Anna Downes
is an actor-turned-author who grew up in Sheffield, UK. She studied Drama at the University of Manchester and spent three years at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London before working extensively in TV and theatre.
Moving to Australia in 2011, she started writing shortly after her second child was born. Her internationally bestselling debut novel, The Safe Place, was published simultaneously in Australia, the US and the UK in 2020 and was shortlisted for the 2021 Sisters in Crime Davitt Awards. The Shadow House was published in 2021 in Australia and New Zealand followed by publication in the UK and the USA in 2022. Both have been translated into over ten different languages.
Her third novel Red River Road was an instant bestseller upon release in 2024, reaching number five on the national Top Ten and spending six weeks as the number one Australian fiction title. She now lives on the NSW Central Coast with her family.