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]

This article is about the writer. For the artist, see Amy Myers (artist).

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]

Mystery novels

Auguste 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

Tom Wasp series
  • 2007 Tom Wasp and the Murdered Stunner
  • 2010 Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker

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

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 World War I 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 collection
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References
  1. Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 September 2007). Library Journal. 132 (14): 116. ISSN 0363-0277.CS1 maint: untitled periodical (link)
  2. Klett, Rex E. (1 November 2004). "The Wickenham Murders". Library Journal. Media Source, Inc. 129 (18): 58. ISSN 0363-0277.
  3. Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 August 2007). "Murder and the Golden Goblet: A Marsh and Daughter Mystery". Library Journal. Media Source, Inc. 132 (13): 55. ISSN 0363-0277.
  4. Vicarel, Jo Ann (1 September 2008). "Murder in the Mist: A Marsh and Daughter Mystery". Library Journal. Media Source, Inc. 133 (14): 102. ISSN 0363-0277.
  5. Jacobsen, Teresa L. (1 June 2011). "Classic in the Barn: A Case for Jack Colby, Car Detective". Library Journal. Media Source, Inc. 136 (10): 84. ISSN 0363-0277.
  6. "Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker". Publishers Weekly. PWxyz LLC. 257 (11): 41. 15 March 2010. ISSN 0000-0019.
  7. "Classic in the Barn: A Case for Jack Colby, the Car Detective". Publishers Weekly. PWxyz LLC. 228 (20): 59. 16 May 2011. ISSN 0000-0019.
  8. Flanagan, Margaret (15 December 2012). "Classic in the Clouds". Booklist. American Library Association. 109 (8): 21. ISSN 0006-7385.
  9. "Book Review: Tom Wasp and the Newgate Knocker". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Reviews, LLC. 78 (6): 229. 15 March 2010. ISSN 1948-7428.
  10. "Book Review: Classic Calls the Shots". Kirkus Reviews. Kirkus Media, LLC. 80 (12): 1218. 15 June 2012. ISSN 1948-7428.
  11. "Book Review: Classic Mistake". Kirkus Reviews. 81 (14): 330. 15 July 2013. ISSN 1948-7428.
  12. "2011". Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  13. Hutchings, Janet (27 March 2013). ""History Mystery" (by Amy Myers)". Something Is Going To Happen: The Editor of Ellery Queen′s Mystery Magazine. Retrieved 1 December 2013.
  14. "Amy Myers Author Profile". Goodreads. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  15. "Our Authors: Amy Myers". Severn House Publishers. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  16. Myers, James. "Crime in the Fast Lane". Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  17. Myers, Amy. "Author Web Page". amymyers.net. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  18. Myers, Amy. "The Characters, Amy Myers' Web Page". Archived from the original on 17 December 2013. Retrieved 16 September 2012.
  19. "Dancing with Death: A country house mystery". Barnes & Noble. Retrieved 11 February 2017.
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