Sisters Doing It For Themselves

Andrews’ stories can include scientific dissertations and romantic reveries, and also satisfy fans of information-packed suspense.

The Detective
Em Hansen is a spunky geologist who helps police investigate murders. She is a “clear-thinking, straight-talking heroine, whose unabashed naivete is endearing” according to a New York Times book review.

Three strong, independent women greatly influenced Barr's writing, especially the character of Anna Pigeon (Rancourt 4). Her mother worked as a carpenter, mechanic, and pilot. Her Aunt Peggy taught third grade in a New York City public school, and her grandmother was a "fighting Quaker Democrat" ("Nevada Barr" 1) These woman apparently became the models for the leading character in Nevada Barr's novels.

Barr was born in Nevada in 1952, but soon relocated to Susanville, California where she spent the majority of her childhood ("Nevada Barr" 1). Nevada Barr graduated from California Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo, California in 1974 (Patterson). She then began work in the performing arts. She performed in many off-Broadway productions as part of the Classic Stage Company in New York City, New York. After five years, she began performing in commercials, industrial films, and theater in Minneapolis, Minnesota ("Nevada Barr" 1,2). Quickly, this all changed.

Soon, she fell in love and was married. Unfortunately, this marriage was brief. It was this man that sparked Barr's interest in nature and conservation ("Nevada Barr" 2). She followed her ex-husband from the theater to the park service. She began working in the National Park Service when she was thirty-six (Rancourt 3).

Barr has been a park ranger for many years. She has fought fires, climbed mountains, and broken up fights (Gifford). The many parks where she has worked, such as the Natchez Trace Parkway, Guadalupe Mountains National Park, Isle Royale National Park, and Mesa Verde National Park, have become the settings for several of her novels ("Nevada Barr" 1). Barr continues to work as a park ranger but does not actually solve murders. Most of the time she writes tickets or saves visitors from themselves (Rancourt 4).

Barr began writing in 1978 when she was twenty-six years old (Rancourt 4). She published her first novel in 1984 ("Nevada Barr" 2). She has continually published successful novels since then. Nevada Barr is a distinguished author and has received several honorable awards. For instance, Ill Wind was nominated for the 1997 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award. She was also honored by the liberal arts department of California Polytechnic State University in the 1997 homecoming activities (Patterson). Her most prestigious awards were for Track of the Cat which receive 1994's Agatha Award for Best First Novel of 1993 and the Anthony Award for best Novel of 1993. Nevada Barr is a very accomplished author.

Nevada Barr expresses her thoughts and feelings in her novels. For example, she relays her strong opinions about the National Park Service to her readers. This has angered several people on the National Park Service staff . The tension between seasonal and permanent employees, low pay and morale, red tape, and the politics of a large bureaucracy are several problems addressed in Barr's novels. Barr believes, "...the main purpose behind the novels is not to criticize, educate, nor facilitate change, but rather to entertain" (Rancourt 2). Even this line of thinking does not quench the anger of the park service staff.

All of Nevada Barr's novels center around Anna Pigeon, a law enforcement park ranger. Anna Pigeon is the heroin in all of the following books. Barr's most successful novel to date, Track of the Cat, was set in Guadalupe Mountains National Park. In this book a park ranger is found mauled to death by a mountain lion but was actually murdered). Another novel, Ill Wind, is set in Mesa Verde National Park. This novel revolves around the death of a child and the murder of Anna Pigeon's friend. Another successful story, Superior Death, takes place in Isle Royal National Park. This novel is about a sunken ship in Lake superior. A more recent novel, Firestorm , is set in Lessen Volcanic National Park. In this novel, Anna Pigeon searches for a murderer after the body of a ranger is found after a mysterious fire. Another book, Endangered Species, is set in Cumberland Island National Seashore where a drug interdiction plane has crashed. Barr's newest novel, Blind Descent, takes place in Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. These novels are excellent examples of Barr's wonderful writing skills.

