Sign up for our newsletters to receive our Most Anticipated Books of 2025!

Lana Waite Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

Author Biography  | Interview  | Books by this Author  | Read-Alikes

Author Image Not Available

Lana Waite

Lana Waite Biography

Lana Waite was a mystery writer who grew up in Seattle, studied architecture at the University of Washington, married a navy man, and lived in Northern California.

Buried In Burrywood was her first book and she made up the setting from memories of living in the Pacific Northwest. Burrywood is a quaint coastal town on the shore of Puget Sound, with a group of eclectic, close-knit townspeople involved in solving a rash of murders. Buried in Burywood was a semi-finalist in the 2005 Independent Publishers Awards (IPPY) for Mystery.

Her second book, The Madd Mountain Murders, takes place in the California mountains where her family skied. Tall Trees Lodge doesn't exist but it would be a nice place to visit.

Her third and final book is Cobwebs And Contraband. Like the others, it's set at a fictitious place - a grand old hotel on the ocean in Southern California.

Lana Waite passed away on July 5th, 2006 following a long battle with cancer. She will be sorely missed by her husband Fred, children and grandchildren.



This bio was last updated on 01/16/2010. 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.

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Interview

Lana Waite talks with BookBrowse about the fun she had creating the town of Burrywood - the fictional but idyllic setting for her first murder mystery book - and the people that inhabit it.

The town of Burrywood seems very real, as if it is based on an actual place. Is there a Burrywood?
Burrywood was created entirely in my head but I hope there are many towns just like it in this world, places where multi-generations stick together, make their homes, and raise families. When I grew up in Seattle there were about forty cousins close by. Family picnics were grand affairs. Vacation trips included lots of playmates. Now the family is scattered. It takes an important event to get everyone together. For instance, we planned a one hundredth birthday party for my dad. For something that important people were coming from Hawaii, California, and Arizona. Unhappily the date we had set was ten days after 9/11. The celebration never happened. If we’d all lived together in a town like Burrywood the observance would have gone on as planned.

Why did you write about such a small town? And what do you like most about Burrywood?
Small towns are cozy. Everyone knows everyone else very well and, if they are lucky, everybody agrees to disagree. That means that—even though opinions conflict—differences are allowed, little things are overlooked, and there are no warring factions. Burrywood is like that...

Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Books by this Author

Books by Lana Waite at BookBrowse
The Madd Mountain Murders jacket Buried In Burrywood jacket
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Read-Alikes

All the books below are recommended as read-alikes for Lana Waite but some maybe more relevant to you than others depending on which books by the author you have read and enjoyed. So look for the suggested read-alikes by title linked on the right.
How we choose read-alikes

  • Lilian Jackson Braun

    Lilian Jackson Braun

    The history of Lilian Jackson Braun is perhaps as exciting and mysterious as her novels. Between 1966 and 1968, she published three novels to critical acclaim; The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, The Cat Who Ate ... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Buried In Burrywood

    Try:
    The Cat Who Smelled A Rat
    by Lilian Jackson Braun

  • Rita Mae Brown

    Rita Mae Brown

    Rita Mae Brown is the bestselling author of many books including Rubyfruit Jungle, In Her Day, Six of One, Southern Discomfort, Sudden Death, High Hearts, Bingo,, Starting from Scratch: A Different Kind of Writers' Manual... (more)

    If you enjoyed:
    Buried In Burrywood

    Try:
    Claws and Effect
    by Rita Mae Brown

We recommend 7 similar authors

View all 7 Read-Alikes

Non-members can see 2 results. Become a member
Membership Advantages
  • Reviews
  • "Beyond the Book" articles
  • Free books to read and review (US only)
  • Find books by time period, setting & theme
  • Read-alike suggestions by book and author
  • Book club discussions
  • and much more!
  • Just $50 for 12 months or $18 for 3 months.
  • More about membership!

Top Picks

  • Book Jacket: City of Night Birds
    City of Night Birds
    by Juhea Kim
    City of Night Birds opens in the present day with a flight to St. Petersburg—a homecoming for ...
  • Book Jacket: Death of the Author
    Death of the Author
    by Nnedi Okorafor
    Zelu is a frustrated writer, annoyed by her self-important students and the adjunct teaching load ...
  • Book Jacket: The Capital of Dreams
    The Capital of Dreams
    by Heather O'Neill
    "Sometimes war can set a woman free," declares Sofia Bottom's larger-than-life intelligentsia mother...
  • Book Jacket: The Lion Women of Tehran
    The Lion Women of Tehran
    by Marjan Kamali
    Seven-year-old Ellie, living in Tehran in the 1950s, has just lost her father. She and her single ...

BookBrowse Book Club

Book Jacket
Babylonia
by Costanza Casati
From the author of the bestselling Clytemnestra comes another intoxicating excursion into ancient history. When kings fall, queens rise.
Book Jacket
The Memory Library
by Kate Storey
Journey through the pages of this heartwarming novel, where hope, friendship and second chances are written in the margins.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket

    Going Home
    by Tom Lamont

    Going Home is a sparkling, funny, bighearted story of family and what happens when three men take charge of a toddler following an unexpected loss.

  • Book Jacket

    The Secret History of the Rape Kit
    by Pagan Kennedy

    The story of the woman who kicked off a feminist revolution in forensics, and then vanished into obscurity.

Book Club Giveaway!
Win My Darling Boy

My Darling Boy by John Dufresne

The story of of a man whose son collapses into addiction and vanishes into the chaotic netherworld of southern Florida.

Enter

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

Y C L a H T W but Y C M H D

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.