Name Marian Babson | Role Author | |
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Awards Dagger in the Library, Malice Domestic Award for Lifetime Achievement Books The twelve deaths of Christmas, Only the Cat Knows, Canapés for the kitties, The diamond cat, Nine Lives to Murder | ||
Marian Babson is a pseudonym for Ruth Stenstreem. She is a mystery author with a large body of work that rotates in and out of print. She was born in 1929 in Salem, Massachusetts, United States, but has lived most her life in London, England.
Her books are short – usually under two hundred pages – and revolve around mysterious deaths for the most part, though some of her books are more in the line of gentle thrillers than actual mysteries. The publisher's tagline for her is "Murder Most British", and the style of the books reflects that: the violence is not graphically described and the sleuths are usually bumbling amateurs. While she reuses certain characters, such as the publicity firm Perkins & Tate and a couple of aging actresses, her books are all stand-alone and can be read in any order. Many of the books, in particular the Perkins & Tate books, involve cats.
In 1996 she was awarded the Crime Writers' Association Dagger in the Library award for her body of work.