The Murder Planner

L.C.Tyler is a crime writer and a past chair of the Crime Writers Association.

He grew up in Essex and studied at Southend High School, Jesus College Oxford and City University. During a career with the Civil Service and the British Council he lived in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Sudan, Thailand and Denmark. More recently he has been based in Islington and West Sussex. He is an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, of which he was previously Chief Executive.

His first novel, the Herring Seller's Apprentice, was published in 2007. Subsequent novels in the "Herring Mysteries" series are Ten Little Herrings (2009),The Herring in the Library (2010), Herring on the Nile (2011), Crooked Herring (2014), Cat Among the Herrings (2016), Herring in the Smoke (2017), the Maltese Herring (2019) and Farewell My Herring (to be published 2021). Most of these have also been published or are scheduled for publication in the US. The first four have appeared in translation in France. Herring in the Library won the Goldsboro Last Laugh Award for the best comic crime novel of 2010 and Crooked Herring won the same award for 2014. The Herring Seller's Apprentice and Ten Little Herrings were both nominated for Edgar Allan Poe Awards in the US.

A Cruel Necessity (2014) begins a new crime series, featuring C17th lawyer John Grey. Subsequent books in the series are A Masterpiece of Corruption (2016), The Plague Road (2016), Fire (2017), The Bleak Midwinter (2018) and Death of a Shipbuilder (2020). Fire was shortlisted for a CWA Dagger in 2018.

Outside these series, he has published one humorous (non-crime) novel A Very Persistent Illusion (2009) and contributed a chapter to two of the Detection Club's books: The Sinking Admiral (2016) and Howdunit (2020).

L.C. Tyler also writes occasional short stories, which have been published in the Sunday Express and in various anthologies. "Richard Remembered", included in Flying High (HarperCollins), won an Ian St James Award. "The Trials of Margaret", included in Motives for Murder (Sphere), won the CWA Short Story Dagger.

Website: www.lctyler.com