Janet Dawson is the author of the series of novels featuring Oakland private investigator Jeri Howard. Her first, Kindred Crimes, won the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for best first private eye novel. It was nominated in the best first category for three mystery awards, the Shamus, the Macavity and the Anthony.

Dawson's second novel, Till The Old Men Die, was followed by Take A Number, Don't Turn Your Back On The Ocean, Nobody's Child, A Credible Threat, Witness to Evil, and Where The Bodies Are Buried. The ninth Jeri Howard novel, titled A Killing at the Track, has just been published.

Dawson's short stories are "By The Book," in Sisters in Crime IV, "Little Red Corvette," in Lethal Ladies, "Invisible Time," in Once Upon A Crime, "What The Cat Dragged In," in Cat Crimes Through Time, and "Mrs. Lincoln's Dilemma," in The First Lady Murders. "Witchcraft" is available from MightyWords.com. "Blue Eyes" will be published in the forthcoming Cat Crimes Goes to Court.

Dawson lives in Alameda, California and works as a legal secretary. In past lives she has been a newspaper reporter, as well as both an enlisted journalist and officer in the U.S. Navy. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Private Eye Writers of America, and Mystery Readers International.

Photo: Charles R. Lucke