About Janet Dawson Janet Dawson has written nine novels featuring Oakland private investigator Jeri Howard. Her first, Kindred Crimes, won the St. Martin's Press/Private Eye Writers of America contest for best first private eye novel. It was nominated in the best first category for three mystery awards, the Shamus, the Macavity and the Anthony. Other Jeri Howard books include Till The Old Men Die, Take A Number, Don't Turn Your Back On The Ocean, Nobody's Child, A Credible Threat, Witness to Evil, Where The Bodies Are Buried and A Killing at the Track. A book of ten short stories, Scam and Eggs, was published in 2002. In the past, Dawson was a newspaper reporter in Colorado, and her stint as a U.S. Navy journalist took her to Guam and Florida. As an officer in the Navy, she was stationed in the San Francisco Bay Area. After leaving the Navy, Dawson worked in the legal field. She is now on the staff at the University of California in Berkeley, and resides in Alameda, California. Dawson is a long-time member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, serving as MWA NorCal president, and more recently, chair of the Edgar Allan Poe awards.   All material on this web site © 2002-08 Janet Dawson. Photo by Charles R. Lucke. Send E-mail to Janet