Amy Myers (born 3 August 1938) is a British mystery writer. She is best known for her Marsh and Daughter mystery series, featuring a writing team consisting of a wheel-chair bound ex-policeman and his daughter, and for another series, featuring a Victorian era chef, Auguste Didier.[1] Myers' books have been favourably reviewed in Library Journal,[2][3] Publishers Weekly,[4] Booklist,[5] and Kirkus Reviews.[6] Myers has also been published many times in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.[7] Janet Hutchings, the magazine's longtime editor, called Myers "one of our best and most frequent contributors of historicals" (i.e., historical mysteries).[8]
Personal life
editMyers was born in Barnehurst,[9] Kent (part of Greater London since 1965) in 1938. While working in publishing, Myers met her American soon-to-be husband. She oversaw the publication of an autobiography by the English bullfighter Henry Higgins; she met him, his co-author and the co-author's cousin, James Myers.[10] Myers was born in Buffalo, New York, US, but had spent his adult life in Europe.[11]
For ten years, the Myers maintained a commuter marriage, dividing their time between Paris, where James worked, and London, where Amy worked.[1][10][12] During her stays in Paris, Myers dreamed up the character for her first mystery series, Auguste Didier, a half-English, half-French chef who reluctantly dabbled in detection during the late Victorian and Edwardian periods.[12] The couple now live in Kent full-time.[2]
Writing career
editLike the character Luke Frost in Myers' Marsh and Daughter series, Myers was once a publisher. She was a director of the now-defunct publishing firm of William Kimber & Co. Ltd., which specialised in war and theatrical memoirs, autobiographies, biographies and tales of hauntings.[9] She published her first mystery, Murder in Pug's Parlor, in 1986. In 1988, she turned to writing full-time.
After eleven Auguste Didier mysteries, Myers introduced the former police detective Peter Marsh and his daughter Georgia in The Wickenham Murders in 2004. The father–daughter team writes true-crime novels in which they expose an injustice or sleuth out the answer to an unsolved crime from the distant past.# The Marshes' investigations almost inevitably involve them with present-day murders stemming from secrets involving the past.[13]
Myers launched a third series in 2007 with Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner. Wasp, a Victorian era chimney sweep in East London, solves crimes with his former apprentice, Ned.[13] Myers' fourth series, written with the help of her car buff husband, began in 2011 with Classic in the Barn.[11] That series features a modern-day classic-car restorer in Kent, Jack Colby, who helps the police with cases involving classic cars.[13]
In 2017, Myers introduced yet another cosy mystery series, featuring Nell Drury, a female French-trained chef in 1925 Kent when such a thing was a real anomaly. The first novel is titled Dancing with Death.[14]
For her romances, historical sagas and suspense novels, Myers created the pseudonym Harriet Hudson, although she has occasionally also used the names Laura Daniels and Alice Carr.[10][12]
Myers also writes reviews of other books at the online crime and thriller magazine Shots.[12]
Many of her crime novels are available in German translation.
