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Barbara D'Amato is a playwright, novelist, and crime researcher. She began writing full-time in 1973, first co-writing plays with her husband, Anthony D'Amato.
After trying different genres, her first published novel in 1980 was a mystery.
She won the Agatha and Anthony Award for a non-fiction work, The Doctor, the Murder, the Mystery: The True Story of the Dr. John Branion Murder Case based on a case her husband worked on in 1984. In 1999, she served as President of the Mystery Writers of America.
Her research on the Dr. John Branion murder case formed the basis for a segment on Unsolved Mysteries, and she appeared on the program. Her musical comedies, The Magic Man and the children's musical The Magic of Young Houdini, written with her husband, played in Chicago and London.
She lives with her family in Chicago.
Barbara D'Amato's website
This bio was last updated on 11/11/2014. In a perfect world, we would like to keep all of BookBrowse's biographies up to date, but with many thousands of lives to keep track of it's simply impossible to do. So, if the date of this bio is not recent, you may wish to do an internet search for a more current source, such as the author's website or social media presence. If you are the author or publisher and would like us to update this biography, send the complete text and we will replace the old with the new.
You have said in the past that "getting angry at
something" fuels your books. Is that true in Death of a Thousand Cuts?
One source of energy for me is a sense of trying to right a
wrong. Also, I think the villain’s character is enriched if there is more than
just personal hatred or greed going on. In Death of a Thousand Cuts, the murder
victim’s life was motivated by self-aggrandizement. But in a larger way he had
the arrogance of professional authority, the view that he was always right
because he had training and a degree. That kind of paternalism makes me angry.
What is Death of a Thousand Cuts about?
Hawthorne House, a residential treatment facility for autistic
children, is holding a reunion fifteen years after closing its doors. Jeffrey
Clifford, a young mildly autistic man, was a patient there for seven years.
Clifford, other patients, staff members, and therapists plan to spend the
reunion weekend at the old mansion. During the first night, Dr. Jay Schermerhorn,
the charismatic and authoritarian director, is murdered.
Why did you want to write this particular book?
I had heard for some years that Bruno Bettelheim told the parents of his
patients that they had caused their children's ...
Dan Akst is a writer whose work has appeared in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, Slate and other leading publications. His most recent book is We Have Met the Enemy: Self-Control in an... (more)
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Bill Clegg is a literary agent in New York and the author of the bestselling memoirs Portrait of an Addict as a Young Man and Ninety Days. His first novel, Did You Ever Have a Family, hit the New York Times bestseller list ... (more)
If you enjoyed:
White Male Infant
Try:
Did You Ever Have A Family
by Bill Clegg
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