Mark Ellis

Mark grew up under the shadow of his parents’ experience of the Second World War. His father served in the wartime navy and died a young man. His mother told him stories of watching the heavy bombardment of Swansea from the safe vantage point of a hill in Llanelli, and of attending tea dances in wartime London under the bombs and doodlebugs.

In consequence Mark has always been fascinated by WW2 and in particular the Home Front and the fact that while the nation was engaged in a heroic endeavour, crime flourished. Murder, robbery, theft and rape were rife and the Blitz provided scope for widespread looting.

This was an intriguing, harsh and cruel world. This is the world of DCI Frank Merlin.

DCI Frank Merlin appears in five novels: The Embassy Murders (previously Princes Gate), In The Shadows Of The Blitz (previously Stalin’s Gold, The French Spy (previously Merlin At War), Death In Mayfair, and the recently published Dead In The Water.

Mark Ellis is a member of the Crime Writers Association, and various other author organisations. He is also a Trustee and Treasurer of Gŵyl Crime Cymru Festival, Wales’ first international crime literature festival. The French Spy was nominated for the CWA Historical Dagger in 2018. Dead In The Water was a Times book of the week in May 2022.