Born in Liverpool, England, Robert F Barker served thirty years as a police officer and detective, most of it working in and around some of the Northwest's grittiest towns and cities. He likes to write stories that are dark and edgy, but credible enough for the reader to believe they may be based on some sort of reality, which of course they often are. (Names changed to protect the innocent.. etc.). As a police officer, he learned that no matter where people live, whatever their position, they are never far from places where darkness dwells, be they inner city sink estates where drugs are dealt and violence rules, or leafy suburbs where neat gardens and lace curtains conceal the sort of evil that no one ever imagines, until the worst happens.

As a former Senior Investigating Officer and Firearms Incident Commander, he knows all about the pressures police officers face, as well as what it means to have to make life-and-death decisions in the heat of live operations. Given his background and experience, his stories are as authentic a portrayal of crime and policing as can be found anywhere in the modern crime genre.
He splits his writing-time between his family home in Cheshire, and the beautiful island of Cyprus, where he gains inspiration for a series of Cyprus-based thrillers which he intends will compliment his UK novels.