About - Tracy Clark

About the Author

About The Author

I was born in Chicago, the greatest city ever. It must be so, because I’m still here, loving the seasons, cursing the heat, shivering through frigid winters, complaining endlessly about the humidity. But none of it seriously enough to prompt me to pack up and move someplace else.

People often ask me when I knew I wanted to be a writer, but, honestly, I don’t remember a time when I didn’t know, though knowing a thing and voicing it are two different things, and it would be many, many, many years before I actually told someone – out loud — that I wanted to be a writer. It was then many, many, many more years before I actually wrote anything good. I am an overnight success twenty-some years in the making.

Growing up, I read everything I could get my hands on, but the progression toward a life of fictional crime went something like this – Dr. Seuss to Amelia Bedelia, Amelia to Harriet the Spy, Harriet to Agatha Christie and Christie to the ’80s and ’90s when a wave of fantabulous female crime writers swooped in bringing the thunder. Grafton, Muller, Maron, Paretsky, Bland, Neely, Wilson Wesley… I knew right away I wanted to be just like them.

Along the way I managed to graduate college and grad school, and then start a career in the newspaper business. I now edit by day and write around my work schedule. I’m up at 5:30 AM with my laptop and a cup of Earl Grey at my side, hopefully putting down something I can use before I have to then swivel over to start editing op-eds, comics strips, crossword puzzles and features.
When I’m not writing or editing, I enjoy a good black-and-white movie. Something goofy or something noir. (Anybody else out there laugh out loud at Judy Canova?) Toss in a rainy Sunday and a couple of ginger snap cookies, and you’ve just described my perfect day.

Tracy Clark Press Release

Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan, is the author of the award-winning Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series, featuring ex-cop turned PI Cassandra Raines, and the Detective Harriet Foster series, featuring Harriet Foster, a homicide detective with the Chicago Police Department. Two tough, smart, African American female characters working the mean streets of the Windy City.
A multi-nominated Anthony, Lefty, Macavity, Edgar and Shamus Award finalist, Tracy is also the 2020 and 2022 winner of the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award, as well as the 2022 Sara Paretsky Award, and is a proud member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime, and currently serves on the Bouchercon national board and the board of the Midwest Mystery Conference.

Her debut novel, BROKEN PLACES, made Library Journal’s list of the Best Crime Fiction of 2018 and was short listed in the mystery category on the American Library Association’s 2019 Reading List. CrimeReads also named Cass Raines Best /New PI of 2018. That debut novel was nominated for a Lefty Award for Best Debut Novel, an Anthony Award for Best Debut Novel and a Shamus Award for Best First PI Novel. Her second Raines novel, BORROWED TIME, was nominated for the 2020 Lefty Award for Best Mystery Novel and won the 2020 and 2022 G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award. WHAT YOU DON’T SEE, book three in the series, was nominated for the 2021 Lefty and Shamus Awards. RUNNER, book four in the Raines series, won the 2022 Sue Grafton Award.

HIDE, book one in her new Detective Harriet Foster series debuted January 2023 and made the Associated Press’ Top 10 audiobook lists for Audible.com.
Kirkus Review said of HIDE, “Solid work from a writer who knows the dark side of the Windy City.”

When not writing, Tracy is watching old black-and-white movies, reading, or just puttering around. She roots for the Cubs, the Sox, the Bears, the Blackhawks, the Chicago Sky and the Chicago Fire equally. As a proud Chicagoan, it’s deep dish and hot dogs, no ketchup. Vegan schmegan. And she can toss a (fictional) dead body anywhere and make it work. Dare her.