Jan Burke (born August 1, 1953) is an Americanauthor of novels and short stories. She is a winner of theEdgar Award for Best Novel, theAgatha Award for Best Short Story, theMacavity Award, andEllery QueenReaders Choice Award.

This section of abiography of a living personneeds additionalcitations forverification. Please help by addingreliable sources.Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced orpoorly sourcedmust be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentiallylibelous. Find sources: "Jan Burke" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(May 2024) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Burke was born August 1, 1953, inHouston,Texas,^[1] but has lived in Southern California most of her life. She attendedCalifornia State University, Long Beach, and graduated with a degree in history.^[2][3] She is a distinguished alumna of CSULB.

She worked as a researcher on an oral history project interviewing "Rosie the Riveters." Later she became the manager of a manufacturing plant for a large corporation.

She completed her first novel,Goodnight, Irene, in the evenings after work. It was sold unagented and unsolicited toSimon & Schuster. She received a surprising boost from a new fan when, during his firstWhite House interview after taking office,PresidentBill Clinton said he was readingGoodnight, Irene.

Her books have been on bestseller lists ofTheNew York Times, USA Today and other publications. They have been published internationally and have been optioned for film and television.

Burke became active in raising awareness of the problems facing crime labs and the need to obtain better funding for forensic science, at one point founding a nonprofit to do so. She has also been an advocate for the improvement ofmedicolegal death investigation in the U.S. and for requiring the reporting of unidentified remains to NamUs. Working with missing persons advocates, she helped to get legislation passed in New York State, the first state to require Namus reporting by all coroners and medical examiners. Other states have followed this model. She has been a speaker at meetings of the National Institute of Justice, the American Society of Crime Lab Directors, the California Association of Criminalists, the California Association of Crime Lab Directors, and other forensic science organizations. She has served on the honorary board of the California Forensic Science Institute.

Burke has been the Guest of Honor at several mystery fan conventions, including Malice Domestic, Left Coast Crime, and Mayhem in the Midwest.

Illness in her family has taken her away from writing in recent years.

Burke edited the first edition ofBreaking and Entering, aSisters in Crime's guide to getting published.^[4] She served as an Associate Editor onWriting Mysteries: A Handbook by the Mystery Writers of America, edited bySue Grafton.^[5] She has served on the national boards ofMystery Writers of America (MWA) and theAmerican Crime Writers League. She is a past president of the Southern California Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.^{[citation needed]}

Burke's novelBloodlines appears in the television seriesBones: Season 1, Ep. 17 - "The Skull in the Desert. It is used as a prop on a table at minute 15:05.^{[citation needed]}

Burke has received theEllery Queen's Mystery MagazineReaders Choice Award andRomantic Times's Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Suspense.^{[citation needed]}

• Goodnight, Irene (1993)
• Sweet Dreams, Irene (1994)
• Dear Irene (1995)
• Remember Me, Irene (1996)
• Hocus (1997)
• Liar (1998)
• Bones (2000)
• Flight (2001) (from the POV of Frank Harriman)
• Bloodlines (2005)
• Kidnapped (2006)
• Disturbance (2011)

• Nine (2002)
• The Messenger (2009)

• 18 (2003)

• Official website

• Agatha Award winners
• American mystery writers
• 20th-century American novelists
• California State University, Long Beach alumni
• Edgar Award winners
• Living people
• Macavity Award winners
• 1953 births
• Writers from Houston
• 21st-century American novelists
• American women short story writers
• American women mystery writers
• 20th-century American women novelists
• 21st-century American women novelists
• 20th-century American short story writers
• 21st-century American short story writers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• BLP articles lacking sources from May 2024
• All BLP articles lacking sources
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from May 2024
• Official website different in Wikidata and Wikipedia