Sunday Times Best Seller, million copy and twice long-listed for the McIllvanney Scottish Crime Book of the Year and an author whose books have been translated across the globe, Helen Fields consistently produces high impact, compelling novels that readers love.

A former criminal and family law barrister, Helen has the expertise and experience to make the characters and plots scorch with authenticity.

With a background as both a prosecutor and defence counsel, Helen Fields has a depth of knowledge about crime that lends a fierceness to her writing. From Courts Martials to care proceedings, the Coroner Courts to the Crown Court, Fields draws on her professional years for the extraordinary colour and texture that makes her writing jump off the page.

The 'Perfect' series, set in Edinburgh, introduced the world to DI Luc Callanach. This year saw the release of Degrees of Guilt, her first psychological thriller in the name HS Chandler, a book as shockingly realistic as it is darkly entertaining.

​Helens' latest character creation is Dr Connie Woolwine, an American forensic psychologist and profiler, based on a real FBI Agent who consulted on the first book. You can find Connie in The Shadow Man, One For Sorrow and The Institution.

And look out for her latest propulsive thriller Profile K.

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57 year-old author Helen Fitzgerald has written more than a dozen best selling novels. She has worked as a criminal justice social worker for over ten years. Helen grew up in Victoria, Australia and now lives in Glasgow with her screenwriter husband and family.

We discuss her own books including Dead Lovely, The Cry and its BAFTA winning screen adaptation plus the inspiration for her latest novel Halfway House.

Reece Donnelly is the brilliant, 27 year-old founder of Theatre School of Scotland. He was also a competitor on The Apprentice.

Reading is a big part of the work he does with children and it fuels his professional ambitions. He shares insights into The Apprentice and what he's learned about himself as a result of that experience.

We discuss great stories and the titles he loves which include:

• The Secret by Rhonda Byrne
• Unlimited Power by Anthony Robbins
• The Third Door by Alex Banayan
• Laura Whitmore's No One Can Change Your Life Except For You
• Becoming Mollie Mae
• Lord Sugar's What You See is What You Get

Sarah Frame is a grandmother and the award winning founder of The Book Nook, a community bookshop in Stewarton, Ayrshire in Scotland.

The Book Nook scooped Scotland's independent bookshop of the year in 2024.

We discuss books and authors she loves including John Boyne's Water, Earth, Fire and Air ( to be released ), Douglas Skelton, John Niven, Caro Ramsay, Denzyl Meyrick, Donna Ashworth, Len Penny, The Force by Paul Hardisty, Valerie Perrin's Fresh Water for Flowers and more.

Dr Lesley McDowell is a novelist and writer of non-fiction, she was a lecturer in English Literature at St Andrews University, then became a full-time freelance literary critic, writing for publications like The Herald, The Scotsman, The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement and others.

Her first novel, The Picnic, was published in 2007, and her second –Unfashioned Creatures - about Mary Shelley’s Scottish childhood friend, was published in 2013. We discuss the books she loves and her latest novel, Clairmont.

Seb McKay is probably Oscar Wilde's biggest fan, he loves reading and words are his life. Seb is a self confessed nerd; he loves Japanese culture, shares the bookshops he loves and how a year of reading dangerously changed the way he reads.

We discuss the books and authors which have great meaning for him:

• Blurb Your Enthusiasm by Louise Wilder
• Claire Keegan's So Late in the Day
• White Teeth by Zadie Smith
• Girl, Woman, Other by Bernardine Evaristo
• The Travelling Cat Chronicles Hiro Arikawa
• Other People's Beds by Anna Punsoda
• Paradise Rot by Jenny Hval
• Earthlings by Sayaka Murata
• Convenience Store Woman by Sayaka Murata
• Priestdaddy by Patricia Lockwood
• The Portrait of Dorian Gray
• Weird Fucks by Lynne Tillman

Donna Ashworth is a Sunday Times bestselling author, poet and lover of words who found fame with her work in her 40s. She originally self-published her work.

Celebrity fans include Fearne Cotton, Tess Daly, Elizabeth Day, Mark Owen, Davina McCall, Susannah Constantine and many more.

Donna's current book Wild Hope is a #1 bestseller since its release in 2023. We discuss her journey and finding hope and comfort during life's most challenging times.

We discuss Louise Hay, Bryony Gordon and The Goddess Path by Kirsty Gallacher.

Mike Kernan is an avid reader and has written a few books himself. We discuss his journey to becoming a self-published author of The Fenian and Stopping to Rain, plus the books he loves including the works of John Boyne, and William McIlvanney and we discover who the best editor in his life is.