A former politics lecturer-turned-journalist is launching her first thriller novel as part of a new writing duo.

Linda Watson-Brown, who has written articles and columns for The Scotsman, Big Issue, Daily Record and The Independent, has joined up with former lawyer Maria Thomson, (46), to become author 'Grace Monroe'.

The pair have combined their respective talents to write Dark Angels – a crime thriller set in Edinburgh about Brodie McClennan, a rising star lawyer who investigates the city's murderous underworld.

Linda, who lives in rural Aberdeenshire with her partner and three children, said: "I was already ghost writing, and had done quite a lot of that, and Maria had been thinking about doing this for some time.

"She asked me if I would come in to co-write.

"I had never done it before so I was not very keen to begin with as I didn't know of any situation where the two people were not related.

"As we live about three hours drive from one another, much of the work has to be done over the phone and via e-mail.

"Maria is keener on doing general plot outlines while I like to character development and dialogue and then we talk about what's going to happen chapter by chapter. We have managed to find a happy medium."

Linda, (41), and Maria have signed a four-book deal with Harper Collins with the second in the Brodie McClennan series – Blood Lines – to be released in the spring.

They are currently working on the third instalment which will be called Sins of the Mother.

Linda also ghost wrote the 2006 novel The Step Child and is currently working on its screenplay as well as more ghost-writing and fiction.

She added: "I still do bits and bobs of journalism now and again but I get so much ghost writing as well.

"I quite like having lots of different projects on the go at the same time."

Both Linda and Maria will at launching Dark Angels at Waterstone's, in Princes Street, Edinburgh, between 6pm and 7.30pm tomorrow.