Agatha Christie is the top-selling author of all time, with a legacy spanning 66 crime novels, 14 plays, and six romance novels under a pseudonym. Her works have sold over two billion copies globally, translated into at least 103 languages, making her the most translated author. She introduced the world to iconic characters Hercule Poirot and Miss Jane Marple, and wrote *The Mousetrap*, the record-holding longest-running play in modern theater. The youngest in the Miller family, her experience as a nurse during WWI and later roles in pharmacies during both World Wars deeply influenced her mystery novels, often featuring poisons. Christie’s writing career launched in 1920 with *The Mysterious Affair at Styles*. Her life was as captivating as her fiction, notably her 1926 disappearance after her first husband’s affair became public, sparking a nationwide search. Christie's second marriage to archaeologist Max Mallowan enriched her life and work, with travels and homes like the Greenway Estate and Abney Hall providing settings for several novels. Her marriage to Mallowan lasted until her death in 1976. Christie's contributions to literature earned her the title Commander of the Order of the British Empire, solidifying her place in literary history.

My most recent book is Making Good Time: True Stories of How We Do, and Don't, Get Around in South Florida, edited and with an introduction by Lynne Barrett, Jai-Alai Books. WLRN Public Radio interview: https://www.wlrn.org/post/new-collect... My work is in these Fall 2020 anthologies: Grabbed: Poets & Writers on Sexual Assault, Empowerment, and Healing, edited by Elisa Albo, Richard Blanco, Caridad Moro, and Nikki Moustaki, published Beacon Press. And Miami Noir: The Classics, edited by Les Standiford, published by Akashic Books. Magpies received the Gold Medal in General Fiction in the Florida Book Awards. Publishers Weekly says of Magpies: "Barrett portrays adult lives with minimal flourishes and a powerful command of setting. Florida is electric with the tension of "all that can happen"—hurricanes, sinkholes, and a boom-and-bust history. It becomes as eerie as it is richly imagined, whether stories take place in an Art Deco building or a gas station. One of the year's finer university press offerings, the collection is especially noteworthy for "The Noir Boudoir," an atmospheric tale of unsettling realizations and the ways past events shadow the present." Full review at http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-0... Lynne Barrett is the award-winning author of The Secret Names of Women, The Land of Go, and her third collection, Magpies, which won the Gold Medal in Fiction in the Florida Book Awards. Her mini book on submitting to magazines is,i.What Editors Want,,/i> from Rain Chain Press. She co-edited Birth: A Literary Companion and The James M. Cain Cookbook. Her work has appeared in Necessary Fiction, Blue Christmas, Delta Blues, Miami Noir, One Year to a Writing Life, Simply the Best Mysteries, A Hell of a Woman, Fort Lauderdale Magazine, Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, Painted Bride Quarterly, Real South, Night Train, The Southern Women’s Review, and many other anthologies and journals. She has received the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best mystery story from the Mystery Writers of America, the Moondance International Film Festival award for Best Short story, and fellowships from the Florida Division of Cultural Affairs and the National Endowment for the Arts. With her husband and son, she lives in Miami. She teaches in the M.F.A. program in Creative Writing at Florida International University and edits The Florida Book Review. More information can be found at http://www.lynnebarrett.com

Edward D. Hoch is one of the most honored mystery writers of all time. * 1968 Edgar Allan Poe Award (Mystery Writers of America): "The Oblong Room", The Saint Mystery Magazine, July 1967 * 1998 Anthony Award (Bouchercon World Mystery Convention): "One Bag of Coconuts", EQMM, November 1997 * 2001 Anthony Award (Bouchercon): "The Problem of the Potting Shed", EQMM, July 2000 * 2007 Ellery Queen Readers Choice Award (awarded 2008): "The Theft of the Ostracized Ostrich", EQMM, June 2007 * Lifetime Achievement Award (Private Eye Writers of America), 2000 * Grand Master (Mystery Writers of America), 2001 * Lifetime Achievement Award (Bouchercon), 2001

