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Lana Waite Biography, Books, and Similar Authors

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

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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.



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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...

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Books by this Author

Books by Lana Waite at BookBrowse
The Madd Mountain Murders jacket Buried In Burrywood jacket
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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

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