Jan Burke
Born (1953-08-01) August 1, 1953
Houston, Texas, U.S.
OccupationAuthor
NationalityAmerican
Alma materCalifornia State University, Long Beach
Notable awardsEdgar Allan Poe Award for Best Novel (2000)

Jan Burke (born August 1, 1953) is an American author of novels and short stories. She is a winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel, the Agatha for Best Short Story, the Macavity, and Ellery Queen Readers Award.

Bio

Burke was born August 1, 1953, in Houston, Texas,[1] but has lived in Southern California most of her life. She attended California State University, Long Beach, and graduated with a degree in history. She is a distinguished alumna of CSULB.

She worked as a researcher on an oral history project interviewing "Rosie the Riveters." Later she became the manager of a manufacturing plant for a large corporation.

She completed her first novel, Goodnight, Irene, in the evenings after work. It was sold unagented and unsolicited to Simon & Schuster. She received a surprising boost from a new fan when, during his first White House interview after taking office, President Bill Clinton said he was reading Goodnight, Irene.

Her books have been on bestseller lists of the New York Times, USA Today and other publications. They have been published internationally and have been optioned for film and television.

Burke became active in raising awareness of the problems facing crime labs and the need to obtain better funding for forensic science, at one point founding a nonprofit to do so. She has also been an advocate for the improvement of medicolegal death investigation in the U.S. and for requiring the reporting of unidentified remains to NamUs. Working with missing persons advocates, she helped to get legislation passed in New York State, the first state to require Namus reporting by all coroners and medical examiners. Other states have followed this model. She has been a speaker at meetings of the National Institute of Justice, the American Society of Crime Lab Directors, the California Association of Criminalists, the California Association of Crime Lab Directors, and other forensic science organizations. She has served on the honorary board of the California Forensic Science Institute.

Burke has been the Guest of Honor at several mystery fan conventions, including Malice Domestic, Left Coast Crime, and Mayhem in the Midwest.

Illness in her family has taken her away from writing in recent years.

Novels

Irene Kelly Mysteries:

  • Goodnight, Irene (1993)
  • Sweet Dreams, Irene (1994)
  • Dear Irene (1995)
  • Remember Me, Irene (1996)
  • Hocus (1997)
  • Liar (1998)
  • Bones (2000)
  • Flight (2001) (from the POV of Frank Harriman)
  • Bloodlines (2005)
  • Kidnapped (2006)
  • Disturbance (2011)

Other novels

  • Nine (2002)
  • 18 (2003) collection of short stories
  • The Messenger (2009)

Contributions

Burke edited the first edition of Breaking and Entering,[2] a Sisters in Crime's guide to getting published. She served as an Associate Editor on Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America,[3] edited by Sue Grafton. She has served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League. She is a past president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (MWA).

Burke's novel Bloodlines appears in the television series Bones: Season 1, Ep. 17 - The Skull in the Desert. It is used as a prop on a table at minute 15:05.

Awards and nominations

Edgar Award

  • 1999 Best Novel Bones.

Edgar nomination [4]

  • 2001 Best Short Story The Abbey Ghosts

Agatha Award [5]

  • 2001 Best Short Story The Man in the Civil Suit

Agatha Nominations [5]

  • 1997 Best Novel - Hocus
  • 1998 Best Novel - Liar
  • 2002 Best Short Story Devotion
  • 2002 Best Non-fiction, Writing Mysteries (Sue Grafton and Barry Zeman)

Macavity Awards

  • 1995 Best Short Story Unharmed
  • Best Mystery Short Story: "The Abbey Ghosts"

Macavity nominations [6]

  • 1998 Best Novel Liar
  • 1997 Best Novel Hocus
  • 2003 Best Mystery Novel Nine

Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Reader's Award.
Romantic Times's Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Suspense

Anthony Award nominations

  • 1994 Best First Novel Goodnight, Irene
  • 1999 Best Short Story Two Bits
  • 2002 Best Novel Flight
  • 2000 Best Novel Bones
  • 2006 Best Novel Bloodlines

Barry Nominations [7]

  • 2006 Best Novel, Bloodlines
  • 1998 Best Novel Hocus

References

  1. ↑ page 33, Great Women Mystery Writers, 2nd Ed. by Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, 2007, publ. Greenwood Press, ISBN 0-313-33428-5
  2. ↑ "Inside The Cover Book Reviews". Mysteryreaders.com. Retrieved 2006-08-24.
  3. ↑ "Jan Burke, interviewed by T. Jefferson Parker". Absolutewrite.com. Archived from the original on 2006-08-24. Retrieved 2006-08-24.
  4. ↑ "Edgar Award Winners and Nominees". ThrillingDetective.com. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
  5. 1 2 "Past Award Winners & Nominees". Malice Domestic Ltd. Archived from the original on 2006-08-10. Retrieved 2006-08-24.
  6. ↑ "Macavity Award Winners & Nominees". Mystery Readers Interlational. Retrieved 2006-08-24.
  7. ↑ "The Barry Awards". DeadlyPleasures.com. Archived from the original on 2006-08-20. Retrieved 2006-08-30.
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