Cynthia E. Hurst is the author of two mystery series set in Seattle, the R&P Labs Mysteries and the Zukie Merlino Mysteries, and the Silver and Simm Mysteries, set in Victorian England. Like her characters in the R&P and Zukie novels, she grew up in Seattle, then graduated from the University of Oregon with a journalism degree. She worked on newspapers and magazines in the Pacific Northwest and in Britain, and also spent five years as a housing officer for British military families.
The R&P Labs books were inspired by the small Seattle laboratory where her parents – both scientists – worked, and the Zukie books by her Italian relatives. The Silver and Simm series takes place in Oxfordshire, her home since 1984, and the Time Traveller Trilogy stemmed from an unfortunate accident.