Author. A prolific children's writer, she shall be best remembered for her best-selling Electra Brown series. Raised in Ponteland, she initially wanted to become a veterinarian and studied physiology, but after abandoning her career choice she went to work as a secretary, numbering among her projects the securing of licensing rights for "Garfield" and "Rugrats." Married to her boss, John Sinfield, in 1996, she began writing her Topaz L'Amour series, which was aimed at younger readers, in the early 2000s, releasing "Dancing Dreams and Other Stories" in 2002 and following with the 2006 "Topaz on Ice." In 2008, she published "Life at the Shallow End," the first in her series centered on Electra Brown, a self-centered 14 year old girl going through the typical teenage trials and tribulations. Readers met Electra again in 2008's "Out of My Depth," "Swimming Against the Tide" and "Taking the Plunge" (both 2009), and the 2010 "Falling Hook, Line & Sinker." Helen was nominated for a 2010 Queen of Teen Award and in 2011 trotted out a new character, the glamorous but troubled teen Daisy Davenport, in "Running in Heels." On February 27, 2011, Mr. Sinfield drowned while the couple was on vacation in Barbados. Helen recorded her struggles in the blog "Planet Grief" and in 2015 published "When Bad Things Happen in Good Bikinis," the title a reference to her sunbathing when she watched her husband go into the ocean for the last time. Shortly after Mr. Sinfield's death, she met wealthy and recently widowed Ian Stewart, sold her home, and moved with him to Royston. The spring 2016 entries of her blog gave cryptic references to "needing time alone" and when she went missing after being seen walking her dog on April 11, 2016 it was assumed she was in hiding. Following the July 15, 2016 discovery of her body in a cesspool, Stewart was charged with murder.