Mystery Lovers Corner

D. R. Meredith, Doris to friends and family, has a split personality-one is that of a conservatively dressed legal secretary at her husband Mike's law firm.  At night she turns into Mrs. Hyde dressed in jeans, flip-flops, and Texas Rangers' tee shirt and commits bloody murder.  She is now in double digits.  In her fourth book in the Megan Clark mystery series, the 18th book of her career, D. R. Meredith has just committed her 35th murder.  "I usually average 2 murders a book, because one murder in a closed circle of suspects usually leads to another in the accepted Agatha Christie fashion.  In TOME OF DEATH there are two murders, but they occur 150 years apart.  I like linking the past and present and exploring the effect our past has on our present.  I can't tell how I use the past without giving a broad hint to the killer's identity, but I will say that human beings don't change over time except in dress and customs.  My Comanche warrior amateur sleuth isn't all that different in emotional feelings from modern paleopathologist Megan Clark, except Megan isn't into scalping."

Famous for the unique ways her victims are "done in," Meredith has created three highly acclaimed mystery series, all set in the Texas Panhandle.  One series features attorney John Lloyd Branson, another a Texas county sheriff named Charles Matthews, while the third and latest series features an unemployed paleopathologist and female sleuth named Megan Clark, who leads her book club from reading mysteries to solving them.

Meredith's first two sheriff mysteries won the "Oppie" for Best Mystery of 1984 and Best Mystery of 1985.  Both THE SHERIFF AND THE BRANDING IRON MURDERS and THE SHERIFF AND THE FOLSOM MAN MURDERS were selections of the Detective Book Club.  Of the John Lloyd Branson series, both MURDER BY IMPULSE and MURDER BY DECEPTION  were finalists for an Anthony Award for Best Original Paperback in their respective years of publication.  MURDER BY REFERENCE was selected to be included in "Murder in the Museum III: A Bibliography" compiled by a panel of museum curators as a study in how the museum is perceived by the public.  "I was rather skeptical when I first heard about that program recommending my book until I received an e-mail from a curator at the Smithsonian, who had been a member of that group.  I was flattered but flabbergasted," says the respectable looking murderer.

A graduate of the University of Oklahoma, Meredith has been a teacher, librarian, and bookseller before turning to writing full time.  She considers her present occupation as her husband's legal secretary as an aberration.  She was a regional director of Mystery Writers of America, and was the National Liaison Chaqir for American Crime Writers League.  She is the Book Editor for ROUNDUP MAGAZINE, published by Western Writers of America, has been a book reviewer for the AMARILLO GLOBE NEWS, a contributing editor for KIRKUS REVIEWS, and is the current Western Fiction editor for WHAT DO I READ NEXT?, a reference book for libraries and bookstores published by the Gale Group.  She has been a judge for the Spur Awards five times, an Edgar judge twice, and most recently a judge for the Western Heritage Award.  She was one of three mystery writers featured in TEXAS MONTHLY.  Meredith is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Western Writers of America, American Crime Writers League, and Sisters in Crime.  When not writing or being a literary critic, she teaches writing seminars at conferences and universities, including Frank Phillips Junior College, Amarillo College, West Texas A&M University, Emporia State University, Rice University, University of Texas at Dallas, University of North Texas, and University of Nebraska. She also gives programs for libraries and book clubs.  Texas Almanac named Doris one the state's ten best mystery writers, an honor she considers makes her a resource along with natural gas and beef cattle.  Both Meredith's personalities live in Amarillo, Texas, with her husband and two dogs, both of whom appear in her books.