Bestselling American author Robin Stevens is best known for her bestselling children’s book series Murder Most Unladylike, the twelfth and most recent of which, Once Upon a Crime, was published in 2021. The novels are set in the 1930s, considered to be the Golden Age of Detective Fiction (think Agatha Christie) but are also unafraid of taking on the prejudices of that time and also reflect the diversity of modern society by featuring many characters who are LGBTQ+. Books in the series have won several awards, including the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize, the ALA Notable Children’s Book, and CrimeFest Best Crime Novel for Children Aged 8-12.
Stevens was born in California but moved to Oxford with her family when she was just three years old, and so she has dual UK-US citizenship. She comes from an extraordinarily literary/academic background – her father was a master at the prestigious Pembroke College in Oxford, her mother worked at the famous Ashmolean Museum in the city, and one of her grandfathers was the eminent literary critic and professor Wayne C. Booth. Unsurprisingly, Stevens had a glittering academic career that even saw her appear on University Challenge as team captain of Warwick University.
After working at the world-famous Blackwell’s in Oxford and also in publishing, Stevens published her first novel, Murder Most Unladylike in 2014. The book became the title of what has become her signature series, allowing her the rare privilege of becoming a full-time author. With a new series planned for launch in 2022, Stevens hasn’t let the success of her first series dent her ambitions.