Elizabeth J. Duncan is a Canadian writer of cozy mysteries and the author of the ongoing Penny Brannigan series set in North Wales. [1] The first book in the series, A Cold Light of Mourning, was nominated for the Agatha Award and Arthur Ellis Award in 2009. [2] [3] The fourth novel in the series, A Small Hill to Die On, won the Bony Blithe Award in 2013 and the fifth novel, Never Laugh as A Hearse Goes By, was nominated for the same award in 2014. [4] [5]
Duncan graduated from Carleton University, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, with a BA in English. Prior to becoming a novelist, she worked as a writer and editor for Canadian newspapers, including the Ottawa Citizen and the Hamilton Spectator . [6] She currently teaches in The School for Writers Program at Humber College. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, Canada and spends time abroad each year in North Wales. [7]
Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, was an English writer 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 since 1952. A writer during the "Golden Age of Detective Fiction", Christie has been called the "Queen of Crime". 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.
Joan Bogle Hickson, OBE was an English actress of theatre, film and television. She was known for her role as Agatha Christie's Miss Marple in the television series Miss Marple. She also narrated a number of Miss Marple stories on audiobooks.
Laura Joh Rowland is an American detective/mystery author best known for her series of historical mystery novels featuring protagonist Sano Ichirō set in feudal Japan, mostly in Edo during the late 17th century. She is also the author of two other historical mystery series, one featuring a fictionalized Charlotte Brontë, as well an ongoing series set in Victorian England around the time of the Jack the Ripper murders.
Susan Wittig Albert, also known by the pen names Robin Paige and Carolyn Keene, is an American mystery writer from Vermilion County, Illinois, United States. Albert was an academic and the first female vice president of Southwest Texas State University before retiring to become a fulltime writer.
Kinn Hamilton McIntosh, known professionally as Catherine Aird, is an English novelist. She is the author of more than twenty crime fiction novels and several collections of short stories. Her witty, literate, and deftly plotted novels straddle the "cozy" and "police procedural" genres and are somewhat similar in flavour to those of Martha Grimes, Caroline Graham, M C Beaton, Margaret Yorke, and Pauline Bell. She was inducted into the prestigious Detection Club in 1981, and is a recipient of the 2015 Cartier Diamond Dagger award.
Keigo Higashino is a Japanese author chiefly known for his mystery novels. He served as the 13th President of Mystery Writers of Japan from 2009 to 2013. Higashino has won major Japanese awards for his books, almost twenty of which have been turned into films and TV series.
Donna Andrews is an American mystery fiction writer of two award-winning amateur sleuth series. Her first book, Murder with Peacocks (1999), introduced Meg Langslow, a blacksmith from Yorktown, Virginia. It won the St. Martin's Minotaur Best First Traditional Mystery contest, the Agatha, Anthony, Barry, and Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice awards for best first novel, and the Lefty award for funniest mystery of 1999. The first novel in the Turing Hopper series debuted a highly unusual sleuth—an Artificial Intelligence (AI) personality who becomes sentient—and won the Agatha Award for best mystery that year.
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.
Jerrilyn Farmer is an American mystery fiction writer, author of a series of humorous 'cozy' mysteries featuring Hollywood caterer 'Madeline Bean'.
Jeffrey Round is a Canadian writer, director, playwright, publisher, and songwriter, who has encouraged the development of LGBT literature, particularly in Canada. His published work includes literary fiction, plays, poetry and mystery novels.
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.
Jeri Westerson, born 1960, 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.
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.
Daniel Stashower is an American author and editor of mystery fiction and historical nonfiction. He lives in Maryland.
Amanda Flower is a USA Today bestselling 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.
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache is the main character in a series of mystery novels written by Canadian author Louise Penny. The series is set around the life of Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of Sûreté du Québec, the provincial police force for Quebec. Books in the series have been nominated for and received numerous awards.
Jennifer Chow or Jennifer J. Chow, is an American writer and novelist. She is an Agatha, Anthony, and Lefty Award-nominated author, writing cozy mysteries filled with hope and heritage. Her most recent series is the L.A. Night Market Mysteries. Death by Bubble Tea was reviewed by the New York Times, featured in Woman’s World, and hit the SoCal Indie Bestseller List. Kirkus Reviews described Hot Pot Murder this way: “Great characters and a delightful mystery filled with luscious descriptions of food.”
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.
Elizabeth C. Bunce is an American author who writes mysteries, fantasy, and ghost stories featuring strong female characters. Best known for her Edgar Award-winning Myrtle Hardcastle Mystery series and her novel A Curse Dark as Gold, her books 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.