Photo by Christine Higgins

Mary Jane Maffini was a 1999 double-nominee for the Arthur Ellis awards. Speak III of the Dead was shortlisted for best first novel and “Kicking the Habit” for best short story.

Her short fiction has appeared in many magazines: from Chatelaine and Storyteller to On-Spec and Ellery Queens Mystery Magazine, as well as in Canadian mystery anthologies such as Cottage Country Killers, Menopause is Murder, The Best of Cold Blood, Over the Edge and Fit to Die.

The Icing on the Corpse is her second novel, and she is hard at work on the third Camilla MacPhee mystery, Little Boy Blues, due out in the spring of 2002.

A native of Sydney, Nova Scotia, and a graduate of Dalhousie University, Maffini lives in Ottawa with her husband and various neurotic pets. In real life, although she is part of The Ladies' Killing Circle, she has never pulled the plug on anyone.