She makes her home in Dashiell Hammett’s San Francisco, a city she loves to write about.Kelli earned a Master’s Degree in Classics, loves jazz, old movies, battered fedoras, Art Deco and speakeasies. She credits Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, Tennessee Williams, Cornell Woolrich, F. Scott Fitzgerald and Thomas Hardy as some of her major influences.

Kelli is best known for the Miranda Corbie series of historical noir novels and short stories set in 1940 San Francisco. The first novel of the series, CITY OF DRAGONS, introduced Miranda, the unforgettable protagonist Library Journal calls one of crime’s most arresting heroines.”

CITY OF DRAGONS won the Macavity Award for Best Historical Novel, and was nominated for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a Shamus Award, a Bruce Alexander Award and an RT Book Reviews Award, was a Mystery Guild selection of the month, and placed on many “best of the year” lists.

CITY OF SECRETS, the sequel to CITY OF DRAGONS, was released by Thomas Dunne/Minotaur to great critical acclaim, was nominated for a number of awards and won the Golden Nugget for best mystery set in California.

CITY OF GHOSTS, the third in the series, will be published in 2014 by Minotaur Books.