Barbara Parker was trained as a lawyer and worked as a prosecutor with the state attorney’s office in Dade County, Florida, before moving into a private practice that specialized in real estate and family law. She earned a master’s degree in creative writing in 1993, and her first legal thriller was Suspicion of Innocence (1994), which was followed by another seven titles featuring her two lawyer protagonists, the sometime-lovers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana. While writing the Suspicion series, she also produced Criminal Justice, Blood Relations, The Perfect Fake, and The Dark of Day. Suspicion of Innocence was a finalist for the Edgar Award from the Mystery Writers of America, and two of her titles, Suspicion of Deceit and Suspicion of Betrayal, were New York Times bestsellers. Parker died in March 2009, at age sixty-two.