S. V. Leonard was born and grew up in the little seaside town of Formby near Liverpool. She studied Classics at Oxford University and has lived and worked in Australia, Poland and Malaysia - places which she still thinks of as home. She now lives in London with her boyfriend. 

When not reading or writing crime novels, she can be found: drinking oat-milk lattes; wine-tasting with friends; cooking any Meera Sodha recipe; breaking out of escape rooms; or doing historical walking tours of London. She finds it hard to stop her favourite activities from creeping into her stories.