Stephen Bentley is a crime fiction author from the UK, who is best known for his "Steve Regan" and "Detective Matt Deal" series of novels. Bentley was born in Accrington, Lancashire, but grew up in Huyton, Liverpool. He attended Merseyside's Prescot Grammar School and worked as a law enforcement officer for several years, even serving as an undercover detective in Hampshire and Lancashire. After retiring as a Detective Sergeant, Bentley decided to go back to school and studied to become a barrister at the Inns Court School of Law in London. He then practiced criminal law, defending clients charged with various crimes, including murder, burglary, drug dealing, and illegal possession of firearms.
In the 1980s and early 90s, Bentley worked several jobs, including a Thames Water plant machinery operator, sales manager, hospital porter, London motorcycle courier, and big truck driver. Bentley is now a writer and author, contributing to several anthologies on murder mysteries. He wrote his first work, "Undercover: Operation Julie" in 2017, which paved the way for his fiction novels, the first of which was "Who The F*ck Am I?" the first of the "Steve Regan" series of novels. Bentley is also a "Huffington Post" blogger and writes cozy mysteries under the name KJ Cornwall. He is also one half of the crime writing team using the pen name David Le Courageux. Bentley is a member of the UK's Society of Authors and the Crime Writers' Association. His website may be found at stephenbentley.info.