M. W. Craven

M.W. Craven is a British crime fiction author known for the Washington Poe and Tilly Bradshaw series. He won the CWA Gold Dagger for The Puppet Show (2019), the first entry in the Poe series. The novel features a detective who returns from suspension to investigate a series of ritualistic murders in the English Lake District. Craven served as a probation officer in Cumbria for many years before turning to writing. His fiction draws heavily on his professional knowledge of the criminal justice system. The Washington Poe series is celebrated for its atmospheric Lake District setting, complex plotting, and the warm dynamic between the curmudgeonly Poe and his brilliant analytical colleague Tilly Bradshaw. He has continued the series with Black Summer, The Curator, and subsequent novels, all of which have been well received critically and commercially. Craven lives in Cumbria.