Donna Andrews

Donna Andrews is an American author of cozy mysteries best known for her long-running Meg Langslow series, which follows a blacksmith-turned-amateur-sleuth navigating small-town Virginia life, a large and eccentric extended family, and a steady stream of murders that intrude on everything from Renaissance fairs to bird-watching festivals. Beginning with Murder with Peacocks in 1999, the series has grown to nearly forty installments, prized by fans for its comic tone, warm ensemble cast, and titles that often play on bird names or puns. Before Meg Langslow, Andrews wrote a shorter four-book series, the Turing Hopper mysteries (2002-2005), featuring a sentient artificial intelligence personality who solves crimes from inside a research firm's computer network -- an unusually early and technically minded amateur-sleuth premise for the genre. Andrews previously worked in software development before turning to fiction full time, and her mysteries reflect a meticulous, puzzle-oriented plotting style. She has won three Agatha Awards, an Anthony Award, a Barry Award and four Lefty Awards for her work in the cozy mystery genre, was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2026, and is a past president of Sisters in Crime, the professional organization supporting women crime writers. New readers should start with Murder with Peacocks to meet Meg and her family from the beginning, though the series is largely accessible at almost any entry point given its light overarching continuity. There is no film or television adaptation of the Meg Langslow books to date. Andrews continues to publish new entries in the series regularly.