Viper was established in 2019 as the specialist crime and thriller imprint of Profile Books. Its mission is to publish Books with Bite: the best and brightest in the genre, celebrating new voices and unique approaches to murder and mystery. With a love of rich characters and excited by authors who take risks with tradition, we quickly cemented our reputation as the home of quality crime fiction. After only two years of publishing we won Imprint of the Year at the British Book Awards in 2022, and were named Best Crime and Mystery Publisher by the Crime Writers’ Association (CWA) in 2023.

We have published winners of CWA Daggers, British Book Awards, Crime Fiction Lover Debut Awards, multiple book club picks and Sunday Times Books of the Year. Our bestselling authors include Janice Hallett, whose debut The Appeal was a Waterstones Thriller of the Month and whose novels have won Crime and Thriller Book of the Year at the British Book Awards, a CWA John Creasey New Blood Dagger and been chosen for both the Daily Mail and the Richard & Judy Book Club, Laura Dave, who topped the charts with The Last Thing He Told Me, which was a Richard & Judy Book Club pick, a Reese Witherspoon Book Club pick and adapted into an Apple TV+ series starring Jennifer Garner, and Catriona Ward, whose novel The Last House on Needless Street was both a Between the Covers and Richard & Judy Book Club pick, as well as Leonora Nattrass, Jean Kwok, Garry Disher, Attica Locke, Joanna Wallace, Tariq Ashkanani, Tina Baker, Oskar Jensen, Kate Simants and many more.

From gripping psychological thrillers and immersive historical mysteries, to genre-busting cosy crime and perfectly plotted police procedurals, Viper publishes crime fiction with a difference. Books to absorb, to intrigue, to challenge, to terrify and to delight. And always Books with Bite.