Kate Wilhelm

Kate Wilhelm was an acclaimed American science fiction and mystery author whose career spanned five decades and produced some of the most important works in both genres. Her novel The Best Defense is a legal thriller featuring her recurring character Barbara Holloway, a defence attorney who takes on cases involving justice, morality and the legal system. Wilhelm won the Hugo Award, the Nebula Award and the Locus Award for her science fiction, including the classic novel Where Late the Sweet Birds Sang. Her Barbara Holloway mystery series demonstrated her equal mastery of legal thriller writing, combining courtroom drama with social commentary. Wilhelm was also a beloved teacher of writing, co-founding the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop, which has trained generations of genre writers. Born in 1928, she published her first novel in 1963 and continued writing until shortly before her death in 2018. Her work is characterised by its intelligence, its humane sensibility and its engagement with questions of ethics, justice and the consequences of human choices. The audiobook editions bring her accomplished legal thrillers to listeners who appreciate crime fiction with moral depth.