M. Louisa Locke

M. Louisa Locke is a USA Today bestselling author, who has made a name for herself in historical fiction, mystery, and science fiction. After retiring from a 30-year career as a professor of US and Women's History, Locke embarked on her second career as a writer. She is particularly well-known for her Victorian San Francisco Mystery series, which features a boarding house owner named Anne Fuller and a San Francisco-based lawyer named Nate Dawson. These two protagonists investigate criminal activities and murders in the city, and Locke's series also includes novellas and short stories, which allow secondary characters to take center stage in their own minor mysteries.

In addition to writing under her real name, Locke also publishes science fiction stories under the pen name of Louisa Locke. She has written a coming of age science fiction series, although she is best known for her historical fiction. Her Victorian San Francisco Mystery series is based on her dissertation research on women who worked in the Far West at the end of the Nineteenth Century. The series features Annie Fuller, a young widow who gives domestic and business advice as the clairvoyant, Madam Sibyl. She is aided in her investigations by Nate Dawson, a local lawyer, and the residents in the boarding house she owns.

Locke's first book in the series, Maids of Misfortune, finds Annie investigating a murder by going undercover as a domestic servant. Subsequent books in the series have seen Annie investigating a fraudulent trance medium, attacks on local public school teachers, and theft and murder in a modern department store. In her most recent books, Annie has expanded her investigations to include a university in Berkeley and a woolen factory. Locke is an indie author who relies on her readers to spread the word about her work. She is an active member in the Alliance of Independent Authors, a Director of the Historical Fiction Authors Cooperative, and a founder of the Paradisi Chronicles.