Kathy Brandt has been hooked on mysteries since she picked up The Secret of the Old Clock when she was about 10.  Now, if she doesn’t have a mystery on her bedside table, she goes into withdrawal.  Her leap from reading mysteries to writing them was inevitable.  She knew by the time she closed the pages on that first Nancy Drew book that she would someday write her own stories.

The Caribbean setting and the focus on underwater crime investigation was a natural for Kathy.  A certified scuba diver, she and her husband have been sailing and diving in the islands for years.  To prepare for writing her CSI mysteries, she attended diving classes with firemen and police officers and had a front row seat as they trained in rescue and recovery techniques.  To get a feel for diving in Colorado’s cold murky reservoirs, she took a dry suit diving course.

Kathy’s and her family’s lives took an unexpected turn when her son, Max, developed bipolar disorder when he was in college.  After surviving years of manic episodes followed by debilitating depression, Kathy and Max have written a memoir entitled Walks On The Margins: A Story of Bipolar Illness.  Kathy now speaks about her and Max’s story and blogs about mental illness issues on her companion website, www.kathybrandtauthor.com .

Kathy has a B.A. in English and an M.A. in Rhetoric and taught writing at the University of Colorado for ten years.