Gary C. King

Sarah Wisseman writes the contemporary Lisa Donahue archaeological mysteries and historical mysteries set during Prohibition. She hadn’t a clue that she wanted to be an archaeologist until she traveled to Israel right after her freshman year in college. There she ate felafel, fell in love with Jerusalem, camped illegally on Masada, and spent a month at the excavation of biblical Beersheba. Once hooked by archaeology, she returned for her Junior Year Abroad at Tel Aviv University, an experience that eventually inspired The Dead Sea Codex (2006). Sarah didn’t catch on that she wanted to write fiction right away, either. For twenty-five years, she has worked in museums, on excavations, and at the University of Illinois writing nothing but technical articles and non-fiction about mummies, ancient ceramics, and archaeological science. It was while she was preparing the non-fiction account of a mummy project that the idea of a mystery set in her former museum (a creepy old attic) grew into her first novel, Bound for Eternity (2005). Her third and fourth Lisa Donahue novels, The Fall of Augustus and The House of the Sphinx, were published late in 2009. The Bootlegger's Nephew, the first historical mystery featuring the Junker family, was published in 2012. For more information about her short stories, non-fiction writing, and career as an archaeologist, visit her website at www.sarahwisseman.com.