Seattle native Mary Richardson Daheim began reading mysteries when she was seven. She started writing them when she was eleven, but her career as a published novelist didn't begin until much later. After graduating from the University of Washington's School of Communications, Daheim worked on small-town newspapers and in corporate public relations. Her goal to write fiction remained in place, however, and she began publishing the Bed-and-Breakfast series in 1991, adding the Alpine mysteries a year later. She is married to David Daheim, and the couple lives in Seattle. They have three grown daughters - Barbara, Katherine and Magdalen. Daheim received the Pacific Northwest Writers Association 2000 Achievement Award "for distinguished professional achievement and for enhancing the stature of the Northwest literary community."