Sam Blake, a pseudonym used by Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, is the No 1 bestselling author of the Cat Connolly Garda police trilogy: the runaway bestseller Little Bones, In Deep Water and No Turning Back. She has also written a number of standalone thrillers including: Keep Your Eyes on Me (2020), The Dark Room (2021), Remember My Name (2022), The Mystery of Four (2023) and Three Little Birds (2024). Blake has also written thrillers for young adults, including Something Terrible Happened Last Night (2023) and Something’s About to Blow Up (2024). Across all her books Blake has been a multiple Irish Times No. 1, a multiple Eason No. 1 bestseller, a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, and in the Irish Times top ten for over 40 weeks. Little Bones, The Dark Room and Remember My Name were each shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year and Something Terrible Happened Last Night was shortlisted for YA and Teen Novel of the Year and the Great Reads Awards. Blake is originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire but has lived at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland for many years. Married to a retired member of An Garda Siochana she has two children, three cats and a fish. Blake runs the world’s only national writing resources website, as well as a publishing consultancy – she is Ireland’s leading literary scout.
Jessica Regan is a RADA-trained award-winning actor, author and podcaster. She has worked extensively on television, mainly with the BBC (Ill Behaviour, Call the Midwife, Silent Witness). For her role as Niamh Donohue in BBC’s Doctors, Jessica won Best Actress at the Royal Television Awards and Best Newcomer at the British Soap Awards. On stage she has performed in multiple productions at the National Theatre as well as appearing at the Bristol Old Vic, Regents Park and on London’s West End as Cathleen in Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey into Night which transferred to New York and Los Angeles. She is a prolific audio artist appearing in multiple computer games including Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and Assassins Creed: Valhalla with three more games slated for release in 2023, and has also voiced numerous audiobooks. She co-wrote a book about the history of Hollywood through the lens of the Academy Awards called Best Pick, based on her hit podcast of the same name.