Laurence O'Bryan

My roots go back to a small estate deep in the Mountains of Mourne, near the Silent Valley, in County Down, Northern Ireland.

I went to school in Dublin, drank way too much, studied English and history, then business, then IT at Oxford University. While a student, I worked as a kitchen porter in a club near the Bank of England.

A few years later I was announced into the main bar at the House of Commons. I was in the company of a famous Chelsea supporter. After that I spent ten years working in the City of London, the creaking hub of world finance.

Now I have three kids and a day job in IT marketing. I was first published by a school newspaper when I was ten, for a short story about aliens getting lost. The Istanbul Puzzle is my first novel to be published.

In 2007 I won the Outstanding Novel Submitted award at the Southern California writer's conference. I flew back to Ireland on cloud 9999. It wasn't about the money. There wasn't any. It was about knowing I was on the right track. I missed the award ceremony and only found out after it was all over that the agents and editors attending had picked me.

My research has taken me all over the world, from San Francisco to deep in the Muslim world. I like looking at the stars and listening to the stories of strangers. I hope you enjoy my novels. The second in the series, The Jerusalem Puzzle, is planned for January 2013. It will feature the same characters as The Istanbul Puzzle.