I. J. Parker

Ingrid J. Parker is a detective/mystery writer, best known for creating Sugawara Akitada, who solved crimes in Heian era of ancient Japan. She was born and raised in Germany [http://www.xs4all.nl/~embden11/Engels5/parker.htm] .

She was the winner of Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award for Best P.I. Short Story in 2000, with "Akitada's First Case" published in 1999.

She was, until retirement, Associate Professor of English and Foreign Languages at a Virginia university. Writing detective mysteries set in ancient Japan was an incidental result of initial research into 11th century Japan out of professional interest for Japanese literature of the era.

Her first short story about Sugawara Akitada ("Instruments of Murder") was published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in October 1997.

She wrote several Sugawara Akitada novels, but the series' first publisher (St. Martin's Press) decided to change the order of publication of the novels instead of following internal chronology. She switched to Penguin in 2004 with the agreement to publish the novels in internal chronological order.

Books published

# "Dragon Scroll" (July 2005, Penguin)
# "Rashomon Gate" (July 2002, St. Martin's Press)
# "Black Arrow" (December 2006, Penguin)
# "Island of Exiles" (October 2007, Penguin)
# "The Hell Screen" (September 2003, St. Martin's Press)

External links

* [http://www.ijparker.com/ I. J. Parker's Official Website]