Barr's choice of setting adds an interesting twist to her novels. The majority of mystery writers choose rather generic settings, such as a small town or a large city, but Barr chooses national parks.

The Detective
Anna Pigeon is a tough-as-boots park ranger, an independent, intelligent, tough-talking, and wine-drinking woman. Her companionable hikes often turn into bone-rattling cliffhangers.
In her life as park ranger, Anna tends to stumble into murderous and dangerous situations quite often. Although she may require a modicum of help, Anna is always able to find a solution to her predicament and find the evil perpetrator of murder. This character is life-like in numerous ways. She does suffer from bruises and broken bones and is decidedly not super-human. She still feels emotion as would any person: grief caused by death, loneliness from isolation, irritation at people's quirks, and embarrassment in "sticky" moments. She has real problems such as a difficult long distance relationship and disagreements with coworkers.

Gail Bowen is now married, has three children (Hildy, Max, Nat) and lives in Regina, Saskatchewan. She is an English teacher at the Saskatchewan Indian Federated College of the University of Regina. She has studied at the University of Toronto (B.A.) and the University of Waterloo (M.A. in English), and has done post-graduate studies in Canadian Literature at the University of Saskatchewan. In addition to her novels, she has also written several plays. She is a columnist for the CBC Radio in Regina and occasionally for the National CBC Radio.

Her fourth book, A Colder Kind of Death, won the 1995 Arthur Ellis Award for best novel. The protagonist in this series is Joanne Kilbourne, a professor. Recently, Deadly Appearances, Murder at the Mendel (aka Love and Murder), The Wandering Soul Murders, A Colder Kind of Death, A Killing Spring, and Verdict in Blood were adapted into television movies.

Bowen has received widespread acclaim for her detective series. The nine books in the series involve fast-paced and fascinating mystery, with complex family interactions alongside every-day domestic details, prairie urban life and work, the ever-present prairie weather, and the realistic and dimensional portrayal of contemporary Indigenous peoples.

The Detective
Joanne Kilbourn is a teacher at Saskatchewan universities, sometime TV panelist, widowed mother, and
political analyst, who finds herself occasionally involved in criminal investigations in various parts of Saskatchewan.

The Detective
Jane Yeats loves to ride her cherry red Harley-Davidson XLH883 Sportster very fast, and she quaffs imported beers even faster. Her career as a crime writer makes a reluctant amateur sleuth of her and an irrepressible streak of inquisitiveness lands her, more often than not, in trouble. She encourages us to take a thoughtful look at the complexities of life on the streets and at the lives of women who live off the fact that many men pay eagerly for sex.

She is a sympathetic character, fighting against her own feelings to find justice. Her relationships with those she works with are strong. The characterizations of her companions are well done. The sense of time and place in Toronto is successfully evoked. Jane's pursuit of the truth is often suspenseful as well as entertaining.

Kathy is originally from Illinois, but now lives in the mountains of Colorado. She earned both a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Rhetoric and Composition. She taught writing at the University of Colorado for ten years. In addition to her mystery novels, she has had published numerous articles in national magazines (including Women's Sports and Fitness, Complete Woman, Sailing, Yachting, Heartland Boating, and Scouting Magazine). In addition to writing, Kathy works as a licensed massage therapist.

Kathy and her husband (a marine biology professor) have been sailing and scuba diving for over 18 years, and they spend a month or two each year in the Caribbean. It's not surprising then that she chose the Caribbean as the setting for her mystery novels. She hopes to educate as well as entertain with her books, which explains the interesting environmental themes that are present in her books.
She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, and the Pike's Peak Writers.

The Detective
Hannah Simpson heads the Dive and Recovery Team of Denver’s homicide division in underwater investigation of crime scenes and evidence retrieval. She is a likable, exuberant heroine, who will appeal to outdoor enthusiasts.

She attended California State University, Long Beach, and graduated with a degree in history.

She served as the original editor of Sisters in Crime's guide to getting published, Breaking And Entering. She is a past president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America, and has served on MWA's National Board. Jan served as an associate editor, with Barry Zeman, on Writing Mysteries, the MWA handbook edited by Sue Grafton, published in 2002. Jan also contributed the chapter on Revision to the book.

