Mary Ba?e

Mary Baše spent twenty-one years walking into the parts of human life most people would rather look away from. A retired detective and a 4th-degree black belt in Goju-ryu Karate, Mary’s writing is forged from decades of real-world experience in law enforcement and the hard-won independence of a life lived on her own terms.

Raised on a remote farm in Central Idaho, Mary’s path was anything but linear. After a career in advertising and a life-changing divorce, she found her true calling at a time when the roles of women were seldom challenged. Born into an era when females were rarely seen on the beat, Mary faced a world that told her "no" and decided to prove it wrong. In 1981, she pinned on the badge and began the career that would take her from the patrol car to the detective’s desk in the Eastern Washington communities of Davenport and Cheney.

When she wasn’t on duty, she was in the dojo. For over thirty years, Mary studied and taught martial arts, eventually opening her own school to empower women and children through self-defense. Today, she has traded her badge and black belt for a keyboard, bringing the same grit, discipline, and penchant for story telling to her lifelong love of writing.