Murphy was born and brought up in Liverpool, Lancashire where she gained a degree in Environmental Biology at the University of Liverpool and later an MA with Distinction in Writing at Liverpool JMU, a course on which she lectured for several years. She has been a countryside ranger, science teacher, dyslexia specialist and psychology student. After a string of successful stand-alone novels and a duology featuring Chester-based lawyer, Clara Pascal. The Clara Pascal books, Darkness Falls and Weaving Shadows received starred reviews from both Publishers’ Weekly and Booklist in the USA. Writing in Crime Fiction, A Reader's Guide, Barry Forshaw said, 'Margaret Murphy writes with textual immediacy, creating complex plots peopled by sensitively drawn, flawed and believable characters.' Murphy began her first series with The Dispossessed which was followed by Now You See Me, featuring detectives Jeff Rickman, Lee Foster and Naomi Hart. The third in the series will be published in 2020. Her novels have garnered critical acclaim on both sides of the Atlantic with The New York Times describing her prose as "skin-chilling". Short-listed for the First Blood Award and the Crime Writers' Association's "Dagger in the Library", Murphy is the founder of "Murder Squad" – a touring group of crime writers – which celebrated its 20th year in 2020. A former chair of the Crime Writers' Association and Chair of the CWA Debut Dagger, and in recognition of her service to the association, Margaret was awarded a "Red Herring". In June 2013 she published Everyone Lies under the pseudonym of AD Garrett, which received a Publishers Weekly starred review, as did the sequel, Believe No One.Truth Will Out completed the trilogy. Murphy appeared on the BBC Breakfast programme to talk aboutEveryone Lies and her collaboration with Professor Dave Barclay, a forensicscientist, who advised on the science and forensic aspects of the first two novels. In 2017, Murphy accomplished a long-held ambition to write a serial killer novel. Splinter In The Blood, published under the pen name Ashley Dyer, went to four rounds of fierce bidding in Germany, and was a lead title for Blanvalet in the autumn of 2018—and yet again, it garnered a starred review from Publishers Weekly in the US, where it was published by William Morrow. The sequel, The Cutting Room, was released in the USA in June 2019. Murphy has been a contributor to both BBC Radio Merseyside's Drive Time and Radio 4's The Message.
