Emily Toll

Emily Toll considers herself one of the luckiest women alive. Not only is she able to do the work she loves, but that work involves killing folks who’ve got it coming, in the comfort and privacy of her own office.

She didn’t set out to be a serial killer. She didn’t even set out to be a writer. But somewhere along the rocky road to adulthood and gainful employment, she made a very crooked turn. That turn also led her from the frigid winters of Chicago to sunny Southern California, where she has lived happily for a quarter century.

When her mainstream tale Convictions: A Novel of the Sixties was published in 1985, Emily considered herself on the path to literary success. She didn’t realize at first that this path is long and twisted and sometimes leads right off the edge of cliffs. A few years later, she decided to turn to crime. She was reluctant to attempt writing mysteries because they had always been her favorite form of entertainment, and she feared that writing them would spoil the pleasure of reading them. Happily this proved not to be the case.

Because she has always believed travel to be one of the highest forms of art, Emily looked for a way to incorporate this into her work. The result was Guns and Roses, a travel mystery set on a tour of the History and Gardens of Virginia, primarily in Colonial Williamsburg. Guns and Roses was nominated for Agatha and Macavity Awards as the Best Mystery Novel of 2000.

Guns and Roses also led to a new travel mystery series, written under the pseudonym Emily Toll. Murder Will Travel, the first in this series, introduced Lynne Montgomery, a Southern California widow who leads the occasional intriguing tour through her Booked for Travel agency.

There’ve been other side trips on Emily’s writerly path including the script for the Academy Award-nominated short film, Doubletalk.

She’s been involved with libraries since she was three, when she began checking books out of the Skippy Cannon Memorial Library at church, named for an uncle who died young. She has served thirteen terms as president of various Library Friends groups and currently runs the Friends Bookstore at her local library. This bookstore turns a nice profit, thanks to a great volunteer staff, wonderful book donations and prime space provided by the Library.

Emily Toll lives in a Southern California beach town where flower growing is a common occupation and the high school offers Surf PE.