Val McDermid is a number one bestseller whose novels have been translated into more than forty languages, and have sold over nineteen million copies. She has won many awards, including the CWA Gold Dagger the LA Times Book of the Year Award and the Cartier Diamond Dagger Award for outstanding achievement. She writes full-time and divides her time between Edinburgh and East Neuk of Fife.

Jo Sharp is a Scottish geographer. She researches and writes on geopolitics and feminist geography. In April 2022 she became Geographer Royal for Scotland, the first woman to hold the title.