April Smith Author

APRIL SMITH
PRESS KIT
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APRIL SMITH
biography
BIOGRAPHY
April Smith has published five mystery/thrillers with Alfred A.
Knopf, Inc. -- four in the FBI Special Agent Ana Grey series,
and one a standalone thriller about the only female baseball
scout in the major leagues. She is also a television writerproducer who has been nominated for an Emmy award three
times for her work in dramatic series and TV movies.
April grew up in the Bronx, New York, and attended the Bronx
High School of Science. She graduated With Distinction in
English Literature and Cum Laude from Boston University, and
received a Master’s Degree in Creative Writing from Stanford
University in 1972. Her first break came with the publication
of a short story in the Atlantic Monthly. She credits the great
feminist writer, Tillie Olsen, for encouraging her to submit her
work.
April returned to Boston, working as a temp typist until
landing a job as a copywriter for an ad agency, where she won
the Hatch Award for a radio spot promoting Oxford Pickles.
She moved to Los Angeles in 1977, where she met her
husband, Douglas Brayfield, a psychotherapist. They have two
grown children.
APRIL SMITH
ana grey series
WHITE SHOTGUN
JUDAS HORSE
Even on leave from
the FBI, Ana can’t
kick old habits:
when she
witnesses a driveby shooting at an
Italian restaurant
in London, she
helps the injured
and gives
testimony to the
police. Still, it
comes as a shock
when the Bureau
contacts her—not
because they want
her to investigate
the shooting, but
because they want
her to investigate
the half-sister she
never knew she
had, Cecilia, who
lives in Siena,
Italy, and is
married to Nicoli
Nicosa, a wealthy
coffee mogul with
transnational
mafia connections.
An FBI agent
working
undercover is
murdered by a
group of hard-core
anarchists
operating behind
the façade of FAN
(Free Animals
Now). For those
who knew him – or,
like Ana Grey, were
once in love with
him – the case has
number one
priority.
Dispatched to the
FBI’s grueling
undercover school
to learn the art of
deceit, Ana takes
on the identity of a
down-on-her-luck
animal lover
determined to save
the wild mustangs
of the west. Now
she’s ready to
work her way into
the inner circle of
Julius Emerson
Phelps, the
unstable,
charismatic leader
of a ‘family’ of
outcasts who live
on an isolated
farm in Oregon,
and are preparing
Settling into their
intimidating home
under false
pretenses is the
least of the
tensions Ana
encounters. The
entire city of Siena
is gearing up for
its legendary horse
race, the Palio—
the dazzling
annual culmination
of ancient rivalries
between the city’s
many wards. And
when her nephew
is stabbed and her
sister goes
missing, Ana
understands
there’s more at
stake than a horse
race here. For Ana
herself, it will
mean an almost
impossible choice
between duty and
family.
for an act of
terrorism Phelps
dubs, “The Big
One.”
The stakes
increase when Ana
learns that Phelps
is playing his own
game of deception,
and that he
possesses a
stockpile of dirty
secrets about the
Bureau that can
blow it sky high.
With razor-sharp
realism, Smith
renders the
psychological vise
of a deep-cover
agent living a lie
24/7. Negotiating
a minefield of
loyalty and
betrayal, Ana is
forced to commit
the very crime
she’s determined
to stop.
APRIL SMITH
ana grey series
GOOD MORNING, KILLER
NORTH OF MONTANA
Special Agent Grey
is working on a
kidnap case—a
fifteen-year-old
named Juliana has
been abducted
from the Santa
Monica
Promenade. Grey’s
counterpart in the
Santa Monica
Police Department
is Detective
Andrew Berringer.
They’ve worked
together before—
and they’ve been
more than just
working together
ever since.
Ana Grey as a
young, ambitious
FBI agent on the
robbery squad of
the Los Angeles
field office. She is
put on a highprofile case
involving the
fading but stillbeloved movie
star, Jayne Mason,
a well-known
doctor, and an
allegedly illegal
supply of drugs
passing between
them. Ana’s
personal and
professional life
collide when she
learns the doctor
had employed a
distant cousin of
hers – a woman
Ana never knew,
who has recently
been brutally
murdered. And it
doesn’t take long
for her to
understand that in
the eyes of her
bosses, “Jayne
Mason is not a
case, Jayne Mason
is a political
situation, waiting
to explode.”
It’s Ana’s job “to
know the victim as
if she were my own
flesh and blood.”
But when Juliana
turns up—
traumatized into a
state of total and
paralyzing terror—
it becomes clear
that Ana has gone
too far: she is
viewing her own
life from the
perspective of
Juliana’s blasted
emotional terrain.
