Linda Berry, Author of the Trudy Roundtree Mystery series

About the Author

Linda Berry's published credits include plays, poetry, newspaper columns, curriculum, craft articles, short fiction for children and adults, and several years as writer/editor for a tennis publication (although she's never been a tennis player). The Trudy Roundtree mysteries grew out of her longstanding love for mysteries, her Georgia roots, and her cousin Johnny Shuman, a policeman in South Georgia who's a great storyteller. Linda lives in Aurora, Colorado, with her husband Jerry (yes, jerryberry). They have two adult sons.

Now Available from the Author!

Early titles of the Trudy Roundtree series are out of print. Read all about it in this article, from the Ogeechee Beacon, Trudy's hometown weekly newspaper. Contact Linda if you have trouble finding these books.

email Linda

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Built before the turn of the 20th century, this beauty is the model for Trudy's house. It's where my father grew up, and is still in the family.

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Death and the Easter Bunny

Trudy Roundtree, the newest--and so far only--female police officer for the Ogeechee, Georgia, police department, investigates when the son-in-law of the richest man in town dies in a fire. At first, his death is thought to be an accident, but Trudy soon realizes that it was murder. And, with the coincidental loss of her cousin Hen, the police chief, and the other members of the police force--to some "poison itchy weed" contracted while hidin' in the bushes, lookin' to catch a local drug-runner--Trudy is on her own to find the murderer. Published in hardcover by Write Way Publishing, and in paperback by Worldwide.

Read the first chapter of Death and the Easter Bunny.

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Death and the Hubcap

Trudy Roundtree--the only woman on the Ogeechee police force--is not exactly excited about Chief Hen Huckabee's request that she investigate Tanner Whitcomb's report that he's run over somebody, since Whitcomb doesn't have a car or a driver's license, but simply putt-putts around town "driving" a hubcap. But when Tanner leads her to a dead body with tire tracks on his shirt, Trudy has to think twice about the situation. Who really ran down the Atlanta art dealer? Why? And what was he doing in one-stoplight-Ogeechee? Published in hardcover by Write Way Publishing, and in paperback by Worldwide.

Read the first chapter of Death and the Hubcap.

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Death and the Icebox

Trudy and Hen investigate an old murder when a long-dead body is discovered in what old-timers call an icebox. Forcing townspeople to re-live painful memories, while dealing with physical pain in the form of an on-the-job injury, leaves Trudy in a philosophical mood that may affect her relationship with newspaperman Phil Pittman. (See below for the recipe for Trudy's tomato salad.) Published in hardcover by Five Star Publishing, April 2003, and in paperback by Worldwide. Also available from Books In Motion.

Read the first chapter of Death and the Icebox.

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Death and the Walking Stick

When Althea Boatright dies alone in her locked room, it looks like the natural death of a sickly old woman, but one of her friends thinks there's something suspicious about it. Henry Huckabee, Chief of Police in Ogeechee, Georgia, assigns Officer Trudy Roundtree to look into it. Trudy finds many people with grudges against the victim--whom Hen calls "an unpleasant old turkey buzzard"--and many walking sticks before she solves this locked-room mystery. Published in hardcover by Five Star Publishing, April 2005, and in paperback by Worldwide.

Read the first chapter of Death and the Walking Stick.

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Death and the Family Tree

A family reunion in connection with Ogeechee, Georgia's, bicentennial celebration should be a festive occasion, espically when one of the family members is being honored. But when the oldest living former mayor takes a header down the stairs at the old family home, Chief of Police Henry Huckabee and Officer Trudy Roundtree must investigate his death, Not surprisingly, they discover some nuts and a rotten branch or two in the family tree in question. Published in hardcover by Five Star Publishing, May 2007, and in paperback by Worldwide.

Read the first chapter of Death and the Family Tree

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Death and the Crossed Wires

When the Ogeechee, Georgia, police department--notably Chief Henry Huckabee and Officer Trudy Roundtree--investigate the electrocution of a Baptist pastor in a baptistry, they discover his death is no accident, but part of a cold-blooded series of murders with an unusual motive. Published in hardcover by Five Star/Cengage Publishing, March 2009.

Read the first chapter of Death and the Crossed Wires,

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The Huckabee Tomato Salad

When Trudy makes this salad to serve to Hen in Death And The Icebox, she calls it the Huckabee salad and says it's an old family recipe. It is an old family recipe, from my mother's family, and my Aunt Mildred used to say that nobody outside the family had ever eaten it. Maybe there's a reason for that, but I like it. It looks to me like something that a farm wife--my grandmother--might have invented during the depression. This version is taken from a family cookbook.

• Canned tomatoes, about one pint
• saltine crackers, one sleeve
• boiled eggs
• sweet pickles
• salt, pepper, and sugar
• mayonnaise

Do not drain juice from the tomatoes. Crumble enough saltines into mashed tomatoes to absorb juice. Add chopped boiled eggs, cubed pickles, salt, pepper, sugar, and mayonnaise..

This recipe appears in A Second Helping of Murder (Poisoned Pen Press, 2003), along with dozens of other recipes from your favorite authors. There, it's called "Mamie Barnard's Tomato Salad." I like to say my books are softboiled and mixed with grits--not grit.

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Updated 17 July 2009...a jerrybilt site