The UK based Mystery Women Group was set up at the end of 1997, and was founded by Michelle Spring and Kate Charles. In January 1998, the group held their first meeting at Waterstones in Cambridge with guest speaker Jill Paton Walsh. Shortly after, owing to major writing commitments, Kate and Michelle stepped down and Lizzie Hayes stepped in to facilitate the day to day running with Mitch Karunaratne. Mitch produced the first newsletter and worked hard to make the group the success it is, but then took a back seat due to his many commitments. At that point Ayo Onatade stepped up and with Lizzie led the group through the following years.

During this time we have focussed on promoting female crime writers at various events, featuring question and answer sessions, specific panels of writers to discuss a variety of subjects, books signings and readings. In addition, our original newsletter grew to a full magazine and we have worked with many publishers, agents and book sellers to promote the genre of crime fiction, giving extra attention to our member writers. These do include men too!

Our members now include such luminaries as Val McDermid, Natasha (NJ) Cooper, Marcia Talley, Marianne McDonald, Leigh Russell, Anne Granger, Priscilla Masters, Christine Poulson, Andrew Taylor, Judith Cutler and many others.

Earlier in 2010, a committee was formed to assist Lizzie with the day to day running of the group and provide additional focus. This gave her the opportunity to take a step back from what she had built and spend some time enjoying the genre she loves. Ayo, after spending a long period of time helping run MW, has also decided to take a back seat.

The committee is now moving forward to provide additional focus on the promotion of our member writers and increasing the membership all over the World. There will be many exciting changes in the coming months and we hope you enjoy the journey.

The Committee