Don’t let the smile fool you; Holly West has a dark side.

Her short stories appear in Feeding Kate: A Crime Fiction Anthology, Needle: A Magazine of Noir and Shotgun Honey Presents: Both Barrels. Her debut novel, a historical mystery set in 1678 London, will be published by Carina Press in 2014.

Before devoting herself to writing fiction full-time, Holly was an accomplished jewelry designer. She also served as a contributor to About.com for four years, writing about a variety of topics. Prior to that, she worked as a foreign credentials analyst at the International Education Research Foundation and published monographs on the educational systems of Sudan, Zambia, and Afghanistan.

She is not, however, the same Holly West who appears in movies without costumes. She lives, reads, and writes in southern California with her husband Mick and dog Stella.

Holly is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.