The Dark Room

Sam Blake, a pseudonym used by Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin, is the No 1 bestselling author of the Cat Connolly Garda police trilogy: the runaway bestseller Little Bones, In Deep Water and No Turning Back. She has also written a number of standalone thrillers including: Keep Your Eyes on Me (2020), The Dark Room (2021), Remember My Name (2022), The Mystery of Four (2023) and Three Little Birds (2024). Blake has also written thrillers for young adults, including Something Terrible Happened Last Night (2023) and Something’s About to Blow Up (2024). Across all her books Blake has been a multiple Irish Times No. 1, a multiple Eason No. 1 bestseller, a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, and in the Irish Times top ten for over 40 weeks. Little Bones, The Dark Room and Remember My Name were each shortlisted for Irish Crime Novel of the Year and Something Terrible Happened Last Night was shortlisted for YA and Teen Novel of the Year and the Great Reads Awards. Blake is originally from St. Albans in Hertfordshire but has lived at the foot of the Wicklow Mountains in Ireland for many years. Married to a retired member of An Garda Siochana she has two children, three cats and a fish. Blake runs the world’s only national writing resources website, as well as a publishing consultancy – she is Ireland’s leading literary scout.

Aoife McMahon trained at RADA and has since appeared in leading roles for the RSC, the National Theatre, the Young Vic, the Royal Court and the Abbey in Dublin. She has also appeared in numerous celebrated television roles on both sides of the Atlantic and was awarded the Canadian Gemini award for best actress in a leading role. She has narrated over 200 audiobooks. Her accolades include an AudioFile Earphones Award and a place in the Top Ten audiobooks as listed in The Irish Times, The New York Times and Amazon's top picks.