About

Claire M. Johnson is an author of a new historical whodunit series set in 1930 San Francisco, culinary mysteries, Jane Austen pastiches, and a young adult suspense novel. She is the current president of the Northern California Chapter of the Mystery Writers of America.

Her latest writing foray is a crime-fiction series set in 1930 San Francisco published by Level Best Books. The bridges haven’t been built, the stock market has crashed, and crime doesn’t sleep. The first book in this series is titled, Fog City, to be published in the summer of 2024. The second and third books are titled, City Lights and The Crookedest Street in the World, respectively.

The passion and frenzied pace characterizing the food scene in the 1980s are well documented in Ms. Johnson's first novel, Beat Until Stiff, for which she won the 1999 Domestic Writers Grant. This book was nominated for an Agatha for Best First Novel and was a Booksense pick. The second novel in this series, Roux Morgue, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly. In addition, she has written a YA thriller set in a suburb of California where privilege meets murder, titled Swim Town, and two Austen pastiches: Pen and Prejudice and Resolution, which are modern adaptations of the original novels Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion, respectively.