Mark Pettinger

Mark Pettinger is a crime fiction writer of the DCI Priest novels set in Manchester, and the more recent DI Calvert series set in Hull.

Fitting his writing around his 'day job', Mark's writing pattern is somewhat sporadic, and he writes when he can, which currently is in hotel rooms / foyer, or in an airport lounge trying to keep one eye on the departure board to ensure he doesn’t miss his flight!

Mark's interest in the murky world of crime started a number of years ago when he was attracted to reading true crime. He became fascinated with the exploits of the Yorkshire Ripper, Dennis Nilsen, John Wayne Gacy, Andrei Chikatilo etc. An avid reader of many genres, but his attention turned to favouring crime fiction; and his reading list includes Ian Rankin, Mark Billingham, Lynda La Plante, Jo Nesbo, and latterly CJ Tudor (for something just that little bit special).

Mark has openly credited Ian Rankin as the primary inspiration for not only stirring his interest in reading crime fiction, but also 'picking up the pen'.

Mark has published five hugely successful crime fiction novels: The Decalogue, Tick Tock Time's Up, Paper Soldiers, Where Darkness Lies and more recently Desperate Silence. Two books in the series entered the Amazon Bestseller Top 100 list, and the Top 10 on the sub-genre of ‘police procedurals’.

2026 should be a busy year as with the completion of the fifth book in the DCI Priest series, and a rewrite/edit/relaunch of books 1 and 2 in the DCI Priest series.....plus some news on the 2nd book in the DI Calvert series.