BETSY DRAINE AND MICHAEL HINDEN are emeritus professors of English at the University of Wisconsin–Madison and the coauthors of the Nora Barnes and Toby Sandler mystery series. Their first collaboration was a memoir, A Castle in the Backyard: The Dream of a House in France (2002), inspired by their twenty summers in the Dordogne in southwest France.

Michael Hinden won a Kiekhofer Award for Excellence in Teaching in 1972 and was named Bascom Professor of Integrated Liberal Studies in 2004. At the University of Wisconsin–Madison, he taught modern drama in the Department of English and literature and the arts in the Integrated Liberal Studies Program. He chaired the ILS Program from 1981 to 1984 and served as Associate Dean of International Studies from 1991 to 2003. His publications include Long Day’s Journey into Night: Native Eloquence (1990).

Betsy Draine served as Chair of Women’s Studies (1989–92) and Vice Provost for Academic Affairs (1992–99) at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. The focus of her administrative work was on gender equity and work climate. She taught courses in modern British fiction and is the author of Substance under Pressure: Artistic Coherence and Evolving Form in the Novels of Doris Lessing (1983). She won the 1990 Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching and the 2002 Phi Beta Kappa Teaching Award. Betsy and Michael retired in 2005.