MARILYNN LAREW

According to the bio on Amazon: "MARILYNN LAREW is a historian who has published in such fields as American colonial and architectural history, Vietnamese military history, and terrorism, and has taught courses in each of them in the University of Maryland System.

She has lived in seven states and two foreign countries, so she has always been interested in different cultures and different places. Being the "new kid" in so many places, she has always had to adjust quickly. Reading helped her deal with that, and her library card has often been her best friend.

She has always liked to write, but the idea of writing fiction didn't occur to her until after she finished her PhD in history. Everybody who goes through that grueling program swears to write a book revealing how awful it is. Marilynn wrote a hard-boiled detective story with a female protagonist. It almost sold, but when it didn't, she focused on her teaching and research. Perhaps her most interesting scholarly publication is about 300BC Vietnamese military history.

It was only after she retired from teaching that she was able to return to writing fiction. The two volumes in the Lee Carruthers series are the result. Her protagonist is still female, but perhaps she is not so hard-boiled. Lee Carruthers is a CIA analyst who has a conflicted relationship with the Agency. She is often sent where no analyst goes, and she has the scars to prove it - one from a 9 mm. bullet and three knife cuts. She keeps trying to quit, but the Agency keeps coming back like a song."