Elizabeth M. Cosin was born in Ossining, NY at the end of the baby boom generation. In 1973, she was among several girls who helped break the sex line in Little League Baseball in the state of New York. She spent more than a decade as an award-winning investigative journalist, sportswriter, reporter and feature writer in Virginia and Washington, D.C. and more recently in Los Angeles. She has contributed to several national and local publications including Sports Illustrated and was included in a compilation of sportswriting by women published in 1994. In 1990, she lost her right lung to cancer.

On the second anniversary of the Northridge earthquake ( January 17, 1997) she abruptly quit her job in journalism to devote time to writing and took a job as a publicist for a local music venue where she met her agent, Dino Carlaftes. He read, "Zen and the Art of Murder" and sold it to St. Martin's Press one month later. It was published in October 1998 to rave reviews. The Washington Post said, "Zen has seldom been more fun, more violent, and more irreverent than in "Zen and the Art of Murder" a wonderful debut novel from Elizabeth M. Cosin." It was nominated for a Shamus Award and picked as one of the best five new mystery novels of 1998 by Booklist. The sequel to "Zen and the City of Angels," was a Los Angeles Times bestseller. The third Zen Moses novel, "Zen Justice," will be published by St. Martin's mystery imprint Minotaur Press early in 2002.

Elizabeth has written for several prime time television series including the detective dramas "Buddy Faro" and "Snoops." She is executive story editor of the CBS legal drama "Hopewell," which is scheduled to debut next season.

Elizabeth lives in Los Angeles with her cat, Sassy, spending what little free time she has biking in the Santa Monica Mountains, working on her short game and discovering new microbrews.