Kaitlyn Dunnett/Kathy Lynn Emerson

Kathy Lynn Emerson (real name) and Kaitlyn Dunnett (pseudonym) are both mystery writers. Kathy’s newest novel (release date August 9, 2023) is Death of an Intelligence Gatherer, a mystery set in 1554 and following the quest of Cordell Ingram, an English gentlewoman, to find justice for her murdered father. The story begins in London, takes Cordell to Strasbourg, where exiles from Mary Tudor’s England have fled and where Sir Henry Ingram has been secretly gathering intelligence, through France, and back to her native land just as Wyatt’s Rebellion breaks out.

Kathy Lynn Emerson is also the author of three historical mystery series. The Face Down Mysteries, with ten novels and numerous short stories, feature Elizabethan gentlewoman, herbalist, and sleuth Susanna, Lady Appleton. The first book is Face Down in the Marrow-Bone Pie. All are available in e-book format, both individually and in the three volume The Face Down Collection. The spin-off Mistress Jaffrey Mysteries feature Rosamond Jaffrey, spy and sleuth (starting with Murder in the Queen’s Wardrobe). Rosamond also appears in several of the Face Down books. The third series is the Diana Spaulding 1888 Quartet, featuring an intrepid scandal sheet reporter and a physician who hails from Bangor, Maine. The first book in this series is Deadlier than the Pen. There is also an e-book omnibus edition of this four-book series.

In nonfiction, Kathy wrote the Agatha-award-winning nonfiction book, How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries: The Art and Adventure of Sleuthing Through the Past, now available in an updated edition.

Also updated and releasing in the summer of 2023 is her Writer’s Guide to Everyday Life in Renaissance England 1485-1649, originally published as part of the Writer’s Digest Everyday Life series in 1996.

In newly created nonfiction, she is the author of I Kill People for a Living: A Collection of Essays by a Writer of Cozy Mysteries, available in e-book and trade paperback format.

In addition to sixty-four traditionally published books, Kathy has independently published the biography of her grandfather, who lived from the late nineteenth century through the middle of the twentieth in rural Sullivan County, New York, the same area that is the setting for Kaitlyn’s “Deadly Edits” series. The Life of a Plodder is listed under the name Kathy Lynn Gorton Emerson and is available at all the usual online bookstores.

A Who’s Who of Tudor Women is the e-book version of the content that appeared online from 2010-2020. This is a collection of over 2300 mini-biographies of women who lived in England between 1485 and 1603.

Back at the start of her career, Kathy wrote books for ages 8-12 . The Mystery of Hilliard’s Castle, The Mystery of the Missing Bagpipes, Julia’s Mending and Nellie Bly (a biography) have been reissued in paperback and e-book formats. Also available are two original juvenile historical novels, Shalla (set in Colonial America) and Katie’s Way (set in the 1920s), and Someday, a young adult novel of romantic suspense set in 1992.

Kaitlyn Dunnett’s two mystery series are the Liss MacCrimmon Scottish-American Heritage Mysteries set in Moosetookalook, Maine, where Liss runs Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium, and the “Deadly Edits” series. The first Liss MacCrimmon book was Kilt Dead and the series ended with number thirteen, A View to a Kilt. Crime & Punctuation, Clause & Effect, A Fatal Fiction, and Murder, She Edited are the four books featuring retired-teacher-turned-book-doctor Mikki Lincoln, who sets up shop in the village of Lenape Hollow, New York. The most recent book by Kaitlyn is The Valentine Veilleux Mysteries, a collection of three short stories and a novella featuring pet and calendar photographer Valentine Veilleux, a character who appeared once in each of the previous series.

Kaitlyn/Kathy lives in the Western Maine mountains with her husband and their cat, Shadow.