Jan believes strongly in the importance of greater support for forensic science in the U.S., and is the founder of the Crime Lab Project. She urges you to visit the CLP site and to contact your legislators about this issue.

The Detective
Irene Kelly is a newspaper reporter, who works and lives in present-day Las Piernas, a fictional Southern California beach city, south of Los Angeles. She is married to homicide detective Frank Harriman.

She has worked on prehistoric and historical sites in the U.S. and in Europe, and likes to teach, in the field, in museums, in the classroom, and through writing.

Dana was born and raised in New England and lives in Massachusetts now, with her husband and “our benevolent feline overlord”.

The Detective
Emma Fielding discovers that archaeologists are trained to ask the same questions that detectives ask: who, what, where, when, how, and why.

Dana Cameron says of her, “Emma and I aren't the same person: she is taller, cuter, and smarter, for starters. Where we are similar, however, is that we both share a desire to find explanations, uncover a kind of truth, and make that human connection.”

The Detective
Regan Reilley is a smart, saucy sleuth, based in Los Angeles. She's single, thirty, and having fun, and something always happens wherever she goes.

Duncan writes razor sharp intersecting plot lines, and wastes no words. Her details are abundant yet precise. She uses subtle irony, insider humor, and her eccentric characters are so skillfully penned you'd swear they're real.

The Detective
Private detective Scotia MacKinnon is an intuitive ex-cop who lives on a sailboat in the harbour of San Juan Island. She is tough, clever, interesting and believable. She is an appealing character, at times prickly, but totally realistic. Scotia has been described as a cross between Kinsey Millhone and Paul Bishop's Fey Croaker. This blending of these two characters should not work, but does.

Evanovich didn't start out as a writer; her first calling was as an artist, and after high school she headed off to Douglass College in New Jersey for four years to study art. But it never felt quite right and she decided to try her hand at writing. After filling a box with rejection letters, she burned the box and signed up with a temp agency. A few months later she received a call from an editor offering to buy her romance manuscript for the astounding sum of $2,000 to be published for the Second Chance at Love series. Thrilled to leave pantyhose and office politics behind her, Evanovich plunged into writing full time, writing series romance for the next five years, mostly for Bantam Loveswept.

As a romance writer, she won the Romance Writer's Golden Leaf Award. After 12 romance novels, she decided to move into the mystery genre. Evanovich explains, "I wrote series romance for the next five years. It was a rewarding experience, but after 12 romance novels I ran out of sexual positions and decided to move into the mystery genre." She created a new character, bounty hunter Stephanie Plum, who hails from Trenton, N.J. "I spent two years retooling -- drinking beer with law enforcement types, learning to shoot, practicing cussing," she says. One for the Money (Scribner), the first in her Stephanie Plum series, debuted in 1994 to rave reviews, and Stephanie immediately garnered a following of loyal fans who loved the action, wit and humor for which the books have become known. The film rights to the book were sold to TriStar.

One for the Money was followed by Two for the Dough (Scribner, 1996), Three to Get Deadly (Scribner, 1997), and the latest Stephanie Plum adventure, Four to Score (St. Martin's Press, 1998). The next Plum book will be published in 1999 by St. Martin's Press and will be called High Five.

Inevitably, fans ask Evanovich if she is really Stephanie. The similarities are there; they are both from New Jersey, they both love Cheetos, have owned a hamster, and have shared "similar embarrassing experiences," according to the author. "I wouldn't go so far as to say Stephanie is an autobiographical character, but I will admit to knowing where she lives." She is married, with a son, Peter, and a daughter, Alex, who serves as webmaster for her popular website, where fans can see the latest comics from Alex and enter the contest to name her next book. She now lives outside of Hanover, New Hampshire where she adores the New England lifestyle, but bemoans the lack of a nearby Macy's.

