Mystery Author Marilyn Meredith and Her World of Crime

I had the pleasure of meeting Marilyn Meredith, author of eighteen novels, last year through our mutual association in Sisters in Crime.

Marilyn Meredith is the author of award winning Deputy Tempe Crabtree mystery series as well as other novels. The latest is, Judgment Fire, from Mundania Press. Under the name of F. M. Meredith she writes the Rocky Bluff P.D. series, the latest, Smell of Death, from Tigress Press. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, EPIC and on the board of the Public Safety Writers of America. She was an instructor for Writer’s Digest School for ten years, served as an instructor at the Maui Writer’s Retreat and many other writer’s conferences.

Please join MURDERY BY 4 in welcoming Marilyn Meredith.



Though I’ve always loved reading mysteries, my first published writing was an historical family saga based on my own family’s genealogy. When I was done, I decided to tackle a mystery. My interest in law enforcement had been piqued when my police officer son-in-law decided I had a good listening ear and coffee to drink. My daughter didn’t want to hear what he had to say, and I was fascinated. It wasn’t long before I talked him into going on a ride-along as long as I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone I was his mother-in-law.

Year earlier, when we first moved into our home in an inexpensive housing tract in Oxnard CA, we were neighbors with everyone whose pay scale left much to be desired: police officers, firemen and Navy personnel (my husband was career Navy). We partied with these folks and I had coffee with the wives where I learned plenty about the families and how the job affected them.

Later we moved from the beach community to the foothills of the Sierra and I went on more ride-alongs. The most enlightening one was with a female officer who was a single mom. I followed her as she did bar checks and waited in the car while she calmed a family dispute. From 2 a.m. until 6 in the morning, she didn’t have a single call. During this time she poured her heart out to me. Much of what I learned from her, my son-in-law, living among cops and their families have been the material that fueled my imagination to write the Rocky Bluff P.D. series.

My goal with this series has been to show how the job affects the families and what’s going on with the families affect the job. I also remembered my son-in-law criticizing police shows and books because as he said, "We’re never working on just one case at a time." The Rocky Bluff P.D. never works on one case at a time either.

The latest in the series, Smell of Death, features a female police officer, Stacey Wilbur, a single mom, two murders that are connected, a missing toddler, a stalker, and the beginning of a romance when Stacey breaks her own rule about dating anyone on the Rocky Bluff P.D. Any of the old-timers on either the Oxnard P.D. or the Porterville P.D. might recognize cases that gave me the seeds that germinated into this novel.

Most people know me by Marilyn, but I decided to use my initials for this series because it’s a bit darker than my usual writing. Smell of Death can be purchased directly from my website: http://fiction/ or Amazon.com.

Marilyn has just completed her virtual book tour of Smell of Death. To learn more about Marilyn and her other writings please visit: http://marilynmeredith.blogspot.com/and the
Stiletto Gang: http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com/