Pat Noad was born and educated in Brisbane , and has spent a good deal of her life there - but always with an escape hatch to the beach, where most of the writing happens. She has a lifelong passion for reading, and one way or another she has always been writing. Her work in management in three Australian universities involved churning out billions of words (mostly non-fiction). The production line has rolled on unabated since she started her own business in 1991, albeit with a different focus - her consultancy work has swept her into diverse realms of Queensland' s communities, geography and politics. Pat has played a leading role in CrimeWriters Queensland , which since 1997 has written and published six anthologies of crime fiction, two of the books made it on to the Brisbane best-seller list.

When journalist Annie Bryce teams up with photographer Steve, their talent for rattling skeletons in cupboards invariably gets them into hot water. And sometimes it’s boiling!