M is for...

M C Beaton - Marion Chesney has written over 100 historical fiction novels under her own name and the pseudonyms Helen Crampton, Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, and Charlotte Ward. She also writes two cosy crime fiction series under the name M C Beaton. There are currently 20 books in the Agatha Raisin series - featuring a rather outspoken ex-PR executive who has retired to a quiet Cotswolds village. In her other series the rather lazy PC Hamish Macbeth has had 24 outings in the Highland town of Lochdubh.
"The Miss Marple-like Raisin is a refreshing, sensible, wonderfully eccentric, thoroughly likeable heroine." - Booklist

Manda Scott - a qualified vet who turned to writing in order to get some sleep. She has written four contemporary crime thrillers - three of which feature Glasgow therapist Kellen Stewart - plus four novels in the Boudica series. Her latest book THE CRYSTAL SKULL is a thriller set in modern day and Elizabethan times, and explores a Mayan prophecy about the world ending on 21 December 2012. She is currently working on a spy thriller set in Rome in AD64. Hopefully, it will be published before 21 December 2012 :o)
"Scott writes with a forensic precision and attention to detail that never gets in the way of the story's momentum and, as deaths accumulate, this becomes, like the best crime novels, a brilliant puzzle you itch to solve before anyone else. The trouble is, you get so close to the central characters, it's not easy to divorce yourself from the action. " - Mail on Sunday

Margaret Thomson Davis - Margaret Thomson Davis has written over forty books - mostly family sagas described by one newspaper as the "Glaswegian Coronation Street", historicals, and what appear from the descriptions to be romantic suspense. However, one of her novels - A DEADLY DECEPTION is a crime thriller set in a Glasgow high rise about an arthritic elderly woman who takes up phone sex to make some extra money. Apologies - I can't find a review anywhere, but it does sound intriguing.

Marten Claridge - Marten Claridge has had two novels published featuring Detective Inspector Frank McMorran - NOBODY'S FOOL and SLOW BURN, and one - MIDNIGHT CHILL - about a hired killer, set in Edinburgh. Unfortunately, these three books are rather difficult to get hold of, which is a shame as I rather fancy the two McMorran books. Claridge also has a website for an (as yet) unpublished novel called BAD BULLET DAY, set in the Scottish Borders and featuring Lennox, an ex-SAS guy with a bullet in his head. Oh, and he's a monk.
"Transport the Chandler genre from sunny LA to the grey backstreets of Edinburgh and you have a gritty gangland story with the knockdown power of a sawn-off shotgun..." Peterborough Evening Telegraph (on Midnight Chill)

Mulgray Twins - Helen and Morna Mulgray are, according to their website, 'the first twins in the world to write a novel together in English'. The books feature DJ Smith from Edinburgh, undercover agent for HM Revenue & Customs and her 'sniffer' cat Gorgonzola.
"If you love cosy crime, then this book is for you."Mystery Women magazine; "The first novel published in English by identical twins. Each of its 86, 000 words was a joint endeavour." Irish Independent.