Simon Lelic Books in Order

Simon Lelic was born in Brighton, England, in 1976. He spent roughly a decade living in London before returning to Brighton, the city he knows as home. He lives there with his wife and their three children.

His early education was in history at the University of Exeter, where he also completed graduate study in European studies. A postgraduate journalism course followed. He worked freelance and in business-to-business publishing, then spent years as a London journalist, often covering information technology.

Before novels became his main public work, he learned to make a living by writing clearly and to deadline.

Lelic's first novel, Rupture, arrived in 2010, published in the United States as A Thousand Cuts. It begins after a teacher opens fire at a school assembly, but the plot follows detective Lucia May as she asks why nobody stopped the pressures building around him. The book won the 2011 Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for the CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger.

He kept returning to crime stories with a moral knot at their center. The Facility pits a prison professional and a journalist against a secret state detention scheme. In The Child Who, a provincial solicitor defends a twelve-year-old accused of murder while anger spills into his family life.

Later thrillers turn domestic places and close relationships into sources of danger. The House, also published in the United States as The New Neighbors, follows a couple whose bargain London home comes with terrible baggage. The Liar's Room puts a counsellor face to face with a client who knows the identity she has tried to leave behind.

With The Search Party and The Hiding Place, Lelic brought back DI Robin Fleet to investigate crimes rooted in teenage friendships, old games, family pressures, and community suspicion. These are tense plots, but their real question is usually more personal: what will people hide to protect themselves or someone they love?

He also writes for younger readers, proving that a secret organization beneath a city can carry plenty of danger without losing its sense of fun.

The three-book The Haven series begins with Ollie Turner finding a hidden group run by children for children. The books send Ollie and his friends into a citywide fight, a boarding-school investigation, and a high-risk rescue. The first book won the 2020 Juniper Book of the Year Award, and the series has also earned CrimeFest shortlist nominations.

Alongside writing, Lelic has run an import-export business. He has also mentioned a long-standing interest in reading, plus karate training, and holds a black belt. His fiction moves from schools and suburbs to locked institutions and underground hideouts, always looking at the pressure points inside ordinary lives.