Horst Eckert, born in 1959, was for fifteen years a television journalist, including for the Tageschau news. 1995 saw the publication of his debut, Anna's Legacy. His novels are seen as "in the best sense of the word complex political thrillers that can be read not only as gripping crime stories but also as a commentary of the times" (Deutschlandfunk). They have been translated into French, Dutch and Czech and awarded prizes such as the Marlowe Prize and the Friedrich Glauser Prize.