Lucinda Landon

When Lucinda Landon, the creator of the Meg Mackintosh series, was growing up in Niskayuna, New York, she loved to read mysteries, especially if they featured female detectives. She also loved to draw, and went on to study art and design at St. Lawrence University, the Sir John Cass School of Art in London, and the Rhode Island School of Design. But all the while, she kept reading mysteries.

The very first book she illustrated, The Young Detective’s Handbook, by William Vivian Butler, received a special Edgar Allan Poe award from the Mystery Writers of America. It also launched the career of Meg Mackintosh. Although the young sleuth had just a small role in that first book, Ms. Landon soon realized that Meg was itching for a series all her own.

“Writing the Meg Mackintosh series,” Lucinda Landon says, “gives me the opportunity to combine my love of drawing and mysteries. It’s fun to design books with the clues hidden in both the text and the illustrations.” It is fun for young readers, too, who have been eagerly matching wits with Meg since her first adventure, Meg Mackintosh and the Case of the Missing Babe Ruth Baseball, debuted in 1986.

The series is now eight books strong, all available in paperback from Secret Passage Press. The newest book, Meg Mackintosh and the Stage Fright Secret, was published in the August 2004. Meg also stars in American History Mysteries, a book for teachers to share with their social studies students, published by Scholastic Professional Books in 1999.

Lucinda Landon lives in Foster, Rhode Island, with her husband, photographer Jim Egan, their sons, Alexander and Eric, and several pets. Their home was built in 1709 and has a hidden trap door to the basement and a secret hiding place behind the chimney. “It’s a great place to write mysteries,” says Ms. Landon, who is always working on the plot of a new one.