Stig Abell

Stig Abell is a British journalist, broadcaster, and novelist who has carved out an unusual dual career in media and crime fiction. He was managing editor of The Sun, editor of the Times Literary Supplement from 2016 to 2020, and helped launch Times Radio in 2020, where he presents the breakfast show. He studied English at Cambridge University. Abell's crime fiction features Jake Jackson, a detective in a rural English setting whose investigations combine traditional country mystery plotting with literary intelligence. His novels — Death Under a Little Sky, Dirty Little Secrets, and The Burial Place — have been praised for continuing the tradition of the English country mystery while bringing fresh literary sensibility to the genre. The Burial Place centres on an archaeological dig that uncovers Roman artefacts and triggers threatening letters demanding the excavation stop. His journalism gives his fiction a precision and clarity of prose, while his literary background (editing the TLS) gives it depth. His audiobooks and books offer listeners and readers intelligent, atmospheric crime fiction that honours its genre traditions while feeling distinctly contemporary.