Elaine Viets

Elaine Viets (born 1950) Viets researches these books herself by taking the same sort of low-level dead-end jobs—telemarketer, shop clerk, and so forth—as the series' protagonist, Helen Hawthorne.

Viets, married for over 30 years to author and actor Don Crinklaw, is active in the trade organizations Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. She is a board member of the Mystery Writers of America. In 2004, she was nominated for three Agatha Awards. In 2005, she won awards presented for Best Short Story at two notable mystery conventions: an Agatha Award at Malice Domestic Ltd and an Anthony Award at Bouchercon, both for her story Wedding Knife.

On April 11, 2007, Viets's fellow contributors to The Lipstick Chronicles reported that Viets had suffered a stroke. According to a subsequent update, Viets is recovering well and is again creating mysteries based on real life and the people who live it.

She appeared one the very first episode of Mythbusters during the "Biscuit Bullet" story.

Publications

Francesca Vierling, Newspaper Columnist TitlePublication

Dead-End Job TitlePublication Berkley

New American Library

Premier Mystery Series

Josie Marcus, Mystery Shopper TitlePublication

Angela Richman, Death Investigator TitlePublication

Brilliance Audio

Brilliance Audio

Kindle

Anthologies and collections TitleContentsPublication and Crime StoriesRed Meat

Other books TitleCoauthorPublication

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