About the Author

The first Avery Andrews novel, Southern Fried, won the 2003 St. Martin's Press/Malice Domestic Award for Best New Traditional Mystery. Romantic Times BookClub magazine reviewers named it one of the five "Best First Mysteries" for 2004 and Publishers Weekly called is "a cozy with sharp edges." The five books in the series are set in small-town South Carolina, where Cathy grew up and where her family has lived for 300 years. Cathy has also written a mystery walking tour of Charleston, South Carolina: Charleston Mysteries (History Press 2007) .At various times and under various aliases, she's been an attorney; a university provost; a writer of law books and articles on poisons and private detectives; a church organist and choir director; and a ballroom and clog dance coach. In her other life, Cathy is a lawyer and business professor at Queens University of Charlotte. She teaches a popular MBA elective on the creative process.Cathy's key words include: South Carolina; murder mysteries; Clemson University; University of South Carolina School of Law; Sisters in Crime; Mystery Writers of America; Queens University of Charlotte; McColl School of Business; creativity; innovation; the creative process; Charlotte, NC.