Mark Dawson

Mark Dawson is a British thriller author born in Lowestoft, Suffolk, who studied law at the University of Manchester and practiced as a lawyer before turning to full-time writing. He self-published his first John Milton thriller, The Cleaner, in 2013, and became one of the most commercially successful independent authors of the ebook era -- reportedly earning a substantial income directly through Amazon well before signing traditional deals for some titles. He has also built a business teaching other authors his self-publishing and marketing methods through his Self Publishing Show podcast and courses.

Dawson's main body of work centers on a shared spy-thriller universe built around Group Fifteen, a deniable British intelligence kill squad: the John Milton series (an assassin seeking redemption, 27+ novels since 2013), Beatrix Rose (Milton's predecessor as Group Fifteen's top operative, from 2014), and Isabella Rose (Beatrix's daughter, recruited into the same world, from 2015). Separately, he writes the Atticus Priest series (from 2020), a more conventional English detective mystery following a disgraced ex-policeman turned Salisbury private investigator, plus its own Casebook of Atticus Priest spin-off, the Charlie Cooper thrillers, the Group Fifteen Files, an early Soho Noir trilogy, and a children's After School Detective Club series. He lives in the Salisbury, Wiltshire area.