drugs deaths and reducing crime as well as cutting disorder at protests by adopting methods developed by one of the world's foremost crowd psychologists. He lives in Sussex.

Synonymous with plot-twisting pageturners, Peter James has garnered an army of loyal fans throughout his storytelling career ¿ which also included stints writing for TV and producing films. He has won over forty awards for his work, including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award, Crime Writers¿ Association Diamond Dagger and a BAFTA nomination for The Merchant of Venice starring Al Pacino and Jeremy Irons for which he was an Executive Producer. Many of Peter's novels have been adapted for film, TV and stage.