The Detective
Stephanie Plum, a bounty hunter with a clever and inventive mind, is an appealing detective. Her self-deprecating sense of humour and witty observations about life on the seamy side are contagious.

Evans writes a story that spins along at a fast pace, with close attention to detail and zingy dialogue. Evans is good at the cliff-hanger ending, amusingly undercut with irony.

The Detective:
Grace Smith is a cholesterol junkie with a gym habit; mouthy but loveable, tough yet tender. Like all such women with attitude, Smith presents as an inherently likeable character – shades of Sporty Spice without the same terrifying muscle tone. Smith is often too broke to be selective when it comes to work. An ex-cop, Smith is an engaging slob with an exasperation habit of scrounging off her friends. She is also a determined and resourceful sleuth who uses all her skills to solve murder cases.

Linda has written both non-fiction and fiction books. In addition to her two 'day' jobs, she is involved with many organizations. She is on the board of directors of several non-profit organizations (including the National Center for Victims of Crime, Phoenix House Foundation, and New York Women's Agenda), and is a member of President Clinton's Violence Against Women Advisory Council, New York Women's Agenda Domestic Violence Committee (acting as a co-chair), the American College of Trial Lawyers, The Women's Forum, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. As if all that wasn't enough, Linda also lectures to colleges and universities, law enforcement organizations, corporations and civic groups all over the country.

In 1993, she was named "Woman of the Year" by both New Woman Magazine and Glamour. A year later, her non-fiction book was named Notable Book of 1994 by the New York Times. In 1998, a few of Linda's law school classmates got together and established a scholarship fund (Fairstein Public Service Scholarship) in her name. The fund supports law students interested in a public service legal career.
Linda currently lives in New York City with her husband (also an attorney).

The Detective:
Alexandra Cooper is a smart, sexy, middle-aged blonde heading the borough's prosecution of sex offenders. Cooper's typical day is counseling victims and working with the NYPD on sex crimes. Cooper’s greatest appeal lies in the warmth of her friendships, the humanness of her mistakes and her unswerving devotion to protecting the next female from harm.

Like her creator, Linda Fairstein, Alexandra Cooper is New York City's assistant district attorney for sex crimes prosecution.

The Detective:
Samantha Leiffer is not at all a perfect person. She went to Stanford, but she works in a movie ticket office and teaches at a preschool because she likes to. She's got some interesting and odd friends, but they aren't caricatures. She sometimes does stupid things, but she isn't stupid about doing it.

In 1973, she moved to Hollywood and wrote screenplays and tv movies. She met her third husband, Steven Humphrey, while working on a tv movie. The two married in 1978. She eventually left Hollywood in 1989. She continued to write, and has now been published in 28 countries and 26 languages.

Sue has maintained that her Kinsey series will never be turned into movies; she's even asked her children to swear to it! One of her earlier books, Lolly-Madonna War, was turned into a film; it was released in 1973 and starred Rod Stieger, Robert Ryan, Gary Busey and Jeff Bridges.
In 1997, an interesting book about the author and her work was released. G Is For Grafton: The World of Kinsey Millhone was written by Carol McGinnis Kay and Natalie Hevener Kaufman.

She currently lives with her husband in Louisville, Kentucky and Montecito, California. She has two grandchildren - one is actually named Kinsey!

The Detective:
Kinsey Millhone was born May 5, 1950, in Santa Teresa, California, to Rita and Randall Millhone. Kinsey's mother was from a well-to-do family from Lompoc, but became estranged from them when she met and married Randall Millhone. Randy was a postal worker of which little more is known.

At the age of five, Kinsey was in a horrific car accident in which both of her parents were killed. Kinsey survived the accident but has never gotten over the trauma of losing her parents at such an early age.

Kinsey went to live with her Aunt Gin, her mother's sister, who was also estranged from the family and living alone in Santa Teresa. Ill-equipped to inherit a daughter, she did her best to raise Kinsey. She was a no-nonsense kind of person who instilled in Kinsey a strong sense of independence and self-sufficiency, both of which would serve Kinsey well throughout her life. Other traits received or reinforced by Aunt Gin were an aversion to cooking, a lack of interest in fashion, and an affinity for books. Aunt Gin died when Kinsey was in her early twenties.

