Fiona Barton

Fiona Barton was born in 1957 in Cambridge, England, and spent decades as a British tabloid journalist before turning to fiction -- senior writer at the Daily Mail, news editor at the Daily Telegraph, and chief reporter at the Mail on Sunday, where she won Reporter of the Year at the National Press Awards. In 2008 she left daily journalism to volunteer in Sri Lanka with her husband, training local and exiled journalists, and has continued that work with threatened journalists worldwide ever since. She began writing fiction during her time in Sri Lanka, publishing her debut novel, The Widow, in 2016 at the age of 59. Built around Kate Waters, a veteran reporter drawn directly from Barton's own newsroom career, the book became a New York Times bestseller and sold in 36 countries, launching a trilogy completed by The Child (2017) and The Suspect (2019). In 2022 she started a second series following police detective Elise King, beginning with Local Gone Missing and continuing with Talking to Strangers (2024). She lives on the south coast of England, in West Sussex.