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James Harland’s real name is Matthew Lynn. He was born in Devon, and lived for a few years in Dublin, but has spent most of his life in London. He read Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Balliol College, Oxford University. As a journalist, he writes business and financial articles for The Sunday Times and Bloomberg News. He currently lives in London with his wife Angharad, also a journalist, and daughter Isabella.
This bio was last updated on 02/05/2015. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
Are you coming to mystery writing from another job?
My background is as a financial journalist. I worked at The Sunday Times as a
business reporter for seven years, and I now write a European business column
twice a week for Bloomberg News, which is syndicated in quite a few papers as
well as on the Bloomberg.com website. I split my time about half and half
between journalism, and writing fiction. I find that is a good division.
Journalism is great background for finding out about how lots of different
industries work, and what different jobs involve. Journalists are good at
finding out information quickly and efficiently, and they are also good at
sorting out the interesting information from the dull. The only downside is that
while journalism teaches you a lot about writing, it's the wrong sort of
writing. You have to break a lot of habits when you start writing fiction.
What led you to write mysteries?
I'm a big fan of mystery and thriller writers, so that is what led me into
writing in that genre. My favourite authors for a long time have been people
such as Conan Doyle, John Buchan, Graham Greene, John le Carre and Frederick
Forsyth. But the genre also chooses you. I read all types of different...
Harlan Coben was born and raised in New Jersey. After graduating from Amherst College as political science major, he worked in the travel industry. He now lives in New Jersey with his wife, Anne Armstrong-Coben MD, a... (more)
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The Month of The Leopard
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Born on February 8, 1955 in Jonesboro, Arkansas, to a construction worker and a homemaker, John Grisham as a child dreamed of being a professional baseball player. Realizing he didn't have the right stuff for a pro career, ... (more)
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The Month of The Leopard
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by John Grisham
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