Guest Judge for December 2015 Competition - Susan Moody

The Pen Factor judging team is delighted to welcome crime novelist Susan Moody as its 2015 December Competition guest judge. Susan was born and brought up in Oxford and has been a professional writer for nearly 30 years. She has published 34 crime and suspense novels, including the Penny Wanawake series and the Cassandra Swann series. She has also written many stand-alone novels, among them Losing Nicola andA Final Reckoning. The Colour of Hope was an international best-seller and sold in 20 different countries. Her novelization of the Gold Blend coffee ads, Love Over Gold, reached the Sunday Times best-seller lists.

She is a former Chairman of the Crime Writer's Association, served as World President of the International Association of Crime Writers, and was elected to the prestigious Detection Club. Susan Moody spent two years as Creative Writing Tutor at Bedford Prison and is a past Writer-in-Residence at the Universities of Tasmania and Copenhagen. Susan is married to the Australian mathematician, Professor John Donaldson, and divides her time between England and France.

Her latest novel, Quick and the Dead, the first in a brand-new mystery series is out on the 29th January 2016.

Quick and the Dead, a contemporary British mystery by Susan Moody