Edith Maxwell (author)

Last updated
Edith Maxwell
Born (1952-11-02) November 2, 1952 (age 71)
Pasadena, California, U.S.
Education University of California, Irvine (BA)
Indiana University (PhD)
OccupationNovelist
Years active2012–present

Edith Maxwell (born November 2, 1952) is an Agatha Award-winning American mystery author also currently writing as Maddie Day. [1] She writes cozy, traditional, and historical mysteries set in the United States.

Contents

Biography

Maxwell was born in Pasadena and grew up in the Los Angeles suburb of Temple City with two older sisters and a younger brother. Her father taught high school and her mother was a Girl Scout leader and a real estate appraiser. Maxwell was an exchange student with AFS Intercultural Programs in Brazil for a year in 1970. She holds a BA (linguistics, 1974) from University of California, Irvine, and a PhD [2] (linguistics, 1981) from Indiana University.

Prior to writing fiction full time, she worked as an auto mechanic, taught conversational English in Japan and independent childbirth classes in Massachusetts, owned and operated a small certified-organic farm, wrote free-lance articles, and most recently produced software documentation for several hi-tech companies in the Boston area. Besides Brazil and Japan she has also lived in Mali and Burkina Faso. [3]

Authorial career

Maxwell’s first published fiction was in the Pasadena Star-News, where she won a children’s fiction contest in 1961. [4] Her first published short story as an adult was in 1996, and her first novel appeared in 2012. She is a lifetime member of Sisters in Crime and served as President of the New England chapter for two years. She is also a member of Mystery Writers of America, the Short Mystery Fiction Society, and the Historical Novel Society. She has been a full-time mystery author since 2013. Maxwell has two dozen mystery novels and a novella in print with more in process.[ citation needed ]

Maxwell decided to write cozy mysteries because "I don’t want to read noir or nail-biter thrillers. Our world is scary and messy enough. When I’m finished reading a book, I don’t want to feel worse about society. That’s what I write, too." [5]

Bibliography

Local Foods Mysteries (as Edith Maxwell)

Country Store Mysteries (as Maddie Day)

Cozy Capers Book Group Mysteries (as Maddie Day)

Quaker Midwife Mysteries (as Edith Maxwell)

Lauren Rousseau Mysteries (as Tace Baker)

Awards and recognition

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laurie R. King</span> American author (born 1952)

Laurie R. King is an American author best known for her detective fiction.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laura Lippman</span> American detective fiction writer

Laura Lippman is an American journalist and author of over 20 detective fiction novels. Her novels have won multiple awards, including an Agatha Award, seven Anthony Awards, two Barry Awards, an Edgar Award, a Gumshoe Award, a Macavity Award, a Nero Award, two Shamus Awards, and two Strand Critics Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sujata Massey</span> American novelist

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.

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Margaret Maron</span> American crime fiction writer (1938–2021)

Margaret Maron was an American writer, the author of award-winning mystery novels.

The Macavity Awards, established in 1987, are a group of literary awards presented annually to mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the "mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats. The award is given in four categories—best novel, best first novel, best nonfiction, and best short story. The Sue Feder Historical Mystery has been given in conjunction with the Macavity Awards.

Dana Cameron is an American archaeologist, and author of award-winning crime fiction and urban fantasy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nancy Pickard</span> American novelist

Nancy Pickard is an American crime novelist. She has won five Macavity Awards, four Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, and a Shamus Award. She is the only author to win all four awards. She also served on the board of directors of the Mystery Writers of America. She received a degree in journalism from the University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri and began writing when she was 35 years old.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Louise Penny</span> Canadian author (born 1958)

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.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane K. Cleland</span> American author

Jane K. Cleland is a contemporary American author of mystery fiction. She is the author of the Josie Prescott Antiques Mysteries, a traditional mystery series set in New Hampshire and featuring antiques appraiser Josie Prescott, as well as books and articles about the craft of writing. Cleland has been nominated for and has won numerous awards for her writing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeri Westerson</span> American novelist

Jeri Westerson is an American novelist of medieval mysteries, Tudor mysteries, historical novels, and paranormal novels, along with LGBTQ mysteries under the pen name Haley Walsh.

Karen MacInerney is an American novelist who writes several series: a cozy mystery series about a bed and breakfast owner in an island community off the coast of Maine, a cozy mystery series about a homesteader in rural Texas, a cozy mystery series featuring a bookseller in coastal Maine, a paranormal series with a strong streak of humour, about an accountant trying to ignore the werewolf gene she has inherited from her father, and a humorous mystery series about a suburban mom who decides to become a private investigator. She is a graduate of Plano Senior High School and Rice University. She currently resides in Austin, TX.

Art Taylor is an American short story writer, book critic and an English professor.

G. M. Malliet is an American author of mystery novels and short stories. She is best known as the author of the award-winning Detective Chief Inspector St. Just mysteries and the Rev. Max Tudor mysteries. The first book in her US-based series, Augusta Hawke, appeared in 2022.

Amanda Flower is an American writer of mystery novels under her real name and the pen name, "Isabella Alan". She writes for adults and children. She won the Agatha Award for Children's/Young Adult Book in 2015 for Andi Unstoppable, and was nominated for an Agatha Award in 2010, 2013, and 2014.

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:

Dandy Gilver is the protagonist of a historical mystery series by Catriona McPherson. The stories are set in Scotland in the interwar period, beginning shortly after World War I and extending into the mid-1930s.

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 to 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.

Catriona McPherson is a Scottish writer. She is best known for her Dandy Gilver series. Her novels have won an Agatha Award (2012), two Macavity Awards, seven Lefty Awards (2013), and two Anthony Awards (2014).

References

  1. 1 2 3 Baskin, Kara (26 April 2016). "Six authors who share a passion for murder". The Boston Globe. Boston, Massachusetts. p. G7. Retrieved 10 August 2019.
  2. ↑ Date, Terry (10 April 2019). "Mystery with local history: Amesbury author to host double launch party with fellow writer". Newburyport Daily News. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  3. ↑ Maxwell, Edith (2 March 2018). "Divination of Death by Edith Maxwell". Map Your Mystery. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  4. ↑ Maxwell, Edith (31 March 2020). "Edith, Tace, Maddie, and 20 Mysteries". Wicked Authors. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  5. 1 2 Briana-Gartner, Joanne (4 September 2020). "New Murder Mystery Set In West Falmouth". The Enterprise. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  6. ↑ "Edith Maxwell Books in Order". Books in Order. 14 July 2016. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  7. ↑ "Food Cozy Mysteries: The Books Serving Up Recipes With A Side Of Murder". WGBH.com. 31 July 2020. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
  8. ↑ "Called to Justice". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  9. ↑ Valeri, John (9 April 2019). "Q&A with Edith Maxwell, Author of Charity's Burden". Criminal Element. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  10. ↑ "Charity's Burden". Kirkus Reviews. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  11. ↑ "Amesbury author Edith Maxwell nominated for Agatha mystery award". Newburyport Daily News. 5 March 2015. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  12. ↑ Topping, Grace (22 March 2017). "An Interview With Edith Maxwell". Writers Who Kill. Retrieved 4 August 2019.
  13. ↑ "Announcing 2017's Agatha Award Nominees". Criminal Element. 26 January 2017. Retrieved 17 February 2020.
  14. ↑ Cogdill, Oline. "2020 Agatha Award Winners". Mystery Scene Magazine. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.