Mike Nicol is an author, creative writing teacher, journalist and editor.

Mike Nicol is an author, creative writing teacher, journalist and editor. In recent years he has become known as a crime novelist with the publication of his Revenge Trilogy: PAYBACK, KILLER COUNTRY and BLACK HEART and the follow-up POWER PLAY. His second series featuring PI Fish Pescado and lawyer-cum-spy Vicki Kahn comprised OF COPS AND ROBBERS, AGENTS OF THE STATE, SLEEPER, THE RABBIT HOLE and HAMMERMAN.

He is working on a possible new series. His thrillers have all featured on the KrimiZeit Top 10 in Germany and he has been shortlisted for the VN Thriller of the Year award in Holland and the Prix SNCF Du Polar in France. Nicol is the convenor of two online courses (one on novel writing, the other on non-fiction narrative) and a nine-month Masterclass which has been running successfully for eleven years. He has also taught writing courses at the University of Cape Town’s Summer and Winter Schools. He delivered a course on writing fiction to the UCT’s Centre for Creative Writing for several years and supervised MA Creative Writing students.

Nicol’s first publication was a slim volume of poems, AMONG THE SOUVENIRS, in 1979. It was followed by a second collection in 1993. He has worked as a freelance writer since 1989, contributing to magazines, newspapers and publications in South Africa and internationally. During that time, he wrote a number of novels and non-fiction works, including a history of DRUM magazine during the 1950s, two memoirs, and three biographies, two of which were about Nelson Mandela.