Susan Cox Books in Order

Susan Cox was born in England and spent part of her childhood in London before later building a life that stretched between England, California, and Florida. She has described herself as equally at home in San Francisco and Florida, and that mix of places shows up all through her work. So does her connection to a large, lively extended family in England.

Before fiction became her day job, Cox worked in journalism and then in a string of public-facing roles. She handled marketing and public relations for a safari park, worked as a fundraiser for nonprofit organizations, and served as president of the Palm Beach County Attractions Association. It is not hard to see how that background might feed a mystery writer. Those jobs put her close to institutions, local networks, and the way public stories can spill into private lives.

Writing, though, was the plan all along.

Cox has said that being a mystery novelist was always her dream, but for years she could not make fiction fit around a demanding fundraising job. Finally she gave herself 18 months to see if she could do it seriously. Her master's thesis project became the basis for The Man on the Washing Machine, and when she saw the deadline for the Minotaur Books and Mystery Writers of America First Crime Novel Competition, she entered. The manuscript won the 2014 contest and became her debut novel.

That is a hard way to top your first try.

Her best-known books are the Theo Bogart mysteries, The Man on the Washing Machine and The Man in the Microwave Oven. Theo is an English woman hiding in San Francisco after a family tragedy, and Cox has said the character's past as a society photographer grew partly from her own experience freelancing for a tabloid paper. That detail gives the series some bite. Theo knows how scandal is made, how stories get bent, and how a person can end up trapped inside public gossip.

Readers who click with Cox usually seem to like the same things. The books have colorful neighborhood characters, oddball humor, and the pleasures of a cozy mystery, but there is more strain underneath than the light touch first suggests. Theo is building a chosen family while trying to keep her old life buried, so every case is also a test of trust.

San Francisco is not just scenery.

Cox has said she wanted to write a San Francisco murder mystery because the city has a long history of taking in strangers and letting them start over. That idea sits right at the center of her fiction. Her characters arrive with baggage, make room for one another, and then discover that reinvention is never quite as simple as changing your name and opening a shop.

Her own tastes are easy to spot around the edges. She has talked about liking dogs, horses, gardens, tea, and fog, and she has admitted to being a Star Trek geek. She sometimes wears a Starfleet communicator pin, and she collects royal commemorative mugs. Those details make sense beside her books, which blend old-school mystery pleasures with a sly, playful streak.

Today, Cox still seems to keep one foot in Florida and one in San Francisco, while remaining closely tied to England. That transatlantic feeling gives her work some of its charm. If you come to Susan Cox for the murder puzzle, you will find it. If you stay, it is probably for the mix of warmth, secrecy, and slightly offbeat company.