Lara Cassidy is a mystery author, litigation attorney, and high school mom. Her short mystery story “The Red Envelope,” is an upper middle-grade “escape room” mystery published in SUPER PUZZLETASTIC MYSTERIES, a collection that hit bookshelves in June 2020.
SUPER PUZZLETASTIC MYSTERIES was put together by Mystery Writers of America, and edited by middle-grade rockstar author Chris Grabenstein. Lara’s story “The Red Envelope” was included in the book after she won a “blind” entry contest, meaning that the judges reviewed stories without any author names attached.
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Lara Degenhart Cassidy grew up in Alice, Texas, a small oilfield community smack dab in the middle of the “v” at the bottom of the Texas map. Her lifelong love of mysteries took root when she met Nancy Drew with a flashlight past her childhood bedtime. From then on, you could almost always find her with a mystery book in her hands.
Lara studied Political Science and Musical Theater at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. She spent her junior year at the Universite de Dijon in France , where she “majored in mustard, minored in wine.” After college, Lara spent three years learning to be a lawyer at the University of South Carolina School of Law.
After law school, Lara moved to Washington, DC and became a big city litigator at a big city law firm. She helps big companies solve their legal problems both in and out of the courtroom. Lara thinks that writing mystery stories is much more fun than deciphering business deals, so she hopes to make mystery writing her full-time job soon.
Lara Cassidy lives in northern Virginia with her husband and teenaged daughter Catherine, who edits over her mom’s shoulder. The family also has an energetic border collie named Siena. When Lara is not writing or reading, she loves to travel. Follow Lara on Twitter @ladcassidy.
