C.J. Skuse
C.J. Skuse is the bestselling author of the Sweetpea series (2017–2024), along with six other novels spanning both young adult and adult crime fiction. She holds First-Class degrees in Creative Writing and Writing for Young People from Bath Spa University (2004–2008), and earned a PhD by Publication from the University of Gloucestershire in 2025.
Her work has received multiple accolades, including the Dumfries and Burgh Book Award and the Jean Monnet University Student Literary Prize in France. She has also been shortlisted for the Lancashire Book of the Year, the BookTrust Best Book Award, and longlisted for the Branford Boase Award.
Skuse was credited by The Guardian with pioneering the ‘YA antiheroine’ trend following the publication of her debut novel Pretty Bad Things. Her adult debut Sweetpea was a flagship title in the rise of ‘Sassy Noir’ – a crime fiction subgenre defined by confident, darkly complex female protagonists, often serial killers, and infused with biting social satire.
Sweetpea was optioned for television by See-Saw Films in 2017 and premiered on Sky Atlantic on October 10, 2024. A second series is currently in production.
Over the years, Skuse has worked as a waitress, nursery nurse, editorial assistant, and spent a decade as a Senior Lecturer in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University. She now writes full-time and lives in Southwest England with her little dog, Billie.