Mystery novels
editAuguste Didier series
- 1986 Murder in Pug's Parlour
- 1986 Murder in the Limelight
- 1989 Murder at the Masque
- 1991 Murder Makes an Entree
- 1992 Murder Under the Kissing Bough
- 1994 Murder in the Smokehouse
- 1995 Murder at the Music Hall
- 1996 Murder in the Motor Stable
- 1999 Murder with Majesty
- 2000 Murder in the Queen's Boudoir
Marsh and Daughter series
- 2004 The Wickenham Murders
- 2005 Murder in Friday Street
- 2006 Murder in Hell's Corner
- 2007 Murder and the Golden Goblet
- 2008 Murder in the Mist
- 2009 Murder Takes the Stage
- 2010 Murder on the Old Road
- 2011 Murder in Abbot's Folly
- 2022 The Maid of Kent Murders
Tom Wasp series
- 2007 Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner
- 2010 Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker
- 2019 Tom Wasp and the Seven Deadly Sins
Classic Car series
- 2011 Classic in the Barn
- 2012 Classic in the Clouds
- 2012 Classic Calls the Shots
- 2013 Classic Mistake
- 2014 Classic in the Pits
- 2015 Classic Cashes In
- 2015 Classic in the Dock
- 2016 Classic at Bay
Nell Drury series
- 2017 Dancing with Death
- 2018 Death at the Wychbourne Follies
- 2020 Death and the Singing Birds
Under the pseudonym Harriet Hudson
- 1989 Look for Me by Moonlight
- 1991 When Nightingales Sang
- 1992 The Wooing of Katie May
- 1993 The Girl from Gadsby's
- 1998 Into the Sunlight
- 1999 Not in our Stars
- 2000 The Sun in Glory
- 2000 To My Own Desire
- 2001 Quinn
- 2002 Tomorrow's Garden
- 2003 Catching the Sunlight
- 2005 Applemere Summer
- 2007 The Windy Hill
- 2007 The Stationmaster's Daughter
- 2010 The Man Who Came Back
The Ashden Quartet (set in the English homefront during the First World War at the rectory in the Sussex village of Ashden)
- 1996 The Last Summer (under the pseudonym Alice Carr)
- 1999 Dark Harvest (under the pseudonym Alice Carr)
- 1999 Winter Roses (under the pseudonym Harriet Hudson)
- 2001 Songs of Spring (under the pseudonym Harriet Hudson)
Under the pseudonym Laura Daniels
- 1995 Pleasant Vices
- 1995 The Lakenham Folly
Short story collections
- 2006 Murder, 'Orrible Murder! Published by Crippen & Landru
References
edit- ^ a b Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 September 2007). Library Journal. 132 (14): 116. ISSN 0363-0277.
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link) - ^ a b Klett, Rex E. (1 November 2004). "The Wickenham Murders". Library Journal. 129 (18). Media Source, Inc.: 58. ISSN 0363-0277.
- ^ Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 August 2007). "Murder and the Golden Goblet: A Marsh and Daughter Mystery". Library Journal. 132 (13). Media Source, Inc.: 55. ISSN 0363-0277.
- Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 September 2008). "Murder in the Mist: A Marsh and Daughter Mystery". Library Journal. 133 (14). Media Source, Inc.: 102. ISSN 0363-0277.
- Jacobsen, Teresa L. (1 June 2011). "Classic in the Barn: A Case for Jack Colby, Car Detective". Library Journal. 136 (10). Media Source, Inc.: 84. ISSN 0363-0277. - ^ "Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker". Publishers Weekly. 257 (11). PWxyz LLC: 41. 15 March 2010. ISSN 0000-0019.
- "Classic in the Barn: A Case for Jack Colby, the Car Detective". Publishers Weekly. 228 (20). PWxyz LLC: 59. 16 May 2011. ISSN 0000-0019. - ^ Flanagan, Margaret (15 December 2012). "Classic in the Clouds". Booklist. 109 (8). American Library Association: 21. ISSN 0006-7385.
- ^ "Book Review: Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker". Kirkus Reviews. 78 (6). Kirkus Reviews, LLC: 229. 15 March 2010. ISSN 1948-7428.
- "Book Review: Classic Calls the Shots". Kirkus Reviews. 80 (12). Kirkus Media, LLC: 1218. 15 June 2012. ISSN 1948-7428.
- "Book Review: Classic Mistake". Kirkus Reviews. 81 (14): 330. 15 July 2013. ISSN 1948-7428. - ^ "2011". Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
- ^ Hutchings, Janet (27 March 2013). ""History Mystery" (by Amy Myers)". Editor of Ellery Queen′s Mystery Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
- ^ a b "Amy Myers". Goodreads. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ a b c "Our Authors: Amy Myers". Severn House Publishers. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ a b Myers, James. "Crime in the Fast Lane". Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ a b c d Myers, Amy. "Author Web Page". amymyers.net. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ a b c Myers, Amy. "The Characters". Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
- ^ "Dancing with Death: A country house mystery". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
External links
edit- Amy Myers' official website
- Crime in the Fast Lane, where James Myers blogs in the guise of his wife's character, Jack Colby, and about classic cars