Welcome to the official website of Joan Lock

A former nurse and policewoman, Joan Lock is the author of eleven non-fiction police/crime books, including two on Scotland Yard’s first detectives and the history of the British women police – a subject on which she is an authority. Joan has also written radio plays and documentries.

More recently she has turned to crime fiction, and to date has written one modern crime novel and a Victorian series featuring the charismatic Detective Inspector Ernest Best..

For ten years Joan contributed Locklines, a regular page on police matters, to Red Herrings, the journal of the Crime Writers Association for which she received a Red Herring (1999) for services to the Association and the Leo Harris Award (2004) for the best contribution to the journal. She was the Chair of the CWA Non-Fiction Gold Dagger Award panel and is currently a CWA Committee member.

Dead Centre the seventh Inspector Best mystery

Hale, 2008
Large Print, Ulverscroft, 2009.

It is 1887, the year of Queen Victoria’s Golden Jubilee, and London is in turmoil, particularly at the dead centre, Trafalgar Square. Here, the angry unemployed gather daily to protest and nightly to sleep. The police are worn out by endless duty and bitter about the accusations of brutality from the protesters and blame from others for not doing more to prevent the disorder.

Adding fuel to the fire, a prominent member of one of the new socialist organisations leading the protests is found dead at the foot of Nelson’s column and Detective Inspector Earnest Best catches a fleeting glimpse of Stark a man he knows was guilty of a dreadful crime in Whitechapel. Tension builds. Something terrible is about to happen.

Dead Centre large print book

"a marvellous entry in this excellent series", Mystery Women

"a well-plotted and exciting story...heartily recommended."
Police History Society Newsletter

"The author obviously knows Victorian London well and I learned a lot as I read." Historical Novel Review