The Writers of Wales Database

BAUER, BELINDA

Belinda Bauer was born in England and grew up there and in South Africa. She settled in Cardiff and has lived in Wales longer than anywhere else. She worked as a journalist in Cardiff for seven years before winning the Carl Foreman Bafta for her first screenplay, 'The Locker Room'. She went on to write 'Happy Now' starring Ioan Gruffudd and Emmy Rossum (BBC Films 2000) and continued to work as a screenwriter for ten years.

Belinda was a runner-up in the 2001 Rhys Davies Short Story Competition for 'Mysterious Ways'. Her first novel, Blacklands, was published by Transworld in January 2010. It was written with the aid of a 2007-2008 Academi Writer's Bursary. Shortlisted for the Crime Writers’ Association Debut Dagger Award in 2008, it was featured as one of 12 crime novels in Waterstones' Fresh Blood promotion. Blacklands won the CWA Gold Dagger for Crime Novel of the Year 2010. Belinda's second novel, Darkside, was published by Bantam in early 2011. She is currently working on her third novel and is a Member of Academi.

Reviews:
With respect to Blacklands (Transworld, 2010)

“…With this extraordinarily powerful and provocative debut, Belinda Bauer has shifted the boundaries of what makes a truly gripping, terrifying thriller…”
Henry Sutton, The Mirror

“…An unsettling novel, with the sort of devastating emotional content that makes it both difficult to read and difficult to forget…”
Steven Zvirin, Booklist (USA)

“…Blacklands is a world away from the ‘torture porn’ school of crime fiction, and a hundred times more effective in terms of visceral impact…”
Laura Wilson, The Guardian


Selected Publications:
Blacklands (Transworld, 2010)
Darkside (Bantam, 2011)

Contributed to:
Ghosts of the Old Year: Rhys Davies Short Story Winners (Parthian, 2003)

Blacklands (Transworld, 2010)

Twelve-year-old Steven Lamb digs holes on Exmoor, hoping to find a body. Every day after school, while his classmates swap football stickers, Steven goes digging to lay to rest the ghost of the uncle he never knew, who disappeared aged eleven and is assumed to have fallen victim to the notorious serial killer Arnold Avery. Only Steven's Nan is not convinced her son is dead. She still waits for him to come home, standing bitter guard at the front window while her family fragments around her. Steven is determined to heal the widening cracks between them before it's too late. And if that means presenting his grandmother with the bones of her murdered son, he'll do it. So the boy takes the next logical step, carefully crafting a letter to Arnold Avery in prison. And there begins a dangerous cat-and-mouse game between a desperate child and a bored serial killer …

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