Tami Hoag

Tami Hoag (born 1959) is an American novelist who moved from category romance to best-selling crime and suspense fiction. She was born Tami Mikkelson in Cresco, Iowa, on 20 January 1959 and grew up in Harmony, Minnesota.

Before writing full time she worked in newspaper circulation, as a photographer's assistant and as a trainer of show horses. Her career began in 1988 with category romances for Bantam's Loveswept line; her first novel was McKnight in Shining Armor (Loveswept number 276). After several years in romance she switched to single-title suspense. Night Sins (1995), set in the fictional town of Deer Lake, was, according to her official website, the book that first put her on the New York Times best-seller list, and was adapted as a television miniseries; Guilty as Sin (1996) continued the Deer Lake story. Her Minneapolis-set Kovac and Liska series began with Ashes to Ashes (1999) and Dust to Dust (2000) and continued through Prior Bad Acts (2006), The 9th Girl (2013), Cold Cold Heart (2015) and The Bitter Season (2016). Her official site gives more than 40 million copies in print in over 30 languages. She is also a competitive dressage rider.

For collectors, Hoag's early Loveswept paperbacks from 1988 onwards are the first appearances of her work, while Night Sins (Bantam, 1995) marks her breakthrough as a suspense writer and her first appearance on the New York Times list.