Cathy Pickens

Cathy Pickens’ first mystery, Southern Fried, won the Malice Domestic Award for Best New Traditional Mystery in 2003. She followed that up with a second book again featuring Avery Andrews, an attorney from South Carolina, which is the author’s birthplace. On her website, the author writes, “This locale, which is itself a character in my stories, is where my family has lived for 300 years (not in Charlotte, North Carolina, as the book jacket mistakenly says). It's unlike the rest of the state of South Carolina — more hilly, more like western North Carolina than it is like the ‘flatlands’ in the lower part of the state. When people ask, ‘Where did you grow up’ I usually answer ‘Near where they filmed the movie Deliverance’ (on the Chattooga River, pictured on the website banner). People don't usually ask any more questions after that."

Books:

Avery Andrews Mysteries

(2008) Hush My Mouth See Review

(2007) Hog Wild See Review

(2005) Done Gone Wrong See Review

(2004) Southern Fried See Review

Author Profile:

Cathy Pickens has been, under different names, a lawyer, a business professor, a university provost, a clog-dancing coach, a church organist / choir director, and a typist.

The most profound influences on her life have been her family, her faith, Nancy Drew, and Perry Mason. She grew up in a small town and, forced to move to "big cities" to support herself, first as a lawyer and then as a professor, she found the only way to return to the comfortable familiarity of her childhood was by moving Avery Andrews back home and chronicling her exploits.

Profile and photo from author’s website. Used with permission.

Author website: www.cathypickens.com