Kinsey, being the rebellious type, didn't do particularly well in school and occasionally had disciplinary problems. In high school, she fell in with a group that smoked cigarettes and marijuana, but she gave this up prior to graduating.

Sometime after graduation, she became a police officer with the Santa Teresa Police Department. She had trouble dealing with the bureaucracy and the attitude toward women officers at the time and she quit after two years.

Kinsey had two brief marriages. Almost nothing is known about the first except that Kinsey left him. The second husband left Kinsey unexpectedly, but shows up years later in one of the novels.

In her mid twenties, Kinsey studied to become a private investigator, got her license, and landed her first job with a detective agency a couple of years later. In her late twenties, Kinsey went freelance and got office space with California Fidelity Insurance, with whom she had worked part time some years earlier.

When Kinsey was about thirty, she finally moved out of trailers and into a studio apartment. She still lives there and is very friendly with her landlord, Henry, and Rosie the tavern owner nearby.

The Detective
Christina McMullen, a veteran cocktail waitress turned professional psychologist. After a series of unflattering lessons with the opposite sex, McMullen thinks there is something seriously wrong with them and she wants to help them. Twelve years of waitressing and going for a degree allows her to become a psychologist practicing in California where she tries extra hard to straighten up men who come to see her for help.

Chrissy's internal thoughts are hilarious, as are the situations she gets herself into. Plus, the sexual tension between Chrissy and Rivera spices things up, but never detracts from the pacing.

Denise was a Los Angeles Times reporter and Fullbright Scholar before she became a novelist.
Scribner has just published Prisoner of Memory, the fifth Eve Diamond novel. Her previous novel, Savage Garden, was a finalist for the Southern California Booksellers’ Award for “Best Mystery of 2005”.

Denise is working on outside projects too. This year, Akashic Books, whose much acclaimed Brooklyn Noir has spawned a series of city noir books, asked Denise to edit Los Angeles Noir, a short story anthology. Denise has also written a short story for the International Thriller Writer Assn's new anthology to be published in June 2006.

The Detective
Eve Diamond is one of the best characters in a currently ongoing series. She is sympathetic and believable, and generally acts with intelligence and reason, qualities unfortunately rare in the modern mystery. She also has the right mix of street smarts, sass and vulnerability to draw the reader's interest and concern.

During her university studies she became interested in ancient cultures. She has written a series of archaeological mystery novels, and spent time traveling to the places she writes about (including Europe, Ireland, the Middle East, North Africa, China, Tibet and South-east Asia).
The Xibalba Murders was nominated for the prestigious Arthur Ellis award for best first crime novel in Canada.

The Detective
This is what Lyn Hamilton says about her heroine, Lara McClintoch “She's much smarter, braver for sure, and better looking than I am. Younger too. She does, however, share my interest in ancient cultures. At the beginning of The Xibalba Murders she has had to sell her antiques and design shop to buy her way out of a failing marriage. She's a little bit at loose ends, and after trying to go back to university to take Mesoamerican studies, she agrees on the spur of the moment to go to Merida, Mexico to help an old friend, an expert in Maya antiquities, with a project he has -- something to do with a writing rabbit. It's a strange request, ludicrous is what Lara calls it, but she goes anyway, which just proves she's more impulsive than I am too.”

The Detective
Eve Duncan combines a tough survivor's instinct with emotional vulnerability. To overcome her grief at losing her only child, she takes up a (notably icky) career as a forensic sculptor, making busts from the skulls of unidentified murdered children so that their parents can identify them. Eve is famous for delicate, high-tech restoration.

Eve's job as a forensic sculptor is the perfect profession for a suspense heroine: she has official access to technical information and the emotional flexibility to react to the drama. Eve's grieving over the loss of her child--and over her romantic complications--helps keep the stories complex and appealing.

