I was born in West Germany in 1977 and grew up in Germany, Belgium and America. I studied history at Lincoln College, Oxford, worked for a while in the glamorous world of pensions services, and now write full time. I live in York with my wife and our sons Owen and Matthew. At last count, my novels have been sold into twenty-one languages, from Brazil to China.

Under the name Edwin Thomas I've also written a series of historical adventures set in the Napoleonic wars. The first of these, The Blighted Cliffs, was runner-up for the CWA Debut Dagger award in 2001.

I organised the Debut Dagger in 2005-2006, and in 2010-11 I was Chair of the Crime Writers' Association. I'm a member of the Crime Writers' Association, the Historical Novels Society, the Society of Authors, the International Thriller Writers and the Historical Writers' Association.

If you'd like to contact me, I'd love to hear from you. You can e-mail me at tom_AT_tom-harper.co.uk (replace the _AT_ with @ in your e-mail program). E-mails with subjects that make reference to me or my books are more likely to be read than those that reference Cialis or Viagra. You can also tweet me @tomharperauthor.