Amy Myers

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][4][5] Publishers Weekly,^[6][7] Booklist,^[8] and Kirkus Reviews.^[9][10][11] Myers has also been published several times in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine.^[12][13] Janet Hutchings, the magazine's longtime editor, called Myers "one of our best and most frequent contributors of historicals" (i.e., historical mysteries).^[13]

Personal life

Myers was born in Barnehurst,^[14] which was still considered part of Kent in 1938. (In 1965, the town became part of Greater London.) It was while working in publishing that Myers met her soon-to-be American husband. Myers oversaw the publication of an autobiography by English bullfighter Henry Higgins; she met Higgins, his co-author, and the co-author's cousin, James Myers, born in Buffalo, New York.^[15][16] Although American-born, James Myers, has spent his adult life living in Europe.^[16]

For 10 years, the Myers maintained a commuter marriage, dividing their time between Paris, where James worked, and London, where Amy worked.^[1][15][17] It was during her stays in Paris that 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.^[17] The couple now live in Kent full-time.^[2][15][17]

Writing career

Like the character Luke Frost in Myers' Marsh and Daughter series, Myers was once a publisher. She served as 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.^[17] Myers published her first mystery, Murder in Pug's Parlor, in 1986. In 1988, Myers turned to writing full-time.

After 11 Auguste Didier mysteries, Myers introduced former police detective Peter Marsh and his daughter Georgia in The Wickenham Murders in 2004. The father–daughter team write true-crime novels in which they expose an injustice or sleuth out the answer to an unsolved crime from the distant past.^[18] The Marshes' investigations almost inevitably involve them with present-day murders stemming from secrets involving the past.^[18]

Myers launched a third series in 2007 with Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner. Tom Wasp, a Victorian era chimney sweep in East London, solves crimes along with his former apprentice, Ned.^[18] Myers' fourth series, written with the help of her car buff husband, began in 2011 with Classic in the Barn.^[16] That series features a modern-day classic-car restorer in Kent, Jack Colby, who helps the police with cases involving classic cars.^[18]

In 2017, Myers introduced yet another cozy mystery series, this one featuring Nell Drury, a female French-trained chef in 1925 Kent when such a thing was a real anomaly. The debut novel is titled Dancing with Death.^[19]

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.^[15][17]

Myers also writes reviews of other books at the online crime and thriller magazine Shots.^[17]

References

External links

• 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