Ashford, Lindsay Jayne

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Ashford, Lindsay Jayne

(Lindsay Ashford)

PERSONAL: Education: Queen’s College, Cambridge University, M.S.

ADDRESSES: E-mail— [email protected]

CAREER: Writer and novelist. Former television journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC).

WRITINGS

“MEGAN RHYS” MYSTERY NOVELS

Frozen, Honno (Dinas Powys, Wales), 2003, St. Martin’s Minotaur/Thomas Dunne Books (New York, NY), 2006.

Strange Blood, Honno (Dinas Powys, Wales), 2005.

Death Studies, Honno (Dinas Powys, Wales), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS: Mystery novelist Lindsay Jayne Ash-ford is a former television journalist with the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). A resident of Wales, she was the first woman to graduate from Queens’ College, Cambridge University, with a master’s degree in criminology. Ashford puts this criminological training to use in Frozen, the first book in her “Megan Rhys” series of mystery novels. Rhys is a university professor, forensic psychologist, and criminal profiler based in Birmingham, England. When several prostitutes are found murdered in the Birmingham/Wolverhampton area of Britain’s West Midlands, similar DNA evidence is discovered in each case. Rhys is called in by Detective Superintendent Lever-ton to assemble a profile of what looks more and more like a serial killer. Complicating the matter is the fact that two distinct blood types have been found on some of the victims. The possibility arises of two killers, one of which could be a cop gone bad. After Rhys assembles her profile, however, her results are all but ignored by the police, who are focused on the person they already think is the killer. To Rhys’s frustration, Leverton selectively applies only those parts of her profile that advance his own agenda in the case. As the criminal investigation mounts, developments in Megan’s personal life threaten to distract her. Someone is constantly entering and leaving her house without her knowledge or permission and leaving subtle threats against her. She struggles against the pain of separation from her philandering husband, even while cultivating newfound interest in graduate student and Dutch police officer Patrick van Zeller. When more murders occur, Rhys realizes that she must convince Leverton and the police to act quickly on the profile she provided them or face the real possibility of many more killings.

“Megan is a likable, complex character,” remarked Sue O’Brien, writing in Booklist, and “the fast-paced story keeps the reader involved.” A Kirkus Reviews critic commented that “the intriguing heroine’s complicated debut can be hard to follow but is well worth the effort.”