author
Kay Cleaver Strahan
1888–1941
A sharp, award-winning mystery writer from Oregon, she helped shape early American detective fiction with clever puzzles and a memorable crime analyst sleuth. Her work sits comfortably in the classic whodunit tradition, with an eye for suspense and structure.
2 Audiobooks
Footprints
by Kay Cleaver Strahan
The Desert Moon mystery
by Kay Cleaver Strahan
About the author
Born in La Grande, Oregon, on January 4, 1888, Kay Cleaver Strahan became an American writer known for short stories and mystery novels. She wrote during the great era of classic detective fiction and created the character Lynn McDonald, a "crime analyst" who appeared in several of her mysteries.
Strahan is especially remembered for The Desert Moon Mystery, which opened Doubleday's Crime Club in 1928, and for Footprints, a locked-room style mystery that won the 1929 Scotland Yard Prize. Those books helped secure her place among early American mystery writers who brought ingenuity and atmosphere to the genre.
She died on August 14, 1941. Though she is not as widely known today as some of her contemporaries, her novels remain of real interest to readers who enjoy Golden Age detective stories and the history of crime fiction.