Alexandra (AK) Benedict is an award-winning writer of internationally bestselling novels, short stories and scripts.
Born and raised in Dorset, Alexandra studied at Cambridge, Sussex and Clown School. Alexandra has been an indie-rock singer and songwriter; a composer for film and TV; an actor; RLF Fellow for the University of Kent; a creative writing lecturer at City, University of London; Programme Director of City’s prestigious MA in Crime Fiction and Thriller; and is now a full time writer, mentor and creative coach.
Her debut high-concept thriller, The Beauty of Murder, was published in 2013 and was nominated for the eDunnit Award. Her latest stand-alone thriller, Little Red Death, has to-date sold into sixteen territories and was shortlisted for the Fingerprint Award for Genre-busting Book of the Year.
The Christmas Murder Game, the first of her Golden Age-inspired Christmas mysteries edged with contemporary darkness, was long-listed for the Gold Dagger Award; Murder on the Christmas Express was a USA Today Bestseller; and The Christmas Cracker Killer was short-listed for the CWA WhoDunnit Dagger. She has also written Christmas mysteries for children aged 8-12 –The Merry Christmas Murders and the forthcoming The Jingle Bell Murders.
Shortlisted for the BBC Audio Drama Award and other prizes, she won the Scribe Award for her Doctor Who audio drama, The Calendar Man. Her critically acclaimed short stories and poetry feature in many anthologies including Best British Short Stories, Best British Horror, New Fears, Phantoms, Uncertainties 6, Reports from the Deep End, and Bound in Blood.
Alexandra lives in Eastbourne with her husband, writer Guy Adams; their daughter, Verity; and their dog, Dame Margaret Rutherford.
