Hartlepool crime author FE Birch to appear alongside Val McDermid at Bloody Scotland Crime Festival

Former police detective sergeant Sharon Birch, who writes under the pen name of FE Birch, will appear at next months’ Bloody Scotland Crime Festival, in Stirling, alongside Val McDermid.

Sharon, 57, from Hartlepool, will be spotlight author for McDermid and another esteemed crime writer, Abir Mukherjee, on Friday, September 15.

This entails reading an extract from her She’s Not There novel before the three authors later sign copies of their respective works for spectators.

A delighted Sharon said: "This is a huge achievement and marvellous opportunity. It’s the equivalent of being in the ring with Savannah Marshall - only no boxing.

"This is one of the headline acts of the festival and a great international showcase.”

It also marks something of a full circle for Sharon’s writing career as she won the pitch perfect competition at the first Bloody Scotland festival in 2012 with her pitch for She’s Not There.

She said: "It’s wonderful to be back after 11 years with the completed novel. If nothing else, it proves that keeping on keeping on pays off.”

She’s Not There is set in Scotland, where Sharon used to live, and is described as “not for the faint of heart”.

The plot begins when the skeletal remains of a woman who had allegedly been cremated two years earlier are found buried under a tree.

The small town of Glendargie is then uprooted as Detective Sergeant Kat Dubois starts to unravel secrets and the intricate lives of the community.

Grandmother-of-five Sharon, 57, worked as a child protection officer in London and Hartlepool before leaving the police to found Footprints Learning for Life Nursery, in Tees Street, Hartlepool, in 2006.

At the end of last year she made the “difficult decision” to hand over the nursery to the manager and she now works part time as a safeguarding consultant.

Sharon’s writing has also recently been published in a short story charity anthology along with a more local Queen of Crime, Ann Cleeves, of Vera and Shetland fame, and Jack Reacher author Lee Child.