Ellen Byron

Ellen is the Agatha Award-winning author of the bestselling Cajun Country Mysteries. MARDI GRAS MURDER won the Agatha for Best Contemporary Novel and was nominated for a Best Humorous Mystery award by the Left Coast Crime conference. A CAJUN CHRISTMAS KILLING and BODY ON THE BAYOU both won the Left Coast Crime Lefty Award for Best Humorous Mystery, and were nominated for an Agatha Award in the category of Best Contemporary Novel. Ellen's debut novel in the series, PLANTATION SHUDDERS, was nominated for Agatha, Lefty, and Daphne awards, and made the USA Today Bestseller list. HERE COMES THE BODY, the first book in her Catering Hall Mysteries, will launch in March 2020 under the name Maria DiRico.Ellen's TV credits include Wings, Still Standing, and Just Shoot Me, as well as network and cable pilots. As a journalist, she's written over 200 magazine articles for national publications. She recently served on the Editorial Board for the UCLA Writers Program's books, Cut to the Chase and Inside the Room. Her plays, published by Dramatists Play Service, include the popular Graceland and Asleep on the Wind. Fun fact: she worked for Martha Stewart as a cater-waiter. You can find her in the early editions of ENTERTAINING, standing next to Martha in a group photo.A graduate of Tulane University, Ellen lives in the Los Angeles area with her husband, daughter, and the family’s spoiled rescue dogs, which they describe as a “corgi-jack-huahua” and a “cherrier.” A native New Yorker, Ellen still misses her hometown… and still drives like a New York cabbie.