Dame Agatha Christie
Agatha Christie is the most widely published author of all time.  In a career that spanned more than fifty years, Christie wrote eighty novels and short story collections, nineteen plays – one of which, the Mousetrap, is the longest running play in history – and five nonfiction books including her autobiography.  In addition, she wrote six romantic novels under the pseudonym Mary Westmacott.  Two of the characters she created, the ingenious Belgian Hercule Poirot and the irrepressible and relentless Miss Jane Marple, became world-famous detectives, immortalized on television by David Suchet and Joan Hickson.
Agatha Christie achieved Britain’s highest honor when she was made a Dame of the British Empire.  She died in 1976.

Books by Agatha Christie:

Check your local book store … both new and used.

Dorothy L. Sayers
Dorothy L. Sayers is the author of novels, short stories, poetry collections, essays, reviews, and translations.  Although she was a noted Christian scholar, she is most known for her detective fiction.  Born in 1893, she was one of the first women to be awarded a degree from Oxford University.  Her first book featuring Lord Peter Wimsey, Whose Body? , was published in 1923 and over the next twenty years more novels and short stories about the aristocratic amateur sleuth appeared.  Dorothy L. Sayers is recognized as one of the greatest mystery writers of the 20^th century.  She died in 1957, but her books continue to enthrall readers today.

Books By Dorothy L. Sayers:

Busman’s Honeymoon                   Clouds of Witness

The Documents in the Case           The Five Red Herrings

Lord Peter: A Collection of All the Lord Peter Wimsey Stories

…. And many more

P.D. James
P.  D. James is the author of fifteen books, nine of which have been filmed and broadcast on television.  She spent thirty years in various sections of the British Civil Service, including the Police and Criminal Law Departments of the Home Office.  She has served as a magistrate and as a governor of the BBC.  P.D. James is the recipient of many prizes and honors, and in 1991 was created Baroness James of Holland Park.

Books by P.D. James:

Original Sin                            Cover Her Face

A Mind for Murder                  Unnatural Causes

Shroud for a Nightingale         Devices and Desires

The Children of Men                A Certain Justice

….and many more

Elizabeth George
Elizabeth George’s novels
have appeared regularly on international bestseller lists since the publication of her first book
in 1988.  She divides her time between Huntington Beach, CA, and London.

Books by Elizabeth George:

Payment in Blood             Well-Schooled in Murder

A Suitable Vengeance       For the Sake of Elena

In Pursuit of the Proper Sinner

… and many more

Patricia Cornwell
“It’s important for me to live in the world I want to write about,” says Patricia Cornwell.  “If I want a character to do or know something, I try to do or know the same thing.”  The award-winning former police reporter spent time working both as an employee of the Virginia Chief Medical Examiner’s Office and as a volunteer police officer before she wrote her first Kay Scarpetta novel, POSTMORTEM.  Her preparation paid off – POSTMORTEM was the first novel ever to win the Edgar, Creasey, Anthony, Macavity, and French Prix du Roman d’Aventure awards in one year.  She has followed that up with ten other bestselling novels featuring Kay Scarpetta.  Ms. Cornwell is also the author of A Time for Remembering, a biography of Ruth Bell Graham, wife of evangelist Billy Graham , and a children’s book, Life’s Little Fable.  She lives in Richmond and New York City.

Books by Patricia Cornwell:

All That Remains     Potter’s Field

Body of Evidence     The Body Farm

Cruel & Unusual

…and more

Kathy Reichs
A forensic anthropologist by profession as well as an author of bestselling books, Kathy Reichs, like her star Tempe Brennan, divides her time between Quebec and North Carolina. She is a  winner of the Arthur Ellis Award for best first novel. Critics say that Reichs has ‘raised the bar’
on crime writing.

Books by Kathy Reichs:

Deja Dead

Deadly Decisions

Fatal Voyage

Judith Van Gieson
Judith Van Gieson lives in Albuquerque  New Mexico, in a neighborhood much like Ditch Rider’s setting.

Books by Judith Van Gieson:

Hotshots

Parrot Blues

The Lies That Bind