Meg Mackintosh Solves Seven American History Mysteries (15 page)

Lucinda Landon at about the same age as Meg Mackintosh.

Author and illustrator Lucinda Landon was born in Galesburg, Illinois. Her family moved to Schenectady, New York, where she and her three sisters grew up. She comes to children's books with a background in art and design, having attended the Sir John Cass School of Art in London, St. Lawrence University, and Rhode Island School of Design. She has worked as an art museum guide, children's librarian, and special education teacher.

The first book she illustrated,
The Young Detective's Handbook
by William Vivian Butler, received a special Edgar Allan Poe Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1981. A character from that handbook evolved into Meg Mackintosh. Meg was also inspired by a childhood friend named Meg, but Landon admits that Meg Mackintosh is also a bit like her.

Landon has always loved reading mysteries and remembers that there weren't many for middle readers when she was growing up, especially with girl detectives and clues in the pictures.

“Writing the Meg Mackintosh series,” says Landon, “gives me the opportunity to combine my love of drawing and mysteries. It's fun to design books with the clues hidden in both text and the black-and-white illustrations.”Landon says she likes to keep her mysteries fast paced, with intriguing clues and questions posed to the reader to see if they can match wits with Meg.

Lucinda Landon is married to photographer Jim Egan and has two sons, Alex and Eric, two dogs, one cat, and two horses. They live in an old house in Rhode Island that was built in 1709. The house has a hidden trap door to the basement and a secret hiding place behind the chimney. “It's a great place to write mysteries,” says Landon.

Learn more about
Meg
Mackintosh
at
www.megmackintosh.com