Janet Dawson is an American author and the creator of the Jeri Howard series of books that focuses on a private investigator in Oakland. The first book in the series, Kindred Crimes, was the winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for best first private eye novel.
Dawson previously worked as a newspaper reporter in Colorado and was also a journalist in the U.S. Navy. During her time in the Navy she was stationed in the San Francisco Bay area. Dawson now works on the staff at the University of California in Berkeley. She is a long-time member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, even serving as MWA NorCal president.
Kindred Crimes is the first book in the P.I. Jeri Howard series. In this one Jeri finds herself investigating a missing persons case that sprawls throughout Northern California. Renee Foster told her husband that she had no relatives, but that ends up being far from the truth as her family includes a porn star and a murderer among their ranks, the whole family has their issues. Dawson smells something fishy with this case from the start and finds a case that is far more complex and intriguing than it would seem on the surface.
Another great book in the series is The Devil Close Behind. The story takes place in New Orleans where Jeri is on vacation. There a friend asks for a favor as her sister and her boyfriend have gone missing. Laurette and Slade, a musician, have gone missing and Slade’s lifestyle seems to be the culprit. As Jeri searches for them she’ll travel from the French Quarter to workaday NOLA and back to California as this job gets deadly.
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Janet Dawson is an American author and the creator of the Jeri Howard series of books that focuses on a private investigator in Oakland. The first book in the series, Kindred Crimes, was the winner of the St. Martin’s Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for best first private eye novel.