Crime novelist Mo Hayder dies aged 59 from motor neurone disease

Clare Dunkel, who was diagnosed only months ago, wrote 10 thrillers under the pen name and has been remembered as a ‘ferociously inventive’ presence

British crime novelist Mo Hayder, whose dark, shocking thrillers won her the title of “queen of fear”, has died at the age of 59 after being diagnosed with motor neurone disease in December.

Hayder was the pen name for Clare Dunkel. Her death was announced by her publisher Transworld, which said she had “fought valiantly” since her diagnosis on 22 December, but that “the disease progressed at an alarming rate”.

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