Jan Burke is an author of novels and short stories, and the winner of the Edgar Award for Best Novel.

Jan was born in Texas, but has lived in Southern California most of her life.

She comes from a close-knit family, and remains close to her parents, two sisters and a brother. Burke's husband is musician Tim Burke, whose bands include Bushtaxi. She attended California State University, Long Beach, and graduated with a degree in history.

Novels
Featuring newspaper reporter Irene Kelly;
Goodnight, Irene (1993)
Sweet Dreams, Irene (1994)
Dear Irene (1995)
Remember Me, Irene (1996)
Hocus (1997)
Liar (1998)
Bones (2000)
Bloodlines (2005)

Other novels
Flight (2001)
Nine (2002)
18 (2003) collection of short stories

Other Contributions Burke edited the first edition of Breaking and Entering ^[1], a Sisters in Crime's guide to getting published. She served as an Associate Editor on Writing Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America ^[2], edited by Sue Grafton. She is a longtime member of Sisters in Crime and has served on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and the American Crime Writers League.

Burke is the founder and director of the Crime Lab Project, an organization working to raise awareness of the problems facing crime labs and the need to obtain better funding for forensic science. She is a past president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America (MWA) and has served on MWA's National Board.

Awards Won the MWA's 2000 Edgar Award for Best Novel, for Bones. ^[3] Received an Edgar® nomination for Best Short Story for The Abbey Ghosts. Her short stories have won the Agatha, two Macavity awards Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine Reader's Award. Romantic Times's Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Suspense