ABOUT SUSAN

Edgar Award-nominated and Dilys Award-nominated Susan Elia MacNeal is the author of the Maggie Hope Mystery series from Bantam/Random House. The first is Mr. Churchill’s Secretary, nominated for the Mystery Writers of America’s 2013 Edgar Award for Best First Novel, the Independent Mystery Booksellers Association’s 2013 Dilys Award for “the mystery title of the year that booksellers have most enjoyed hand-selling,” and the 2013 Barry Award by Deady Pleasures Mystery Magazine. Mr. Churchill’s Secretary was also declared one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Debuts of 2012 and one of Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine’s Best Paperback Originals of 2012, and chosen to be part of Target’s “Emerging Author” series. 

The sequel, Princess Elizabeth’s Spy, was a New York Times bestseller and chosen by Oprah.com as “Mystery of the Week” and one of "Seven Compulsively Readable Mysteries (for the Crazy-Smart Reader),” as well as Target’s “Emerging Author” series. Princess Elizabeth’s Spy was awarded a 2012 Booky Award by BookGateway.com.

The third Maggie Hope novel, His Majesty’s Hope, will be published in May 2013, and The Prime Minister’s Secret Agent will debut in 2014.

Susan graduated cum laude from Wellesley College, with departmental honors in English Literature and credits from cross-registered classes at MIT. She attended the Radcliffe Publishing Course at Harvard University.

Her first job was as an intern at Random House for then-publisher Harold Evans before moving her way up the editorial ladder at Viking/Penguin and McGraw-Hill, and then becoming an associate editor at Dance Magazine.

Her writing has been published in The Wall Street Journal, The Huffington Post, Fodor’s, Time Out New York, Time Out London, Publishers Weekly, Dance Magazine, and various publications of New York City Ballet. She’s also the author of two non-fiction books and a professional editor.

Susan is married and lives with her husband, Noel MacNeal, a television performer, writer and director, and young son in Park Slope, Brooklyn.

Read the Q&A with Susan!