Amy Myers

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Amy Myers (born 3 August 1938) is a British mystery writer. She is best known for her Marsh and Daughter mystery series, featuring a writing team consisting of a wheel-chair bound ex-policeman and his daughter, and for another series, featuring a Victorian era chef, Auguste Didier. [1] Myers' books have been favourably reviewed in Library Journal , [2] [3] Publishers Weekly , [4] Booklist , [5] and Kirkus Reviews . [6] Myers has also been published many times in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine . [7] Janet Hutchings, the magazine's longtime editor, called Myers "one of our best and most frequent contributors of historicals" (i.e., historical mysteries). [8]

Contents

Personal life

Myers was born in Barnehurst, [9] Kent (part of Greater London since 1965) in 1938. While working in publishing, Myers met her American soon-to-be husband. She oversaw the publication of an autobiography by the English bullfighter Henry Higgins; she met him, his co-author and the co-author's cousin, James Myers. [10] Myers was born in Buffalo, New York, US, but had spent his adult life in Europe. [11]

For ten years, the Myers maintained a commuter marriage, dividing their time between Paris, where James worked, and London, where Amy worked. [1] [10] [12] During her stays in Paris, Myers dreamed up the character for her first mystery series, Auguste Didier, a half-English, half-French chef who reluctantly dabbled in detection during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods. [12] The couple now live in Kent full-time. [2]

Writing career

Like the character Luke Frost in Myers' Marsh and Daughter series, Myers was once a publisher. She was a director of the now-defunct publishing firm of William Kimber & Co. Ltd., which specialised in war and theatrical memoirs, autobiographies, biographies and tales of hauntings. [9] She published her first mystery, Murder in Pug's Parlor, in 1986. In 1988, she turned to writing full-time.

After eleven Auguste Didier mysteries, Myers introduced the former police detective Peter Marsh and his daughter Georgia in The Wickenham Murders in 2004. The father–daughter team writes true-crime novels in which they expose an injustice or sleuth out the answer to an unsolved crime from the distant past.# The Marshes' investigations almost inevitably involve them with present-day murders stemming from secrets involving the past. [13]

Myers launched a third series in 2007 with Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner. Wasp, a Victorian era chimney sweep in East London, solves crimes with his former apprentice, Ned. [13] Myers' fourth series, written with the help of her car buff husband, began in 2011 with Classic in the Barn. [11] That series features a modern-day classic-car restorer in Kent, Jack Colby, who helps the police with cases involving classic cars. [13]

In 2017, Myers introduced yet another cosy mystery series, featuring Nell Drury, a female French-trained chef in 1925 Kent when such a thing was a real anomaly. The first novel is titled Dancing with Death. [14]

For her romances, historical sagas and suspense novels, Myers created the pseudonym Harriet Hudson, although she has occasionally also used the names Laura Daniels and Alice Carr. [10] [12]

Myers also writes reviews of other books at the online crime and thriller magazine Shots. [12]

Many of her crime novels are available in German translation.

Mystery novels

Auguste Didier series

Marsh and Daughter series

Tom Wasp series

Classic Car series

Nell Drury series

Under the pseudonym Harriet Hudson

The Ashden Quartet (set in the English homefront during the First World War at the rectory in the Sussex village of Ashden)

Under the pseudonym Laura Daniels

Short story collections

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References

  1. 1 2 Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 September 2007). Library Journal. 132 (14): 116. ISSN   0363-0277.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  2. 1 2 Klett, Rex E. (1 November 2004). "The Wickenham Murders". Library Journal. 129 (18). Media Source, Inc.: 58. ISSN   0363-0277.
  3. ↑ Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 August 2007). "Murder and the Golden Goblet: A Marsh and Daughter Mystery". Library Journal. 132 (13). Media Source, Inc.: 55. ISSN   0363-0277.
    - Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 September 2008). "Murder in the Mist: A Marsh and Daughter Mystery". Library Journal. 133 (14). Media Source, Inc.: 102. ISSN   0363-0277.
    - Jacobsen, Teresa L. (1 June 2011). "Classic in the Barn: A Case for Jack Colby, Car Detective". Library Journal. 136 (10). Media Source, Inc.: 84. ISSN   0363-0277.
  4. ↑ "Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker". Publishers Weekly. 257 (11). PWxyz LLC: 41. 15 March 2010. ISSN   0000-0019.
    - "Classic in the Barn: A Case for Jack Colby, the Car Detective". Publishers Weekly. 228 (20). PWxyz LLC: 59. 16 May 2011. ISSN   0000-0019.
  5. ↑ Flanagan, Margaret (15 December 2012). "Classic in the Clouds". Booklist. 109 (8). American Library Association: 21. ISSN   0006-7385.
  6. ↑ "Book Review: Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker". Kirkus Reviews. 78 (6). Kirkus Reviews, LLC: 229. 15 March 2010. ISSN   1948-7428.
    - "Book Review: Classic Calls the Shots". Kirkus Reviews. 80 (12). Kirkus Media, LLC: 1218. 15 June 2012. ISSN   1948-7428.
    - "Book Review: Classic Mistake". Kirkus Reviews. 81 (14): 330. 15 July 2013. ISSN   1948-7428.
  7. ↑ "2011". Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  8. ↑ Hutchings, Janet (27 March 2013). ""History Mystery" (by Amy Myers)". Editor of Ellery Queen′s Mystery Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  9. 1 2 "Amy Myers". Goodreads. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  10. 1 2 3 "Our Authors: Amy Myers". Severn House Publishers. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  11. 1 2 Myers, James. "Crime in the Fast Lane" . Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  12. 1 2 3 4 Myers, Amy. "Author Web Page". amymyers.net. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  13. 1 2 3 Myers, Amy. "The Characters". Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  14. ↑ "Dancing with Death: A country house mystery". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 11 February 2017.


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