Judith Cutler is a writer of

crime fiction Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, crime novel, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives or fiction that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professiona ...

whose novels are mostly in series: ten in the series about amateur sleuth and lecturer ''Sophie Rivers''; six about Detective Sergeant ''Kate Power''; six about antique restorer ''Lina Townend'' and five about Detective Superintendent ''Fran Harman''. Most are set in the present day, in or around

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands (county), West Midlands, within the wider West Midlands (region), West Midlands region, in England. It is the Lis ...

Biography

Born in 1946 in the

Black Country The Black Country is an area of England's West Midlands. It is mainly urban, covering most of the Dudley and Sandwell metropolitan boroughs, with the Metropolitan Borough of Walsall and the City of Wolverhampton. The road between Wolverhampto ...

, Cutler later moved to the Birmingham suburb of

Harborne Harborne is an affluent area sited south-west of Birmingham, in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. It is a Birmingham City Council ward (politics), ward in the Government of Birmingham, England#Districts, formal district and ...

. She started writing while at Oldbury Grammar School, winning the Critical Quarterly Short Story prize. She read English at university, but wrote nothing more until in her thirties. While suffering from

chickenpox Chickenpox, also known as varicella ( ), is a highly contagious disease caused by varicella zoster virus (VZV), a member of the herpesvirus family. The disease results in a characteristic skin rash that forms small, itchy blisters, which ...

, she started her first, unpublished, novel. Two further unpublished works followed. She taught English at a Further Education College in Birmingham, but quit after the publication of her first novel, and moved to the suburb of

Kings Heath Kings Heath (historically, and still occasionally King's Heath) is a suburb of south Birmingham, England, four miles south of the city centre. Historically in Worcestershire, it is the next suburb south from Moseley on the A435 road, A435 Alces ...

. For many years she was a trustee of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra's Benevolent Fund and on the Committee of Birmingham Chamber Music Society. Her husband is

Keith Miles Keith Miles (born 1940) is a Welsh writer of historical fiction and mystery novels. He has also written children's books, radio and television dramas and stage plays. He is best known under the pseudonym Edward Marston, and has also written as M ...

Bibliography

Novels

Sophie Rivers

*''Dying Fall'' (1995) *''Dying On Principle'' (1996) *''Dying To Write'' (1997) *''Dying For Millions'' (1997) *''Dying For Power'' (1998) *''Dying To Score'' (1999) *''Dying By Degrees'' (2000) *''Dying By The Book'' (2001) *''Dying in Discord'' (2002) *''Dying to Deceive'' 2003

Kate Power

*''Power On Her Own'' (1998) *''Staying Power'' (1999) *''Power Games'' (2000) *''Will Power'' (2001) *''Hidden Power'' (2002) *''Power Shift'' (2003)

Lina Townend

*''Drawing the Line'' (2004) *''Silver Guilt'' (2010) *''Ring Of Guilt'' (2010) *''Guilty Pleasures'' (2011) *''Guilt Trip'' (2012) *''Guilt Edged'' (2013) *''Guilty as Sin'' (2015)

Josie Welford

*''The Food Detective'' (2005) *''Chinese Takeout'' (2006)

Fran Harman

*''Life Sentence'' (2005) *''Cold Pursuit'' (2007) *''Still Waters'' (2009) *''Burying the Past'' (2012) *''Double Fault'' (2013)

Tobias Campion

*''Keeper of Secrets'' (2007) *''Shadow of the Past'' (2008)

Jodie Welsh

*''Death in Elysium'' (2014)

Non-series romances

*''Coming Alive'' (2000) *''Head Over Heels'' (2001)

Non-series mysteries

*''Scar Tissue'' (2005) - protagonist Caffy Tyler *''Staging Death'' (2009) - protagonist Vena Burford

Short stories

Cutler has also written several successful short stories, for Radio 4, ''

Bella Bella is a feminine given name. It is a diminutive form of names ending in -bella. ''Bella'' is related to the Italian, Spanish, Greek, Portuguese and Latin words for beautiful, and to the name Belle (given name), Belle, meaning ''beautiful'' in F ...

'' magazine and others.

External links

Cutler's website
1946 births Living people English crime writers English women novelists 20th-century English novelists 20th-century English women writers 21st-century English novelists 21st-century English women writers People from the Black Country {{UK-novelist-stub