After reading Politics, Philosophy and Economics at Oxford University, Linda Davies worked for seven years as an investment banker, specializing in leveraged buyouts before moving onto the trading floor where she again focused on leveraged products. There she dreamed up the plot to her first globally successful financial thriller, Nest of Vipers. As a full time writer, Linda has written five more books for adults and four books for children. Her most recent thriller, ARk Storm, will be published by Tor Books in 2013. After leaving investment banking, she lived for three years in Peru, then a stint in London, before she moved with her husband and three children to the Middle East. In 2005 she and her husband were sailing in the Arabian Gulf when they were kidnapped by Iranian forces. They were held hostage on mainland Iran for two weeks before being released. After eight happy years living in Dubai, Linda returned to the UK in 2012 where she lives with her family deep in the English countryside.