Susan Dunlap
{{Short description|American writer}}
{{Infobox writer
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| name = Susan Dunlap
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| birth_name = Susan D. Sullivan
| birth_date = June 20, 1943
| birth_place = Kew Gardens, Queens, New York
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| occupation = Mystery writer, social worker
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- Bucknell University, B.A. 1965
- University of North Carolina, M.A.T. 1966}}
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| spouses = Newell Dunlap (1970)
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| website =[http://susandunlapmysteries.com/index.html Susan Dunlap]
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Susan Dunlap (born June 20, 1943) is an American writer of mystery novels and short stories. Her novels have mostly appeared in one of four series, each with its own sleuthing protagonist: Vejay Haskell, Jill Smith, Kiernan O'Shaughnessy, or Darcy Lott. Through 2020, more than two dozen of Dunlap's book-length mysteries have appeared in print. She has also edited crime fiction and has contributed to anthologies, including A Woman's Eye (1991), and to periodicals such as Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine and Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine.{{cite web|title=Susan Dunlap|work=Contemporary Authors Online|publisher=Gale|year=2011|url=https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/H1000126453/BIC?u=|url-access=subscription|access-date=January 17, 2020|archive-date=May 10, 2024|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240510232815/https://galeapps.gale.com/apps/auth?userGroupName=&origURL=https%3A%2F%2Fgo.gale.com%2Fps%2Fi.do%3Fp%3DBIC%26u%3D%26id%3DGALE%7CH1000126453%26v%3D2.1%26it%3Dr&prodId=BIC|url-status=live}} Her short story "Checkout" won a Macavity Award and an Anthony Award in 1994.{{cite web|title=Macavity Awards|publisher=Mystery Readers International|url=https://mysteryreaders.org/macavity-awards/|year=2020|access-date=January 26, 2020|archive-date=April 5, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190405183241/http://mysteryreaders.org/macavity-awards/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|title=Past Bouchercons|url=http://www.bouchercon.com/history/past-bouchercons/publisher=Bouchercon|year=2019|access-date=January 26, 2020}}
Dunlap was a founding member of Sisters in Crime and served as its president in 1990–91. Before becoming a full-time writer in 1984, she was a social worker in Baltimore (1966–67), New York City (1967), and Contra Costa County, California (1968–84). She has also worked as a paralegal, private investigator, and yoga teacher.
Personal life
Born in Kew Gardens, Queens, New York, Dunlap graduated from Bucknell University with a B.A. in 1965 and from the University of North Carolina with a Master of Arts in Teaching in 1966. She married Newell Dunlap in 1970. In 2020, the Dunlaps live near San Francisco.{{cite web|title=Susan Dunlap: About Susan|publisher=Interbridge|url=http://susandunlapmysteries.com/media.html|access-date=January 30, 2020|archive-date=May 11, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210511205356/http://susandunlapmysteries.com/media.html|url-status=live}}
Critical reception
= Reviews =
Carol M. Harper in St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers said in 1996 that "Dunlap has coupled authenticity in setting with a bizarre sense of humor appropriate for Northern California. Her series feature radically different heroines (amateur detective, police officer and licensed private detective) from three different backgrounds (rural northern California, urban northern California, and East Coast transplant to urban Southern California) to create three eminently readable series." Harper also praised Dunlap for her abilities as a writer of short stories and an editor of crime-story anthologies.{{cite book|last=Harper|first=Carol M.|editor=Pederson, Jay P.|title=St. James Guide to Crime and Mystery Writers|chapter=Dunlap, Susan (D.)|pages=323–24|publisher=St. James Press|location=Detroit|year=1996|edition=4th|isbn=1-55862-178-4}}
Kirkus Reviews praises Time Expired, featuring Berkeley, California, homicide detective Jill Smith, as "an adroitly plotted, consistently interesting police procedural."{{cite web|title=Time Expired|url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/susan-dunlap/time-expired/|publisher=Kirkus Media|date=May 20, 2010|access-date=January 27, 2020}}
= Awards =
Pious Deception (1989) and Rogue Wave were finalists for the Anthony Award for Best Novel.{{Cite web |title=Susan Dunlap |url=https://stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Dunlap_Susan.html |access-date=2024-05-10 |website=Stop, You're Killing Me! |archive-date=2024-05-09 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240509173742/https://stopyourekillingme.com/D_Authors/Dunlap_Susan.html |url-status=live }}
Bibliography
=Mystery series=
Vejay Haskell
- An Equal Opportunity Death (1984)
- The Bohemian Connection (1985)
- The Last Annual Slugfest (1986)
Jill Smith
- Karma (1981)
- As a Favor (1984)
- Not Exactly a Brahmin (1985)
- Too Close to the Edge (1987)
- A Dinner to Die For (1987)
- Diamond in the Buff (1990)
- Death and Taxes (1992)
- Time Expired (1993)
- Sudden Exposure (1996)
- Cop Out (1997)
Kiernan O'Shaughnessy
- Pious Deception (1989)
- Rogue Wave (1991)
- High Fall (1994)
- No Immunity (1998)
Darcy Lott
- A Single Eye (2006)
- Hungry Ghosts (2008)
- Civil Twilight (2009)
- Power Slide (2010)
- No Footprints (2012)
- Switchback (2015)
- Out of Nowhere (2016)
=Short story collections=
- The Celestial Buffet and Other Morsels of Murder (2001)
- Karma and Other Stories (2002)
- No Safety and Other Short Stories (2014)
=Other=
- Deadly Allies II: Private Eye Writers of America and Sisters in Crime Collaborative Anthology, editor, with Robert J. Randisi (1994)
- Fast Friends (novel) (2004)
References
{{reflist}}
External links
- {{Official website|http://susandunlapmysteries.com/index.html}}
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Category:20th-century American women writers
Category:21st-century American women writers
Category:American crime fiction writers
Category:Bucknell University alumni
Category:University of North Carolina alumni
Category:Writers from Queens, New York
Category:Writers from San Francisco
Category:Anthony Award winners