About Rochelle Krich

For Rochelle Krich, noted by former L.A. Times reviewer Charles Champlin for her "superior crime fiction," becoming a published writer was a fantasy. "It was something I dreamed about," she says, "something that happened to other people." That fantasy became reality in 1990 when Krich wrote Where’s Mommy Now?, which won the Anthony Award for Best Paperback Original and was filmed as "Perfect Alibi," starring Teri Garr, Hector Elizondo, and Kathleen Quinlan.

Since then Krich has published thirteen other novels, all critically acclaimed, as well as several short stories, many of which have been nominated for awards including the most recent, "Bitter Waters" (in Criminal Kabballah by Jewish Lights), nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Awards.

In addition to her stand alone novels, she has written five Jessie Drake mysteries, three of which were nominated for the Agatha Award. The fourth in the series, Dead Air, won the Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Mystery or Suspense. The fifth, Shadows of Sin, was a national bestseller and an Agatha nominee. Krich's works have been published in Britain, Iceland, Japan, France, Germany, and Holland, Israel, and Spain.

In October of 2002, Ballantine published Blues in the Night, the first in a new series. "Think Harry Kemelman's Rabbi Small, with the rabbi's wife as sleuth," says Krich. "Think Nick and Nora Charles. Then meet true crime writer Molly Blume. An Orthodox Jew, currently unattached, who 'doesn't date rabbis.' Or so she says." Krich smiles. Blues in the Night and its sequel, Dream House, were nominated for the Agatha (Blues was also nominated for Best Novel by the Southern California Booksellers Association). The third novel in the series, Grave Endings, won the Mary Higgins Clark and Calavera Awards. Coming this October is the fourth Molly Blume mystery, Now You See Me.

The daughter of Holocaust survivors, Krich was born in Germany and lived in New Jersey and in New York before moving with her family to Los Angeles in 1960. With a master’s degree in English from U.C.L.A., she taught high school English for eighteen years, chairing the English department at Yeshiva University of Los Angeles High Schools, and received the Milken Families Foundation Award for Distinguished Educator of the Year and the Samuel Belkin Memorial Award for professional achievement. Past editor of the national Sisters in Crime newsletter and a former director of the National Board of Directors of the Mystery Writers of America, Krich remains active in both organizations and is a member of the American Crime Writers League.

Krich was still teaching and raising six children when she began her writing career. "The juggling was difficult," she admits, "and I’ve made my share of mistakes. At one point the hems of my daughters’ uniform skirts were being held up by over a dozen safety pins, and I served way too much macaroni and cheese! But somehow we all managed, and my husband and children are wonderfully supportive. Which doesn't mean that they're never cranky."

And her mysteries are attracting a growing number of readers and receiving praise from reviewers who note Krich's fully realized characters, careful plotting, page-turning suspense, and the seamless way she weaves her Orthodox Judaism and contemporary social problems into many of her works. "Krich," observes Kirkus, "doesn't shrink from big issues."

How much of Rochelle Krich is in her characters?

"In college I considered pursuing a career in law or medicine," Krich says, "so I suppose I’m living those lives vicariously through my heroines--attorneys, doctors, homicide detectives, journalists. They’re all braver than I am, though, and younger." Many of her heroines practice Orthodox Judaism -- like true crime writer Molly Blume -- or find themselves drawn to it--like Jessie Drake, Krich’s series homicide detective, who discovered only recently that she is Jewish.

Unlike Jessie, Krich has never held a gun, and while Jessie’s life is complicated by lingering feelings for her ex-husband and a difficult relationship with her abusive mother and emotionally needy sister, Krich, a proud grandmother of seven, has been married for thirty-two years to the father of their six children and cherishes her closeness to her brother and his family . "I'm the stereotypical Jewish mother," she says. "Probably too involved with my kids' lives."

And Molly Blume? "There's more of me in Molly," Krich admits. "Molly has never held a gun, either, and unlike Jessie, she's close to her parents and siblings and has no residual feelings for the ex-husband who cheated on her. A major difference between the two characters? As someone who is new to Judaism, Jessie is more of an outsider trying to fit in, and her tone is questioning but always respectful. Molly will give readers an insider's view of what to many is an exotic world. And she'll do it with a little more humor, and a lot more irreverence.

Oh, and Molly plays mah-jongg with her sisters. "I've been playing for over thirty years every Monday night--barring Jewish holidays and deadlines. It's my therapy."

Krich credits her family for encouraging her to realize her dreams and helping her remember what’s truly important. "I tend to become obsessive about my writing," she confesses. "They keep me grounded."