Since I had worked for so many years in the field, my first thought was to write an art mystery. I started thinking about characters (critics, dealers) and plots (heists, forgeries), but wasn't all that inspired. Then, one weekend, my husband and I took a little trip to Ventura. And while we were strolling around the historic downtown area, we happened upon a big brick building that was being used as an antique store. There was a small brass plaque affixed to its side that read, "Historic Point of Interest #33: Birthplace of Perry Mason." And all of a sudden, the proverbial light bulb appeared.

I decided I would set a mystery in Ventura, and would somehow drag Perry Mason and his creator, Erle Stanley Gardner, into it. The idea for a series started percolating: maybe I could create a character who writes biographies of dead mystery writers, and in the course of her research, stumbles upon murders and mayhem. It seemed to work, and to play perfectly into my passion for the genre.

Once I created the character of Cece Caruso, who is obsessed with clothes (as I am) and is a divorced ex-beauty queen from New Jersey (as I am not), the book took off. I left my job as the editor of an art magazine, and spent about a year writing I Dreamed I Married Perry Mason. Without a doubt, it's the best day job I've ever had.

I was born in Los Angeles before it got really crowded, and lived on the East Coast for most of my twenties only to find my way back to L.A. at the end of the eighties, to attend graduate school in art history at UCLA. I spent most of the nineties as an art historian and critic, writing for the L.A. Times and various art magazines, as well as editing the international art journal, artext. I also taught art history and theory at U.C.L.A., Art Center College of Design, and U.C. Santa Barbara.

I have been married since 1991 to a professor of media design, Peter Lunenfeld. We have two young daughters, Kyra and Maud, plus a Labrador and two grey cats, one of whom preys on squirrels, birds and mice, the other of whom spends most of her day hiding in my husband's sock drawer. I remain committed to the notion that some day I will live in a cottage by the sea. If not, a chateau outside Paris will have to do.”

The Detective
Cece Caruso is a biographer and amateur sleuth. She will freely admit that she spent her youth idolizing girl detective Nancy Drew, a fantasy that undoubtedly influenced her grown-up job writing biographies of dead mystery writers. She also has a knockout collection of vintage clothing, though Cece prefers Azzedine Alaia semi-gloss knits and Halston silver sequined berets to Nancy's prim suits and gloves.

The Detective
Tess Monaghan, a strong-willed former reporter turned PI, is a curious and likable heroine.Her PI career begins when she can't find work as a reporter since the Baltimore Star folded, and at twenty-nine she still hasn't figured out what she wants to be when she grows up. While she's deciding, she picks up odd jobs here and there, following leads from relatives and friends. In contrast to her lack of meaningful work, Tess suffers from an overabundance of attractive men in her life -- from her on-again off-again ex-boyfriend, a star news reporter, to her rowing companion and friend Rock, to a younger man called Crow. So many men... so little time. Tess is a down-to-earth character who isn't afraid to show her human frailties.

Before becoming a full-time writer, Ms. Lovett worked as a legal researcher for the New Mexico Office of the Attorney General, an executive director of a non-profit theater, a jazz dancer, a playwright, a gas station attendant, an upholstery assistant, and a bartender. But it was her experience working in the New Mexico State Penitentiary and the exposure to prison life that led her to create fictional forensic psychologist Dr. Sylvia Strange.

Lovett has a degree in criminal justice; she is completing a degree in psychology/criminology. A native Californian, she lives in Santa Fe with her husband Michael Mariano and their two dogs. She is currently at work on her sixth Dr. Sylvia Strange novel.
Author's note:
"In the process of researching and writing this series over a period of several years, my life has come to mirror that of Dr. Strange. I spend hours inside prisons talking with and interviewing inmates, I attend forensic psychology and psychiatry conferences and network with experts in the field, and I've been a speaker at criminal justice meetings.

