Dr Melanie Metzenthin was born in Hamburg in 1969 and still lives in the city. Her work as a psychiatrist and psychotherapist requires specialist insight into the mental state of traumatised patients, some of whom have committed criminal offences. When developing the characters in her novels, she enjoys drawing on her professional experience. She also writes psychothrillers under her pseudonym, Antonia Fennek.

Deborah Langton was born in Reading, England, studied German and French literature at Cambridge, and has worked in Munich, Berlin, Milan, Abu Dhabi, London and Manchester. After a rewarding first career teaching and lecturing, she moved into translation while still working at Munich’s Ludwig Maximilian University and loves translating fiction best of all. Deborah now lives in a rural location not far from London and translates in her study with views towards England’s South Downs. She shares her life with her husband Chris, and their two wonderful sons, Joseph and Samuel.