Anne Austin

Born in Waco, Texas, in 1895, Anne Austin worked as a teacher before building a career in journalism and magazine writing. Sources describe her as a feature writer, fiction writer, and dramatic critic for newspapers including the Waco Morning News and the Kansas City Post, and later as a writer of serialized fiction.

Austin first published romance and general fiction, then became especially known for mystery novels in the 1920s and 1930s. Her best-known recurring character is James "Bonnie" Dundee, a special investigator who appears in books such as Murder Backstairs, The Avenging Parrot, Murder at Bridge, One Drop of Blood, and Murdered But Not Dead.

Some records about her later life are inconsistent, but the dates 1895–1975 appear in multiple library-style and reference sources. One of her novels, A Wicked Woman, was adapted for film in 1934, and her work still appeals to readers who enjoy compact, clue-driven vintage crime fiction.