Liza Cody (born 11 April 1944, in London) is an English
crime fiction writer.
Career
Before she began writing, Cody worked mostly in the visual arts, including as a graphic designer, but she also made furniture and was employed by
Madame Tussaud's waxwork museum as a hair inserter and colouring artiste.
Cody launched her first book in 1980. She is, as of 2025, the author of 18 novels and many short stories. Most of her work is set in London. Her Anna Lee series introduced the professional female private detective to mystery fiction. The entire Anna Lee series was loosely
adapted for television and broadcast in both the U.K. and the U.S.
Cody is also the author of the Bucket Nut Trilogy, featuring professional wrestler Eva Wylie, as well as the stand-alone novels ''Rift'', ''Gimme More'', ''Ballad of a Dead Nobody'', ''Miss Terry'', ''Gift or Theft'', and ''The Short-Order Detective''. ''Gimme More'' and ''Ballad of a Dead Nobody'' reflect the author's interest and experience in the world of music and musicians. ''Miss Terry'' is a thriller dealing with issues about the children of immigrant families in modern Britain. ''Gift or Theft'' is her take on the Gothic novel. Cody has also written a two-book series about a homeless woman: ''Lady Bag'' and ''Crocodiles and Good Intentions: further adventures of Lady Bag''. ''The Short-Order Detective'' features an ex-London policewoman who is trying to establish herself as a private detective by taking on the small cases that the police ignore.
Cody's novels have been widely translated. Her short stories have appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines. A widely praised collection of her first seventeen was published as ''Lucky Dip and other stories'' in 2003, reprinted in 2016. Her stories since then were published as ''My People and other crime stories'' in 2021
Personal life
Since 1999 she has lived in
Bath, England
Bath ( RP: , ) is a city in Somerset, England, known for and named after its Roman-built baths. At the 2021 census, the population was 94,092. Bath is in the valley of the River Avon, west of London and southeast of Bristol. The city becam ...
,. She has a daughter and two grandchildren. She is also a founder member of a small NGO in the Busiiro region of Uganda whose mission is to keep young girls in education instead of early marriage or prostitution.
Awards and honours
Awards include the John Creasey Memorial Prize and the CWA Silver Dagger in the UK as well as an
Anthony Award
The Anthony Awards are literary awards for mystery writers presented at the Bouchercon World Mystery Convention since 1986. The awards are named for Anthony Boucher (1911–1968), one of the founders of the Mystery Writers of America.
Categori ...
in the U.S. and a Marlowe in Germany. She has twice been nominated for the MWA's
Edgars.
Books
;The Anna Lee series
*''Dupe'' (1980)
*''Bad Company'' (1982)
*''Stalker'' (1983)
*''Head Case'' (1985)
*''Under Contract'' (1986)
*''Backhand'' (1991)
;The Eva Wylie series
*''Bucket Nut'' (1992)
*''Monkey Wrench'' (1994)
*''Musclebound'' (1997)
;The Lady Bag books
*''Lady Bag'' (2013)
*''Crocodiles and Good Intentions'' (2018)
*
;Stand alone novels
*''Rift'' (
1988, Scribner; Collins in the UK)
*''Gimme More'' (
2000
2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year.
Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...
, Bloomsbury)
*''Ballad of a Dead Nobody'' (2011)
*''Miss Terry'' (2012)
*''Gift or Theft'' (2020)
*''The Short-Order Detective (2024)
;Short story collections
*''Lucky Dip and other stories'' (
Crippen & Landru
Crippen & Landru Publishers is a small publisher of mystery fiction collections, based in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States. It was founded in 1994 by husband and wife Sandi and Douglas G. Greene in Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk ( ) is an indepen ...
, 2003) (
CreateSpace
On-Demand Publishing, LLC, doing business as CreateSpace, was a self-publishing service owned by Amazon. The company was founded in 2000 in South Carolina
South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, So ...
, 2016)
*Short story ''Lucky Dip'' also published in ''The International Association of Crime Writers presents Bad Behavior'' (
1995
1995 was designated as:
* United Nations Year for Tolerance
* World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War
This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...
, Gulliver Books, ed
Mary Higgins Clark)
*Short story ''Lucky Dip'' included in ''The International Association of Crime Writers presents Bad Behavior'' (
1995
1995 was designated as:
* United Nations Year for Tolerance
* World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War
This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...
, ed
Mary Higgins Clark)
*
*
*
**''My People and other crime stories'' (
Gatekeeper Press, 2020)
References
External links
author's website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Cody, Liza
1944 births
Living people
English crime fiction writers
Anthony Award winners
English mystery writers
English women mystery writers
English women novelists