About
Clare Mackintosh
author · literary host · conversation starter
Clare Mackintosh is a former police officer and a bestselling crime author. Her books have sold more than three million copies, been optioned for television and translated into 40 languages. She appears regularly at literary festivals and bookshop events across the UK and beyond.
Hello! If you’re a journalist, event organiser or bookseller looking for my bio and approved images, you’ll find my media pack here.
If, on the other hand, you’re a reader who loves twisty thrillers and wants to find out what sort of person writes them, you’re on the right page. There’s a lot more I could share, but I wouldn’t be much of a suspense writer if I didn’t hold back the good bits, would I? For the full spoiler-laden experience, take a look at my events schedule and see if I’m heading your way – I’d love to meet you.
I grew up in a house full of books, with parents who made up stories and encouraged my sisters and me to discover the magic of fiction. I was one of those children who would take six books out of the library after school on Friday and have finished them all before the end of the weekend. I loved writing, too, but it never occurred to me it might be possible to make a living from it. It still feels incredible to me that writing books is now my full-time job, and I’m so grateful to the readers who have made that possible.
I write mostly at home, in a house in North Wales which is very beautiful but also very old, and consequently always has something wrong with it. Although I love my office, which is lined with books and has the precise desk/chair combination to stop me seizing up, I hardly ever write my books in it. I use my office for all the admin, marketing and business elements of being an author (of which there are many) and instead write my novels scrunched in a chair in the kitchen, in close proximity to the dogs and the fridge. I am very easily distracted by friends, deliveries and domestic chores, and write most productively on trains and planes, and in hotel bars. I have never missed a deadline, but I am always, always behind schedule as I approach it.
Did you know that...
Towards the end of my French & Management degree, I went to a careers presentation about becoming a management consultant, but it took me ages to find the lecture theatre. By the time I found a seat, the talk was underway. I was confused to see a police officer giving the presentation, and it slowly dawned on me that I was in the wrong room. Too embarrassed to leave, I stayed… and consequently served 12 years in the police service, leaving at the rank of Inspector.
I live in a small town with a big lake, and I love swimming in it, especially in the winter. I wore a wetsuit at first, with extra layers of neoprene in the winter, but I’m much hardier now and just bob in wearing a swimsuit. The buzz is incredible and if I’m stressed or creatively blocked, a quick dip always sorts my head out.
Like a lot of things in my life, I never planned to own a goat. A friend was moving from the country to a small town house, and I inherited her chickens… and Pete the goat. He’s much-loved by the locals who bring him snacks, and let him have their Christmas trees every January.
Before Instagram, and long before the world of influencers we know now, I wrote a parenting blog. I had a substantial following, won several awards, and worked with brands such as Toys”R”Us (it wasn’t my fault they went bankrupt…), Clarks, Butlins, Centerparcs and many more. It was huge fun but a surprising amount of work, so I have enormous respect for the book influencers whose reviews do so much to help my books reach readers.
After learning we’d be unable to conceive naturally, I had IVF and was incredibly lucky to fall pregnant with twin boys. The babies were born three months early and shortly afterwards my first-born son contracted meningitis. He died when he and his brother were five weeks old. Four months after Josh came home from hospital, I fell naturally pregnant – with twins. They were born safely 15 months after their older siblings.
Between school and university I worked in a hotel in the 9th arrondissement in Paris, just below the Sacre Coeur. I went back for another year during my degree, this time working as a bilingual P.A. for a commercial property firm. It’s an incredible city and I still miss it – I’d live there again if I had the chance.