Christine Andreae

Christine Andreae is a writer and artist who lives in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia where she and her architect husband hand-build their house and raised their two sons.

She is the author of four crime novels, all set in Montana where she and her family spent summer vacations hiking and riding in the backcountry. Her first mystery, Trail of Murder (1992, St. Martin’s Press), was nominated for an Edgar and began the series starring Lee Squires, a professor and poet from Washington, D.C., who moonlights as a camp cook in the Bob Marshall Wilderness. Lee’s adventures continue in Grizzly (1994, SMP) and Small Target (l996, SMP). Andreae’s critically acclaimed Smoke Eaters (2000, SMP) is set on a Western wildfire. Her redheaded heroine, Mattie McCullugh, is an Incident Commander who combats wildfire, sexism, and a psychopathic killer. The thriller was a finalist for a Willa Award from Women Writing the West and was also named a Thriller of the Year by the Washington Post.

A committed community volunteer, Andreae worked as a hospice volunteer for ten years. In the hope of bringing the dying process out of the dark closet of fear into the light of day, she wrote about her experiences with her patients in When Evening Comes (SMP, 2000). Her memoir was a Library of Virginia Award finalist for 2001. Andreae is currently active in the cause of land preservation and is a founding director of the Scenic 340 Project, Inc., an environmental advocacy group.

In 2004, she began studying botanical drawing and painting at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, DC. She was a participating artist in the Corcoran’s 2006 show “The Botanical Treasures of Lewis and Clark”. Her work has also been shown at the National Agricultural Library, Bethesda, MD; the Middle Street Gallery in Washington, VA; and Virginia Arboretum, Blandy, VA.. In 2007, she designed and painted a decoration for the White House Christmas tree that honored our National Parks.

Andreae received her B.A. from Manhattanville College in Purchase, NY, and her M.A.T. from Yale University.