Tony Broadbent

Tony Broadbent has written for newspapers, magazines, radio, television, and film. He lives and works in the Bay Area. Tony was born in Windsor, England. Grew up in Burnham, Buckinghamshire. He attended Slough Grammar, Burnham Grammar (Tracey Ullman and Jimmy Carr later went to the same school...so the place was obviously a lot of laughs), and graduated from the LCP in London—one of the world's top design colleges. He then worked as a copywriter and creative director at international advertising agencies in London, New York, and San Francisco.

His debut novel 'The Smoke'—about a Cockney cat burglar in austerity-ridden, black-market-riddled, post-war London who gets blackmailed into working for MI5—won widespread critical acclaim. Booklist later named 'Spectres In The Smoke'—"One of the best Spy Novels of 2006". He is a Bruce Alexander Memorial Historical Mystery Award Winner, a Macavity/Sue Feder Historical Award Nominee, a San Francisco Library Laureate, and a Member of the Faculty of the acclaimed Mystery Writers Conference, held annually at Book Passage, Corte Madera, CA. Tony has also written short stories—one, a contemporary take on Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson—the other, a seemingly never-ending moment in time for a NYPD bomb disposal squad officer—appear in the anthologies: 'A Study In Sherlock' and 'Mystery Writers of America: The Mystery Box'. His latest mystery novel—'The One After 9:09–A Mystery With A Backbeat'—delves behind the scenes of the early days of The Beatles.