Barbara D'Amato (; born April 10, 1938) is an American mystery author and winner of the Agatha and Anthony Award. She also features in Great Women Mystery Writers (2007).page 62-64, Great Women Mystery Writers, 2nd Ed. by Elizabeth Blakesley Lindsay, 2007, publ. Greenwood Press,
Early life She was born Barbara Steketee in Grand Rapids, Michigan, the daughter of the owner of the department store Steketee's. She studied at Cornell University but left to marry Anthony D'Amato in 1958. Anthony became a law school professor and Barbara later completed her bachelor's degree from Northwestern University in 1971, followed by a master's.
Career She began writing full-time in 1973, first co-writing plays with her husband. After trying different genres her first published novel in 1980 was a mystery. She won the Agatha and Anthony Award for a non-fiction work, The Doctor, the Murder, the Mystery: The True Story of the Dr. John Branion Murder Case based on a case her husband worked on in 1984. The book led to the reopening of the case and eventual pardon and release of Branion. In 1999, she served as President of the Mystery Writers of America.
Personal life With Anthony they have two sons Brian and Paul, and live in Chicago.
Published works
Gerritt De Graaf series
The Hands of Healing Murder (1980) The Eyes on Utopia Murders (1981)
Cat Marsala series
Hardball (1989) Hard Tack (1991) Hard Luck (1992) Hard Women (1993) Hard Case (1994) Hard Christmas (1995) Hard Bargain (1997) Hard Evidence (1999) Hard Road (2001)
Figueroa and Bennis series
Killer.app (1996) Good Cop, Bad Cop (1998) Help Me Please (1999) Authorized Personnel Only (2000) Death of a Thousand Cuts (2004)
Other novels On My Honor (1989) (writing as Malacai Black) White Male Infant (2002) Foolproof (2009) (with Jeanne M Dams and Mark Richard Zubro) Other Eyes (2011)
Anthologies and collections TitleContentsPublication DatePublisherOf Course You Know That Chocolate
Is a Vegetable: And Other StoriesSee No Evil
Freedom of the PressMay 2000Five Star First Edition Mystery
Speaking VolumesCrimes By MoonlightThe Conqueror WormJan 2010Berkley
Non-fiction The Doctor, the Murder, the Mystery: The True Story of the Dr. John Branion Murder Case (1997)
References
External links
Barbara D'Amato Papers at the Newberry Library