Charlotte MacLeod
Charlotte MacLeod (November 12, 1922 – January 14, 2005) was a Canadian-American mystery fiction writer. Life and work. Charlotte Matilda MacLeod was born in 1922 in Bath, New Brunswick, Canada, but emigrated to the United States in 1923 and became a naturalized US citizen in 1951. She attended the Art Institute of Boston. During the late 1940s and early 1950s, she worked as a copywriter for Stop & Shop Supermarkets in Boston. She eventually moved on to join the staff of N. H. Miller & Company, an advertising agency, where she rose to the level of vice president; she retired  in 1982. While continuing to work at the advertising company during the day, MacLeod began writing mystery fiction, eventually publishing over 30 novels. Many of her books are set in New England, including a series featuring university professor Peter Shandy, and another about Beacon Hill couple Sarah Kelling and Max Bittersohn. Other mysteries, set in Canada, were published under the pen name Alisa Craig. MacLeod tailored her books to fit into the cozy mystery genre, i.e. avoiding too much violence, gore, or sex while featuring a humorous and literate-yet-light style, likable protagonists, and eccentric casts of secondary characters . Her work sold over one million copies in the United States as well as Canada and Japan. MacLeod was co-founder of the American Crime Writers League and served as president. She received a Nero Award for "The Corpse in Oozak's Pond" in 1987, which was also nominated for an Edgar Award. MacLeod began writing at 6 a.m. each day, continued through the morning, then used the afternoon for rewrites. She only started new books on Sundays. Although described as a "true lady" and often seen with hat and white gloves, while writing she would stay dressed in a  bathrobe to avoid the temptation of leaving the house for an errand. MacLeod spent her final years in Maine. Toward the end of her years she suffered from Alzheimer's disease. She died on January 14, 2005, in a Lewiston, Maine nursing home.