Mike Grist is the author of the bestselling Christopher Wren and Girl Zero thriller series.

Mike was born in the UK to a British father and American mother, and spent his childhood winging between the family farm in Kentucky and a terraced house in Manchester. At 18 he finished his last year of high school in Indiana, hitchhiked the US coast-to-coast then worked at a summer camp in Massachusetts.

Fascinated by the extremes of human behavior, Mike got his undergraduate degree in Psychology then followed up with a Masters in motivation theory. After backpacking through India, he taught English in Tokyo, Japan for 11 years, also exploring and photographing the dark side of the country's gangs, cults and abandoned places.

Mike is a tournament-winning karate black belt, with training in jiu-jitsu, capoeria and handling arms. In his free time he enjoys working out, playing Ultimate Frisbee and spending time with his wife and son.