Barbara Parker was an American mystery writer. She wrote 12 novels, the first of which, Suspicion of Innocence, was a finalist for the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first mystery novel by an American author. Parker was on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America and was the chair of its membership committee for two years. Parker was born in Columbia, South Carolina and lived in North Carolina before moving with her family to Florida. There she attended the University of South Florida, majoring in theatre arts, then earned her legal degree at the University of Miami School of Law. Following graduation, she became a prosecutor in the Florida state attorney's office prior to spending eight years running her own legal practice. She wrote an adventure story to entertain her son and to provide an alternative to her legal career. She then left her law practice and took a job as a paralegal with a major law firm to make money while developing her writing career, not telling her employer that she was an attorney. She would write while commuting by bus to downtown Miami. [More at Wikipedia]

January 28th, 1947 in Columbia  /  Died:   Mar 7th, 2009