Ann Cleeves Press. Ann Cleeves Ann Cleeves (born 1954) is an English crime-writer. In 2006 she won the inaugural Duncan Lawrie Dagger, the richest crime-writing prize in the world, for her novel "Raven Black". Cleeves studied English at Sussex University but dropped out. She then took up various jobs including cook, auxiliary coastguard, probation officer, library outreach worker and child care officer. She lives in Whitley Bay, and is widowed with two daughters. The Vera Stanhope novels have been dramatized as the TV detective series "Vera" and the Jimmy Perez novels as the series "Shetland". In 2014 Cleeves was awarded an Honorary
Margaret Murphy (writer) Margaret Murphy (writer) Margaret Murphy (born 14 April 1959) is a British crime writer. Murphy was born and brought up in Liverpool, Lancashire where she gained a degree in Environmental Biology at the University of Liverpool and later an MA with Distinction in Writing at Liverpool JMU, a course on which she now lectures. She has been a countryside ranger, science teacher, dyslexia specialist and psychology student. After a string of successful stand-alone novels, Murphy began her first series with "The Dispossessed" which was followed by "Now You See Me", featuring fictional Merseyside detectives Jeff Rickman, Lee Foster and Naomi