Debbi Mack

Debbi Mack started life in New York City, but grew up in various places around the country, ending up in Maryland where she sets her mysteries. Her hardboiled mysteries, IDENTITY CRISIS and LEAST WANTED, feature intrepid crime-solving lawyer Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae. A 2010 Derringer Award nominee, Debbi’s short stories have also been published in an anthology of her work called FIVE UNEASY PIECES, as well as in CHESAPEAKE CRIMES, CHESAPEAKE CRIMES: THEY HAD IT COMIN’, and The Back Alley Webzine. Debbi is a former attorney, who quit practicing law to become a full-time writer. She’s previously worked as a newswire reporter,reference librarian and freelance writer/researcher (as well as a school bus driver and photography model—but that was a long time ago). With degrees in journalism, law and library science, she’s basically too educated to take any job at this point. Debbi, her husband and their cats live in Columbia MD.

Read Debbi Mack's short story A Woman Who Thinks from her anthology Five Uneasy Pieces.

Books by Debbie Mack

Identity Crisis--A domestic abuse case turns deadly, when the alleged abuser is killed and Sam McRae's client disappears. When a friend asks Sam to find Melanie Hayes, the Maryland attorney is drawn into a complex case of murder and identity theft, that has her running from the mob, breaking into a strip club and forming a shaky alliance with an offbeat private investigator to get to the truth about Melanie and her boyfriend. With her career and life on the line, Sam's search takes her from the blue-collar Baltimore suburbs to the mansions of Gibson Island. Along the way, she learns that false identities can hide dark secrets, and those secrets can destroy lives.

Least Wanted--Maryland lawyer Stephanie Ann "Sam" McRae has two tough cases that quickly turn worse, when both clients -- a poor black girl and a white, middle-class man -- are accused of murder. Sam's inquiries into the cases lead her to Washington, DC's suburban ghettos where she discovers an odd link between them: the seamy world of girl gangs and computer pornography.

The stakes rise considerably as more people die at the hands of a maniacal killer who'll do anything to keep Sam from learning the truth. Sam races to clear her clients before she becomes the next victim.

Five Uneasy Pieces--The short stories in this novella-length collection share the theme of having an odd twist or edginess that makes them gritty, slightly off-balance or unusual. They represent a range of genres from hardboiled mystery to noir to parody. Altogether, this collection has something for everyone who enjoys dark or edgy crime fiction. Includes the first three chapters of Least Wanted, the sequel to Identity Crisis.