Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was a British author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving around fictional detectives Hercule Poirot and Miss Marple. She also wrote the world's longest-running play, the murder mystery The Mousetrap, which has been performed in the West End of London since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime"—a moniker which is now trademarked by her estate—or the "Queen of Mystery". She also wrote six novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott. In 1971, she was made a Dame (DBE) by Queen Elizabeth II for her contributions to literature. Guinness World Records lists Christie as the best-selling fiction writer of all time, her novels having sold more than two billion copies.
The Farmer's Daughter is a 1947 American comedy film directed by H.C. Potter that tells the story of a farmgirl who ends up working as a maid for a Congressman and his politically powerful mother. It stars Loretta Young, Joseph Cotten, Ethel Barrymore, and Charles Bickford, and was adapted by Allen Rivkin and Laura Kerr from the 1937 Finnish play Juurakon Hulda by Hella Wuolijoki, using the pen name Juhani Tervapää.
Sujata Massey is an American mystery author and historical fiction novelist. Her books are published in English in the US and Canada, the United Kingdom and India, and Australia/New Zealand. Massey’s novels are also available in different languages and formats in Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Russia, Spain and Thailand.
Peter Abrahams is an American author of crime fiction for both adults and children.
Janet Quin-Harkin is an author best known for her mystery novels for adults written under the name Rhys Bowen.
Penny Warner is an American mystery writer who has won multiple Agatha Awards. She has also written more than 50 books on subjects ranging from cooking to parenting guides to party and activity books.
Margaret Maron was an American writer, the author of award-winning mystery novels.
Behind the Curtain is the second book in the Echo Falls mystery series by best-selling crime novelist Peter Abrahams.
Kerry Isabelle Greenwood is an Australian author and lawyer. She has written many plays and books, most notably a string of historical detective novels centred on the character of Phryne Fisher, which was adapted as the popular television series Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries. She writes mysteries, science-fiction, historical fiction, children's stories, and plays. Greenwood earned the Australian women's crime fiction Davitt Award in 2002 for her young adult novel The Three-Pronged Dagger.
Donna Andrews is an American mystery fiction writer of two award-winning amateur sleuth series.
Louise Penny is a Canadian author of mystery novels set in the Canadian province of Quebec centred on the work of francophone Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sûreté du Québec. Penny's first career was as a radio broadcaster for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). After she turned to writing, she won numerous awards for her work, including the Agatha Award for best mystery novel of the year five times, including four consecutive years (2007–2010), and the Anthony Award for best novel of the year five times, including four consecutive years (2010–2013). Her novels have been published in 23 languages.
April Henry is an American New York Times bestselling author of mysteries, thrillers, and young adult novels.
Kathy Lynn Emerson is an American writer of historical and mystery novels and non-fiction. She also uses the pseudonyms Kaitlyn Dunnett and Kate Emerson.
Erin Hart is an American author of crime fiction.
Jennifer Chow or Jennifer J. Chow, is an American writer and novelist. She is an Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Lilian Jackson Braun Award Award-nominated author, writing cozy mysteries filled with hope and heritage. Her most recent series is the Magical Fortune Cookie novels; Booklist says of Ill-Fated Fortune:
Ruth Warburton, known by the alias Ruth Ware, is a British psychological thriller author. Her novels include In a Dark, Dark Wood (2015), The Woman in Cabin 10 (2016), The Lying Game (2017), The Death of Mrs Westaway (2018), The Turn of the Key (2019), One By One (2020), The It Girl (2022) and Zero Days (2023). Both In a Dark, Dark Wood and The Woman in Cabin 10 were on the UK's Sunday Times and The New York Times top ten bestseller lists. She is represented by Eve White of the Eve White Literary Agency. She switched to the pen name Ruth Ware to distinguish her crime novels from the young-adult fantasy novels published under her birth name.
Cindy Callaghan is an American author of children's books who has written several middle-grade novels. Her first book, Just Add Magic, was adapted into an Amazon television series by the same name.
Edith Maxwell is an Agatha Award-winning American mystery author also currently writing as Maddie Day. She writes cozy, traditional, and historical mysteries set in the United States.
Katherine Hall Page is an American writer of cozy mysteries. Page has written twenty-five books in her Faith Fairchild series and four Christie and Company juvenile mysteries. Between 1990 and 2005, Page won three Agatha Awards. She was nominated for two Edgar Awards and a Macavity Award during this time period. In 2024, Hall became a Grand Master at the Edgar Awards in 2024. Outside of writing, Page worked in special education between the 1960s to 1980s.
Elizabeth C. Bunce is an American author who writes mysteries, fantasy, and ghost stories. Best known for her Edgar Award-winning Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series and her novel A Curse Dark as Gold, her books feature strong female characters, are often inspired by folklore, and targeted toward young adult and pre-teen readers while also appealing to adults. Her writing style has been referred to as literary fiction, and her works have been called “mysteries in fantasy dress,” “spun with mystery and shot through with romance.” Her works are infused with the results of her research into history, science, culture, and etymology, often set in or inspired by historical places and times.
