Multi-award-winning author Valerie J. Brooks writes femmes-noir psychological thrillers where the women are badass and take center stage. The first in the Angeline Porter Trilogy Revenge in 3 Parts was a finalist for the Nancy Pearl Book Award and a winner in the International Readers’ Favorites Thriller Awards. NY Times bestselling author Kevin O’Brien called her second novel in the trilogy Tainted Times 2 “… a real nail-biter from first page to the last.”

A lifelong writer and reader, she reads everything from Daphne du Maurier to the latest Scandinavian crime writers. Her English war-bride mom and artistic army officer dad raised her with my two siblings in ultra-conservative New Hampshire during the 1950-60s. Growing up in puritanical New England, she was drawn to the gothic, to secrets, mystery, and the dark side of human nature. As her English mum once said, “You’re a good girl who wants to be bad.” Now she has the perfect conduit for her “bad girl” side—writing noir.

After studying film noir in college, she found her noir voice for fiction. She received an Elizabeth George Foundation grant and was the recipient of five writing residencies. She teaches classes and workshops in writing noir and creating plot twists, plus reviews mystery, suspense, and thriller novels, podcasts, and streaming shows on her blog.

She’s a member of Sisters in Crime (Columbia River Chapter), Pacific Northwest Writers Association, Oregon Writers Colony (past board member), Willamette Writers (co-founder WW Speakers Series) and Professional Women’s Network of Oregon.

Brooks lives in Oregon’s McKenzie River Valley with her husband, Dan, and their Havanese pooch Stevie Nicks.