George Baxt, the US playwright, scriptwriter and novelist, in New York City, USA. He began his career as a radio announcer, an actors' agent, and television scriptwriter. He claimed that as an actors' agent he threw James Dean out of his office because he needed a bath. George Baxt's career developed into scriptwriting cult horror films. He made a contribution to The Abominable Dr Phibes, although it was uncredited. His first novel A Queer Kind of Death, (1966), introduced the detective Pharoah Love who was the first in the genre to be both black and openly gay. The novel was very well received and marked the start of a new career in writing. Two further Pharoah Love novels soon appeared and were widely regarded as superior to the first. Nearly three decades passed before the final outings of Pharoah Love in two novels. Meanwhile George Baxt introduced the detective duo Sylvia Plotkin and Max van Larsen, but these were soon abandoned and several non-series novels were produced. Starting with The Dorothy Parker Murder Case, George Baxt then began to use his knowledge of Hollywood life by using celebrities as characters in a series of detective novels. He died following complications after heart surgery. Interesting obituary here: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obi...

William Bankier was one of Canada's premier crime/mystery writers with over 200 short stories published in Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines and in numerous anthologies. His work was produced for several Canadian and British television drama series. His short story collection, "Fear Is a Killer", was published in 1995. William was nominated for the Edgar Award in 1980 and three times for the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award. He was awarded the Crime Writers of Canada Derrick Murdock Award in 1992 for his lifetime achievement. From www.legacy.com

Librarian’s note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. John Lutz has captivated suspense enthusiasts for over four decades. He has been one of the premier voices in contemporary hard-boiled fiction. His work includes political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective, thriller; virtually every mystery sub-genre. John Lutz published his first short story in 1966 in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and has been publishing regularly ever since. He is the author of more than fifty novels and 250 short stories and articles. His novels and short fiction have been translated into virtually every language and adapted for almost every medium. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in his home town of St. Louis, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series suspense novels. His SWF SEEKS SAME was made into the hit movie SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his novel THE EX was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay. Lutz and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis and Sarasota, Florida.

"Michael Underwood" was the pseudonym of British writer John Michael Evelyn. He published his first mystery novel, Murder on Trial, in 1954. His series characters were Martin Ainsworth and Inspector (later Superintendent) Simon Manton. Evelyn was educated at Christ Church College Oxford and Grays Inn London. He was called to the Bar in 1939 but joined the British Army to serve during WWII until 1946, attaining the rank of Major. He returned to a career in law with the Department of Public Prosecutions, serving for some thirty years until his retirement in 1976.

Cornell Woolrich is widely regarded as the twentieth century’s finest writer of pure suspense fiction. The author of numerous classic novels and short stories (many of which were turned into classic films) such as Rear Window, The Bride Wore Black, The Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Waltz Into Darkness, and I Married a Dead Man, Woolrich began his career in the 1920s writing mainstream novels that won him comparisons to F. Scott Fitzgerald. The bulk of his best-known work, however, was written in the field of crime fiction, often appearing serialized in pulp magazines or as paperback novels. Because he was prolific, he found it necessary to publish under multiple pseudonyms, including "William Irish" and "George Hopley" [...] Woolrich lived a life as dark and emotionally tortured as any of his unfortunate characters and died, alone, in a seedy Manhattan hotel room following the amputation of a gangrenous leg. Upon his death, he left a bequest of one million dollars to Columbia University, to fund a scholarship for young writers. Source: [http://www.hardcasecrime.com/books\_bi...]

Lillian de la Torre was an American novelist and a prolific writer of historical mysteries. Her name is a pseudonym for Lillian de la Torre Bueno McCue. Her most popular works were in a series of stories she wrote about Samuel Johnson and James Boswell, under the title 'Dr. Sam: Johnson, Detector'. She also wrote numerous books, short stories for Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, reviews for The New York Times Book Review, poetry and plays. She was a President of the Mystery Writers of America.