B.B. Cantwell

B.B. Cantwell is the pen name for the wife/husband writing team of Barbara and Brian Cantwell. We lived 10 happy years in Portland, Ore., where our Portland Bookmobile Mysteries are set, but have always had family in Seattle, so we spent a lot of hours driving back and forth on Interstate 5. After Barbara started writing a mystery novel, we got to talking out ideas and plot lines as we drove, trip after trip, and it became a joint effort. Barbara worked on the bookmobile in Portland -- including a run into the scenic Columbia River Gorge -- and served as librarian to pretty much all the off-kilter characters you'll meet in our stories. Brian, a retired newspaper journalist, helps rein it in to reality (but not too far), fills out details and tends to the editing. It's like we've created our own Imaginary Friends in protagonists Hester McGarrigle, the librarian on wheels, and trail-running Detective Nate Darrow, who drinks his coffee with way too much sugar. We're having great fun crafting cozy mysteries that are a little quirky, just like Portland. These days we live with two cats in a cabin on a remote island in Washington's San Juans, where we continue to enjoy writing about our Imaginary Friends.