Nancy Pickard

Nancy Pickard is an American mystery and crime fiction author best known for her Jenny Cain series, which ran from 1984 to 1999 and earned her multiple Anthony Awards, Agatha Awards, and Macavity Awards, making her one of the most decorated mystery writers of her generation. Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Pickard grew up in the Midwest and attended the University of Missouri before embarking on a career in fiction writing that has produced more than twenty novels and numerous short stories.

The Jenny Cain series features a foundation director in a small New England town who repeatedly finds herself entangled in murder investigations. The series is notable for its psychological depth, its feminist sensibility, and its attention to the social textures of community life. Books in the series including Bum Steer, I.O.U., and But I Wouldn’t Want to Die There received particular critical acclaim.

Pickard has also co-written books with Virginia Rich, completing Rich’s unfinished Eugenia Potter series, and has collaborated with Lynn Lott on Seven Steps on the Writer’s Path (2003), a guide to the emotional journey of writing. Her standalone thriller The Virgin of Small Plains (2006), set in Kansas, was a departure from the cozy mystery tradition and demonstrated her range as a crime writer.

She has been active in Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, organizations devoted to supporting and promoting crime fiction, and has served as a teacher and mentor to many younger mystery writers. She continues to write from the Kansas City area and is recognized as a foundational figure in modern American mystery fiction.