And in a moment
of passion (Andrew
has betrayed her)
and panic (is it
possible that he
also means to
harm her?) Ana
points a gun at
him and shoots.
Now she is both
criminal
investigator and
criminal as she
breaks her bail
agreement to
continue tracking
the abductor, torn
between her
powerful emotional
connection with
Juliana and the
fraying connection
she has to her own
common sense
and to the truths
she knows about
Andrew—and
about herself.
As pressure builds
to resolve the
situation, Ana and
her married
partner, Mike
Donnato, are
drawn closer
together. And as
Ana fights to
prevent the case
from making its
way deep into her
psyche, her world,
her life – into the
long-hidden
recesses of her
family’s
mysterious past
and into her
conflicted present - North of Montana
becomes a riveting
exploration of
power and identity
in the explosive
culture of Los
Angeles.
APRIL SMITH
bibliography
NOVELS
TELEVISION
FBI Special Agent Ana Grey Series
White Shotgun
Alfred A. Knopf (2011)
Judas Horse
Alfred A. Knopf (2007)
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (2008)
Good Morning Killer
Knopf (2003)
Kensington paperback (2004)
North of Montana
Knopf (1994)
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard (2008)
Movies of the Week
Nightmares and Dreamscapes -- From the
Stories of Stephen King
Writer, TNT (two episodes)
Black and Blue
Based on the novel by Anna Quindlen. Writer. CBS
Best Kept Secrets
Writer/Producer. ABC
Ernie Kovaks: Between the Laughter
(Emmy and WGA nominations). Writer. ABC
Love Lives On
Writer/Producer. ABC
Taking Back My Life: The Nancy Ziegenmeyer
Story
Writer. CBS
The Taking of Pelham 123
Based on the novel by John Godey. Writer. ABC
Queenie
Writer. ABC Miniseries
Stand Alone
Be The One
Alfred A. Knopf (2000)
Pocket Books paperback (2000)
ARTICLES, ETC.
Articles, short stories and essays
have appeared in:
The Los Angeles
Times Magazine
Los Angeles Times Book Review
The Antioch Review
Ploughshares
Intro
Mademoiselle
Rolling Stone
The Boston Globe
The Atlantic Monthly
Series
Chicago Hope
Producer. CBS
Cagney and Lacey
(Emmy nomination) Producer. CBS
Lou Grant
(Emmy and WGA nominations) Executive
Consultant. CBS
AWARDS
Three Emmy Award nominations
Two Writers Guild of America nominations
Hatch Award for Best Radio Advertising Campaign
APRIL SMITH
past appearances
PAST APEARANCES
Airtalk KPFK-FM (Los Angeles)
Arts in Review, KPFK-FM (Los Angeles)
BEA Library Journal/Random House Inc. Book and Author Breakfast
Metrolink Radio (Chevy Chase, Md.)
Bouchercon
Charlie Rose, PBS (New York City)
Chris DeBello Show, WNNJ Radio (New Jersey)
Composed on the Tongue WKCR-FM (New York City)
Detroit Book and Author Society Luncheon
Diane Rehm Show, WAMU-FM (Washington, DC)
Eight O’Clock Buzz, WORT-FM (Madison, Wi)
Los Angeles Public Library Celebration Dinners
Los Angeles Times Festival of Books
Los Angeles Times Newsroom U/Column One Master Class
Miami Book Fair
Morning Show, KFAN (Minneapolis)
“Murder, Ink” at the New School
Nashville Screenwriters Conference
NAMR Breakfast, Seattle
NCBA Trade Show, San Francisco
New York and Company, WNYC-AM
New York Times Literary Tea
On Point, WBUR-FM (NPR)
PEN Center USA Writer’s Toolbox
Radio Speakeasy, WFMU-FM (New York City)
Santa Barbara Book and Author Festival
Shelf Life, KPFK-FM (Los Angeles)
Southern California Booksellers Association “Author’s Feast”
Spoken Interludes Special Mystery Night
Stanford Alumni in Entertainment
Strictly Books, Talk America Radio Network
Texas Book Festival
The Upton Bell Show, WBIX (Boston)
The Wendy Snyder and Tony Fitzpatrick Show, WLUP-FM (Chicago)
To the Best of our Knowledge, WFMT (Wisconsin Public Radio)
Voice of America Radio, (Washington, D.C.)
West Coast Crime
West Hollywood Book Fair
WGA Words Into Pictures
WGHB Tonight, WCBB-AM (Long Island, NY)
Women of Orange County
APRIL SMITH
press photos
APRIL SMITH
press photos
APRIL IN SIENA, ITALY
PHOTOS BY BENJAMIN BRAYFIELD