Simon Kernick is a successful author of crime thriller novels, born in 1966 in Slough, a town located near London. He spent his youth working various jobs, including a barman, stockroom assistant, and fruit-picker, while traveling to different countries such as the U.S., Canada, and Australia. Upon his return to the UK, he enrolled in Brighton Polytechnic, where he earned a degree in Humanities in 1991. Kernick's passion for writing, particularly in the crime/thriller genre, led him to write two crime novels between 1995-96, but they were both rejected by every agent they were sent to. However, Kernick did not give up and eventually had a breakthrough with "The Business of Dying," which allowed him to get a literary agent and sell the novel to Transworld Publishing, his current publisher.
Kernick now lives in Oxfordshire with his wife and two daughters. He had a strong interest in crime fiction writing from a young age and produced many short stories during his time at polytechnic. After graduating, he joined MMT Computing in London in early 1992, where he worked as a key member of the sales team until 1996. Kernick then left the company in search of a publishing deal but was unsuccessful. He later joined the sales force of the specialist IT and Business Consultancy Metaskil plc in Aldermaston, Berkshire in 1998, where he remained until he secured his first book deal ("The Business of Dying") in September 2001. His novel "Relentless" was featured on Richard & Judy's Summer book club in 2007 and became the 8th best-selling paperback and the best-selling thriller in the UK that same year. Kernick has since become a master of the race against time thriller, having written numerous successful novels that are hard to put down.