Victoria Dowd is the award-winning author of the bestselling Smart Woman’s Mystery series. In 2021, her debut novel in the series, THE SMART WOMAN’S GUIDE TO MURDER, won The People’s Book Prize and was In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel’s book of the year. Since then, Victoria has gone from strength to strength; in 2023 she was shortlisted for the CWA Dagger. She has spoken at many literary festivals, including The International Agatha Christie Festival, Harrogate, Crimefest, the Malice Domestic (the Agathas) in Washington DC and the Jaipur Literary Festival with Vaseem Khan. Originally from Yorkshire, she was a criminal defence barrister for many years and is now a board member of the Crime Writers’ Association and head of the London Chapter.