Edna Buchanan
Bio
Edna Buchanan was born Edna Rydzik in Paterson, New Jersey in 1939. She lived with her sister and both parents until her father left the family when Edna was only 7 years old.
Edna attended Montclair State Teachers College. In 1961, while still living in New Jersey, she visited Florida for the first time. She was captivated. She moved to Miami and got a job writing for the society page of a tabloid. In 1970, the Miami Herald hired her, and she eventually made her way to the police beat. She spent 18 years working for the newspaper, winning a Pulitzer prize for her police beat reporting (in 1986). While at the Miami Herald, Edna married twice (keeping her second husband's surname), covered over 5,000 murders and spent time behind bars with two serial killers.
She progressively made the shift to writing both fiction and non-fiction. In 1979, Buchanan first book, Carr: Five Years of Rape and Murder, was published. A non-fiction book, it chronicled the case of Robert Frederick Carr III, a child rapist and killer. Her popular Britt Montero fiction series focuses on the life of a police beat reporter in Miami (sound familiar?). She has also written true crime books, a (non-series) fiction novels and various short stories.
Her life was dramatized in 2 made-for-tv movies: The Corpse Ha a Familiar Face (1994) and Deadline for Murder: From the Files of Edna Buchanan (1995).
She currently lives in (where else?) Miami, Florida, where she continues to write fiction.
Bibliography
Britt Montero Mysteries:
The Ice Maiden (2002)
You Only Die Twice(2001)
Garden of Evil (1999)
Margin of Error (1997)
Act of Betrayal (1996)
Suitable for Framing (1995)
Miami, It's Murder (1994)
Contents Under Pressure (1992)
Other Books:
Cold Case Squad (2004)
Pulse (1998)
Never Let Them See You Cry (true crime) (1992)
Nobody Lives Forever (1990)
The Corpse Had a Familiar Face (true crime) (1987)
Carr: Five Years of Rape and Murder (non-fiction) (1979)
Edna wrote the introduction for Crime on Deadline, by Lisa Beth Pulitzer (editor). This book contained real stories from nine top crime reporters in America. She was also one of the 13 authors who contributed to Naked Came the Manatee (along with Elmore Leonard, Carl Hiaasen, Dave Barry and others). The authors each wrote one chapter, passing their work along to the next in line.
Short Stories:
The English Tourist (1999, Mystery in the Sunshine State)
The Red Shoes (1999, Murder and Obsession)
Miami Heat (1999, Irreconcilable Differences)
The Widow's Secret (with Britt Montero) (Summer 1998, MHCMM)
Foolproof (1997, The Plot Thickens)
My Most Haunting Case (article) (1996, MHCMM #1)
Links
Fan Site for Edna Buchanan
Mystery Reviews Online
Cold Case Squad: Review and Interview
Audio Interview