Chris Simms has worked in airports, nightclubs, post offices and telesales centres. Along with nominations for Crime Writers’ Association Daggers and the Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year award, Chris was selected by Waterstones as one of their ’25 authors for the future’. The idea for his debut novel, <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL7916209W" target="_blank">***Outside the White Lines***</a>, came to him in the early hours of the morning while broken down on the hard shoulder of the M40. His series of DI Spicer novels – psychological thrillers set very firmly in Manchester – follow the police detective’s fortunes as he pursues mad, bad and deadly individuals through the city’s ever-changing landscape. More recently, he has launched a new series featuring DC Sean Blake – an inexperienced young detective fighting to establish himself in the close-knit Serious Crimes Unit of Manchester’s police. Chris says he is drawn to books that give insights into unusual minds. The twisted desires of Frederick in John Fowles’, <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL15008W" target="_blank">***The Collector***</a>; the tormented thoughts of Scobie in Graham Greene’s <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL106077W" target="_blank">***The Heart of the Matter***</a>; the violent urges of Francie in Patrick McCabe’s <a href="https://openlibrary.org/works/OL78693W" target="_blank">***The Butcher Boy***</a> are all books Chris states had an influence in shaping him as a writer. (<a href="https://thecwa.co.uk/find-an-author/simms-chris/" target="_blank">Source</a>)