Judy L Murray is the 2022 and 2023 First Place Winner of the PenCraft Award for Sleuth Fiction. The debut novel in her Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series, Murder in the Master, is an IPPY Silver Medalist, a Silver Falchion Award Winner, and an Agatha Award Nominee for Best First Novel. Second in the series, Killer in the Kitchen, released in September 2022, won the IPPY Gold Medal for Mystery e-fiction, a PenCraft Award First Place, and nominated for the Silver Falchion Award. Third in the series, Peril in the Pool House, was released in September 2023 through her print and e-format publisher Level Best Books. Audio versions are produced by Blackstone Publishing.
Her series introduces Helen Morrisey, a quick-tongued, gutsy and mature real estate broker long on loyalty and short on romance. A mystery story addict, Helen’s approach to solving problems is to call on the talents of her favorite, strong-minded female detectives within her own mental Detection Club, much like Agatha Christie formed in the 1930’s.
A former vice president and real estate broker for Berkshire Hathaway’s seventy-two office Philadelphia region, Judy worked with enough delusional sellers, jittery buyers, testy contractors, and diva agents to fill her head with back-office insight and truth versus gossip. She and her husband live atop a cliff on the Chesapeake Bay where they are buffeted by winds in winter and invaded by family and dogs in summer. Combined with her obsession for mysteries with smart, gutsy women, from young Nancy Drew to the wise Miss Marple, and her Chesapeake Bay Mystery Series was launched.
Judy holds a newspaper journalism degree from the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University and an MBA concentrating in marketing with Penn State University. She began her writing career as a newspaper reporter and magazine columnist. She is a member of Sisters in Crime as their Guppy Board Liaison, and Mystery Writers of America. Sign up for her newsletter and find links to purchase her books through Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Independent Bookstores at www.judylmurraymysteries.com. Follow her at https://www.facebook.com/judymurray4 on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn.. She is represented by Blue Ridge Literary Agency and Birch Literary Agency. Judy enjoys hearing from both readers and authors.
