As you may have already guessed, Milly Reynolds is not my real name. Like my ‘hero’ Detective Inspector Mike Malone, I also hide my real identity.

I live in Lincolnshire and love the flat, endless landscapes and I want these to be seen in my books. Mike Malone has moved from the city to Lincolnshire – unlike me, I was born here and haven’t moved.

I have recently ‘retired’ from my job, I was a teacher in a secondary school, to pursie my dream of becoming a writer – and to devote more time to my volunteer work. I help at my local RSPB centre and also take groups of children out on the marshes to try to instil in them a love for birds and nature.

So why Mike Malone? I love all things detective and wanted to create my own series. However, I have decided not to go for the deep, dark thriller – how can I compete with the masters of that genre? I adore the books by Jo Nesbo – a real genius. Therefore I came to the decision that Mike Malone would be off-beat. I like to think that there is humour in my books. I don’t want to scare people, I want to make them chuckle – there is not enough laughter in the world at the moment. I have five Mike Malone novels published at the moment and have started number 6.

However, although Mike was my first creation, he is not the only one. I have also recently created Jack Sallt, another DI. Jack is grittier than Mike and there is not the humour in his stories that there is in the Mike Malone stories. I wanted to write a more ‘grown-up’ detective story. The first Jack Sallt was released in Autumn 2011 and his second outing has just been published (Aug 2012)

Not content with crime, I also decided to try my hand at a romantic novel and my first stand-alone novel ‘The Unseen Sky’ was published August 2011.

I’m lucky, I enjoy writing and find it just as relaxing to sit and create as it is to read. I hope you like my books.