Barbara Cleverly is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 author born in Northern England

Northern England

Northern England, also known as the North of England, the North or the North Country, is a cultural region of England. It is not an official government region, but rather an informal amalgamation of counties. The southern extent of the region is roughly the River Trent, while the North is bordered...

 and a former teacher. She graduated from Durham University

Durham University

The University of Durham, commonly known as Durham University, is a university in Durham, England. It was founded by Act of Parliament in 1832 and granted a Royal Charter in 1837...

 and now works in Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire

Cambridgeshire is a county in England, bordering Lincolnshire to the north, Norfolk to the northeast, Suffolk to the east, Essex and Hertfordshire to the south, and Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire to the west...

 and Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

. She is known for her Joe Sandilands Murder Mystery Series, of which she has authored nine books, and her Laetitia Talbot Series. Shortlisted in 1999, Cleverly received the Crime Writers Association Ellis Peters Historical Dagger award in 2004. The Last Kashmiri Rose was a New York Times Notable Book. She currently lives in Cambridge, England.

Joe Sandilands Murder Mystery Series

This series centers around Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard

Scotland Yard is a metonym for the headquarters of the Metropolitan Police Service of London, UK. It derives from the location of the original Metropolitan Police headquarters at 4 Whitehall Place, which had a rear entrance on a street called Great Scotland Yard. The Scotland Yard entrance became...

 detective

Detective

A detective is an investigator, either a member of a police agency or a private person. The latter may be known as private investigators or "private eyes"...

 and World War I

World War I

World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...

 hero Joe Sandilands and is primarily set in colonial India

Colonial India

Colonial India refers to areas of the Indian Subcontinent under the control of European colonial powers, through trade and conquest. The first European power to arrive in India was the army of Alexander the Great in 327–326 BC. The satraps he established in the north west of the subcontinent...

 and Europe

Europe

Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...

 of the 1920s.

• The Last Kashmiri Rose (2001) ISBN 9781616950026
• Ragtime In Simla (2002) ISBN 978-0440242239
• The Damascened Blade (2003) ISBN 978-0385339506
• The Palace Tiger (2004) ISBN 978-0385340090
• The Bee's Kiss (2005) ISBN 978-0786717361
• Tug of War (2006) ISBN 978-0786719570
• Folly Du Jour (2007) ISBN 978-1569475133
• Strange Images of Death (2010) ISBN 9781569479896
• The Blood Royal (2011) ISBN 9781569479872

Laetitia Talbot Series

Also set in the 1920s

1920s

File:1920s decade montage.png|From left, clockwise: Third Tipperary Brigade Flying Column No. 2 under Sean Hogan during the Irish Civil War; Prohibition agents destroying barrels of alcohol in accordance to the 18th amendment, which made alcoholic beverages illegal throughout the entire decade; In...

, this series centers on Laetitia Talbot, an archaeologist-turned-detective.

• The Tomb of Zeus (2007) ISBN 978-0385339902
• Bright Hair About the Bone (2008) ISBN 978-0385339896
• A Darker God (2010) ISBN 978-0385339919

Reviews

• Publishers Weekly
• Denver Post
• The New York Times