Paula L. Woods (born 1953 in Los Angeles^[1]) is an African-American crime novelist and literary critic. Her 1999 novel, Inner City Blues, won the Macavity Award for best first mystery,^[2] and was followed by other novels featuring its heroine, L.A. policewoman Charlotte Justice. She has also edited an anthology of African-American crime literature and co-edited (with Felix H. Liddell) three anthologies of African American literature illustrated with African American fine art.

Crime fiction novels

• Inner City Blues (1999)
• Stormy Weather (2001)
• Dirty Laundry (2003)
• Strange Bedfellows (2006) ISBN 0345457021

Editor

• Spooks, Spies and Private Eyes: Black Mystery, Crime and Suspense Fiction of the 20th Century (1995)
• With Felix H. Liddell:
• Merry Christmas, Baby: A Christmas and Kwanzaa Treasury (1996)
• I Hear a Symphony: African Americans Celebrate Love (1994)
• I, Too, Sing America: The African American Book of Days (1992)