C. F. Peterson grew up on a croft in the West Highlands of Scotland and on a housing scheme in East Lothian. In his twenties he studied at Edinburgh University and Gray’s School of Art, Aberdeen, then worked in performane art, children’s television and theatre production with young offenders and the homeless. After moving to South Africa he produced theatre with children living on the streets of Johannesburg and taught science in a secondary school. He returned to Scotland to pursue a career in research Chemistry at Edinburgh, but gave up his PhD to move to the Highlands with his young family and run a sawmill and build houses. His first novel, Errant Blood, a thriller set in and around the Highland village of Duncul, led to critical comparisons with both John Buchan and Ian Banks and was longlisted for the People’s Book Prize 2019.