Faye Marder Kellerman (born July 31, 1952) is an American writer of

mystery Mystery, The Mystery, Mysteries or The Mysteries may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Fictional characters *Mystery, a cat character in ''Emily the Strange'' Films * ''Mystery'' (2012 film), a 2012 Chinese drama film * ''Mystery'' ( ...

novels, in particular the " Peter Decker/ Rina Lazarus" series, as well as three nonseries books, ''The Quality of Mercy'', ''Moon Music'', and ''Straight into Darkness''.

Early life

Kellerman was born in

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...

. She attended

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California ...

, where she earned a bachelor of arts in mathematics in 1974. Four years later, she received her doctorate of dental surgery, but she has never practiced dentistry and was a

housewife A housewife (also known as a homemaker or a stay-at-home mother/mom/mum) is a woman whose role is running or managing her family's home—housekeeping, which includes caring for her children; cleaning and maintaining the home; making, buying an ...

before publishing her first novel. In a 1997 essay, she says she cannot pinpoint the metamorphosis from dentist to writer of detective fiction, but several factors that steered her toward mystery writing were: "a desire for justice, a suspicious nature, an overactive imagination, and of course, a penchant for the bizarre."

Personal life

Kellerman is a practicing

Orthodox Jew Orthodox Judaism is the collective term for the traditionalist and theologically conservative branches of contemporary Judaism. Theologically, it is chiefly defined by regarding the Torah, both Written and Oral, as revealed by God to Moses on ...

, as are her husband and son, novelists

Jonathan Kellerman Jonathan Seth Kellerman (born August 9, 1949) is an American novelist, psychologist, and Edgar- and Anthony Award–winning author best known for his popular mystery novels featuring the character Alex Delaware, a child psychologist who consults ...

and

Jesse Kellerman Jesse Oren Kellerman (born September 1, 1978) is an American novelist and playwright. He is the author of the novels ''Sunstroke'' (2006), ''Trouble'' (2007), ''The Genius'' (2008), ''The Executor'' (2010), ''Potboiler'' (2012), and has co-author ...

, respectively. Her writing frequently deals with Jewish themes and characters, incorporating them into the framework of the traditional mystery. The Peter Decker books, for example, center on a police detective raised as a Southern Baptist, who returns to his Jewish roots after falling in love with Rina Lazarus, an Orthodox Jew, while investigating a rape that took place near a ''

yeshiva A yeshiva (; he, ישיבה, , sitting; pl. , or ) is a traditional Jewish educational institution focused on the study of Rabbinic literature, primarily the Talmud and halacha (Jewish law), while Torah and Jewish philosophy are st ...

''. The Kellermans are the only married couple ever to appear on the ''New York Times'' bestseller list simultaneously (for two different books). They have four children; a son, Jesse, and three daughters, Rachel, Ilana, and Aliza. Their oldest child, Jesse, is a bestselling novelist and award-winning playwright. Their youngest, Aliza Kellerman, co-wrote ''Prism'' (2009), a young adult novel, with her mother.

Plagiarism lawsuit

In 1999 Kellerman sued the writers of the 1998 film ''

Shakespeare in Love ''Shakespeare in Love'' is a 1998 romantic period comedy-drama film directed by John Madden, written by Marc Norman and playwright Tom Stoppard, and produced by Harvey Weinstein. It stars Gwyneth Paltrow, Joseph Fiennes, Geoffrey Rush, Colin ...

,'' whom she claimed stole the plotline from her 1989 novel '' The Quality of Mercy'', in which Shakespeare romances a Jewish woman who dresses as a man, and attempts to solve a murder.

Miramax Films Miramax, LLC, also known as Miramax Films, is an American film and television production and distribution company founded on December 19, 1979, by brothers Harvey and Bob Weinstein, and based in Los Angeles, California. It was initially a lead ...

spokesman Andrew Stengel derided the claim, filed in the US District Court six days before the 1999 Academy Awards, as "absurd", and argued that the timing "suggests a publicity stunt". An out-of-court settlement was reached.

Bibliography

The Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus series

# ''The Ritual Bath'' (1986) (Winner of the 1987

Macavity award The Macavity Awards are a literary award for mystery writers. Nominated and voted upon annually by the members of the Mystery Readers International, the award is named for the " mystery cat" of T. S. Eliot's ''Old Possum's Book of Practical Cats'' ...

for Best First Novel, nominated for the

1987 Anthony Award Bouchercon is an annual convention of creators and devotees of mystery and detective fiction. It is named in honour of writer, reviewer, and editor Anthony Boucher; also the inspiration for the Anthony Awards, which have been issued at the con ...

in the same category) # '' Sacred and Profane'' (1987) # '' Milk and Honey'' (1990) # ''Day of Atonement'' (1991) # ''False Prophet'' (1992) # ''Grievous Sin'' (1993) # ''Sanctuary'' (1994) # ''Justice'' (1995) # ''Prayers for the Dead'' (1996) # ''Serpent's Tooth'' (1997) # ''Jupiter's Bones'' (1999) # ''Stalker'' (2000) # ''The Forgotten'' (2001) # ''Stone Kiss'' (2002) # ''Street Dreams'' (2003) # ''The Burnt House'' (2007) # ''The Mercedes Coffin'' aka ''Cold Case'' (2008) # ''Blindman's Bluff'' (2009) # ''Hangman'' (2010) # ''Gun Games'' (2011) aka ''Blood Games'' (2012) # ''The Beast'' aka ''Predator'' (2013) # ''Murder 101'' (2014) # ''The Theory of Death'' (2015) # ''Bone Box'' (2017) # ''Walking Shadows'' (2018) # ''The Lost Boys'' (2021) # ''The Hunt'' (2022)

Other novels

*''The Quality of Mercy'' (1989) *''Moon Music'' (1998) *''Double Homicide'' (2004) – written with

*''Straight Into Darkness'' (2005) *''The Garden of Eden and Other Criminal Delights'' (2006) *''Capital Crimes'' (2006) – written with

*''Prism'' (2009) – written with

Aliza Kellerman Aliza is a feminine given name. Notable people with the name include: * Aliza Bin-Noun, Israeli diplomat * Aliza Green, American chef and writer *Aliza Greenblatt Aliza Greenblatt ( yi, עליזה גרינבלאַט, September 8, 1888 - Septem ...

*''Killing Season'' (2017) ''(Source
Bookreporter.com – Author Bibliography – Faye Kellerman Bibliography
''

References

External links

Faye Kellerman's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kellerman, Faye 1952 births Living people American mystery writers American Orthodox Jews Jewish American novelists Macavity Award winners Writers from St. Louis University of California, Los Angeles alumni Novelists from Los Angeles American women novelists Women mystery writers 20th-century American novelists 20th-century American women writers 21st-century American novelists 21st-century American women writers UCLA School of Dentistry alumni Novelists from Missouri 21st-century American Jews