Publications
The Philip Dryden novels
The Water Clock 2002
The Fire Baby 2004
The Moon Tunnel 2005
The Skeleton Man 2006
The Coldest Blood 2007
The Funeral Owl 2012
Nightrise 2013
The Shaw & Valentine novels
Death Wore White 2009
Death Toll 2010
Death Watch 2011
Death’s Door 2014
At Death’s Window 2015
Death on Demand 2016
Death Ship 2017
The Nighthawk series
The Great Darkness 2018
The Mathematical Bridge 2019
Awards and experience
The Water Clock: Short-listed for the Crime Writers’ Association’s (CWA) John Creasey Award for a first novel. 2003
The Philip Dryden novels: Winner the 2005 CWA Dagger in the Library.
Death Watch: Winner of the 2011 New Angle Prize for literature.
The Mathematical Bridge: Long-listed for the CWA Historical Dagger.
Having been a journalist for 25 years, and subsequently a crime writer for 20, Jim encourages mentees to approach writing as a craft and a trade. He tries to help them tell compelling stories, that are tightly plotted, with a firm foundation in time and place, and that satisfy readers’ expectations by delivering a well-told story.
Between 1985-2000 he was a journalist on the Financial Times, working as UK Pages Editor, Tax Correspondent, and Education Correspondent. Before that he was Deputy News Editor of Yorkshire Evening Press, and Chief Reporter of the Bedford Express.
He has worked with students at graduate and post-graduate level to improve their writing, by concentrating on clarity and narrative, and was a Royal Literary Fund Fellow at Essex University; 2012-2013, 2013-2014, 2014-2015, 2015-2016; and a Royal Literary Fund Lector 2017-2018, 2018-19.
