P.B. Ryan

P.B. Ryan (the artist formerly known as Patricia Ryan) tapped into her fascination with 19th century American cities to create the Gilded Age mystery series, which is set in post-Civil War Boston. The star of the series is Nell Sweeney, a young Irish-born governess with a not-so-respectable past that must be kept hidden at all costs. Nell is assisted in her sleuthing by her employer's black sheep son, Will Hewitt, whom one reader summed up with glib precision as "rich boy, martyr, and rake." The reaction of the series' fans to the complicated, slowly evolving relationship between Nell and Will ("the beating heart of the series" according to another reader) has delighted Pat, who is pretty deeply wrapped up in them herself. As the arc of that relationship began to draw to its natural conclusion, Pat made the bittersweet decision to end the series with Book #6, A BUCKET OF ASHES, which will be published in December of 2007. This final book, which made Pat cry more than once as she wrote it, wraps things up in a way that should be eminently gratifying to Nell and Will's many admirers. The Gilded Age series has been as popular with critics as with readers, and MURDER IN A MILL TOWN was nominated for the coveted Mary Higgins Clark Award. Pat formerly worked in the publishing industry in New York City and Rochester, NY, as both a marketing manager and editor. She lives in upstate New York with her husband and cats—and occasionally with her college-student daughters, who never show up without the time-honored laundry-stuffed suitcase.