Perry, Anne

Known for her historical crime novels, very popular in the UK and the USA, Ann Perry made her debut as a writer in 1979. Throughout her life she wrote more than one hundred novels, several of which were translated into a number of languages. All in all, her books are said to have exceeded 250 million copies sold. The Times listed her as one of the most prominent crime writers of the 20th century, and she was nominated for several awards and won some of them, including one Edgar from the Mystery Writers of America for her short story Heroes, published separately as a book in 2007. Her notoriety peaked, however, when it was revealed in 1994 that she had been tried and sentenced in New Zealand in 1954, scarcely 16 years old, after pleading guilty to a murder charge.