Under the Beetle's Cellar

Mary Willis Walker (1942–2023) was an American crime fiction author who began writing in her mid-forties after graduating from Duke University and teaching high school English. She achieved major success with novels like Zero at the Bone (1991), which won Agatha and Macavity awards for best first novel, and the Molly Cates series starting with The Red Scream (1994), which earned an Edgar Award for Best Novel.