I obtained a degree in criminal justice, and I'm currently pursuing a degree in psychology. A step away from my creative roots in theater, dance, and writing. In a way, the more closely my life has come to parallel Dr. Strange's life, the more freedom and autonomy she's gained. I've relaxed my grip on Sylvia - she has more fun and takes more risks. But one thing hasn't changed: we're both intense, we've both come close to the edge, and we both share a psychic hot-spot, a fascination with psychopathology or, more fancifully said, the 'dark side' of human nature."

Dr. Sylvia Strange is a psychologist for the state of New Mexico. Her daily work consists of assessing the mental states of accused, convicted, and paroled criminals -- deciding whether they are legally insane, incompetent, intoxicated, or imminently dangerous

Her novels are set in Ottawa —not the dimly lit corridors of old English mansions, but the breathtaking canal and bustling market districts of our nation’s capital. It’s particularly bustling as famous festivals provide the backdrop to the murderous deeds of both Speak Ill of the Dead (the Tulip Festival) and the Icing on the Corpse (Winterlude). But, why Ottawa? "It’s pretty; I know the place well enough to provide the necessary detail. . . and people do get killed there." In addition, quips Maffini "It hasn’t been done to death."

The Detective
Camilla McPhee runs a law office specializing in Justice for Victims of violent crimes.
MacPhee, whom Maffini describes as "a grouchy, 30ish, widowed lawyer," possesses all the characteristics of a good sleuth: "She has a lot to lose . . . has a reason to encounter crime . . . and has room to develop and grow." The last element is key to producing a sleuth readers can relate to, and identify they must if they’re to be loyal to a series. Says Maffini, "Readers, particularly women readers, like to see someone like themselves who is working things out and doesn’t have to get the laundry done."

Eventually, with the passing years, I realized that if I didn't get down to it, the dream would never happen on its own. Poetry was my first love and continues to enchant me, but when I began writing seriously, short stories seemed to be my natural form.

"For the first twelve years of my professional life, it never occurred to me that I could write books. I was totally intimidated by the long form. But circumstances prevailed. The short story market dried up in the late '70s and I backed into the novel by doubling a short story three separate times until I finally had enough pages to call it a book.

"Since then, I've done it twenty-one more times, yet I'm still intimidated and still face each new book with the fear that I won't be able to pull it off again."

Margaret Maron's works have been translated into seven languages and are on the reading lists of various courses in contemporary Southern literature. They have also been nominated for every major award in the American mystery field.

She is a founding member of Sisters in Crime and served as its third president. She is also a past president of the American Crime Writers League, and current president of Mystery Writers of America.

The Detective
Debra Knott, daughter of Kezzie and Susan Knott of Cotton Grove, Colleton County, North Carolina. Born the only daughter and last child in a family of 11 brothers, since the death of her mother, she has lived with her Aunt Zell and Uncle Ash. In Bootlegger's Daughter we are introduced to the lawyer as she runs for office in Colleton County. Her sister-in-law Minnie has decided that she would make a fine judge and is determined to ensure that Deborah reaches the bench. She is a tough and quick-witted character.

Massey describes herself – “I am half Indian and half German; my parents met in the early 60s in Cambridge, England. I was born in England, and while I grew up primarily in Minnesota, where my father settled as a university professor, I only changed my citizenship to the US in 1998.
I was drawn to mystery because I just have had so much fun reading them-and I became immersed in the genre in my mid-twenties, the time I was living in Japan and the English language library on the navy base was full of mysteries, both modern and vintage. I also realized there were quite a few nonfiction accounts of young people's lives in Japan, and also a few mainstream novels, that didn't seem as potentially fun and accessible to readers as a Japanese-set mystery would be. So that's why I went for it.”

The Detective
Rei Shimura is a fascinating character: bold, unique, spirited and intelligent. She is an engaging Asian-American antique dealer. Her vibrant personality, coupled with her intense interest in her Japanese heritage, make her one of the most refreshing heroines in mystery fiction. Rei's voice is intelligent and honest. She's not afraid to talk about her fears and foibles

The Detective
Lillian Belle Cleary talks tough, loves tofu, fears toxins, and obsessively hates a mess. She is a trial attorney, often describes as “brassy”.