Simon Dinsdale

Biography

Simon Dinsdale was born in Canda then grew up in Reading, Berkshire. He joined the British Army in 1968 and served all over the world for twelve years. He then became a constable with Essex Police and worked in a wide variety of law enforcement roles, achieving the rank of Detective Superintendent.

All his service was on the front line. He was a detective for twenty-seven years, starting by solving local issues such as burglary, robbery and rape. He later served in covert policing with the Regional Crime Squad, then counterterrorism and close protection with Special Branch.
He finished his career as a Senior Investigating Officer (SIO) leading more than a hundred major inquiries in Essex including thirty murders. Simon was one of the SIOs during the investigation into the killings of five women in Ipswich in December 2006 and the first British officer to conduct substantive murder enquiries in Iraq after the war.

Simon retired in 2010 and lives in Essex. He now concentrates on writing and is the author of the Christian Dane thriller series published by Sharpe Books. Dark Shadow came out in 2023. Vengeance Day, 2023; Rough Justice, 2024; Persons of Interest, 2025; and Justice Served, 2025.

Away from the typewriter, Simon is a contributor to true crime television documentaries. He’s also a regular speaker on cruise ships, where he regales the audience with his law enforcement experiences and tries to sell them the odd book or two.

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Books

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Rough Justice (Detective Christian Dane Thrillers Book 3)

Articles

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I could never use an actual case to fill a storyline.

In April 2010, I retired from Essex Police. I enjoyed my twenty-seven years as a detective and had risen to senior rank. During that time, I encountered and investigated the very worst humanity is capable of and saw things no one should see or suffer. All this experience has given me a fund of ...

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Author Interviews

When did you decide you wanted to write?I have known I was going to write since childhood. But life, work and the demands of a growing family always came first. I didn’t stop thinking about it, though. The plot and characters for my first two books had been swirling around in my head, bursting to get out for over thirty years.When did you start?I ...