Mary Alice Gunter - Biography 

Mary Alice Gunter is an associate professor emerita of the University of Virginia, where she taught for 16 years and where she still teaches one graduate course each semester. She is the co-author of a text on Instruction published by Allyn and Bacon, now in the fourth edition, together with numerous professional papers and articles, and has been in the field of education for 35 years. 

An avid mystery reader, she decided that the Poe Room at the University of Virginia offered a unique setting for a mystery. "Write about what you know" seemed good advice for a person who had spent many years at the University and lived for 35 years only a few blocks from the Poe Room.

Mary Alice’s husband is a professor emeritus of the University of Virginia, and they have four grown children and five grandchildren. The Drs. Gunter have long been an institution in the University neighborhood where they live.

Born in Asheville, North Carolina, Mary Alice graduated from Duke University and was married to her husband of 48 years in the Duke chapel. She has a Master’s degree in English from Temple University and a Doctorate in Education from the University of Virginia. She was a teacher and administrator in the public schools before joining the faculty at the University of Virginia. For several years she directed an educational foundation, where she was responsible for fund-raising like Ellen, her main character in the novel.

Mary Alice has a friend, Fannie, who is the inspiration for one of the main characters in the book, but all other characters are imaginary. "I set this book at the University of Virginia because that is where the Poe Room is located, but almost everything else is made up."

A second mystery involving Ellen and Fannie is in process—this time set on Charlottesville’s downtown mall in their tea room named Lenore’s. Since Mary Alice was also a city council member in Charlottesville from 1982 to 1986, she knows a great deal about city politics and "where the bodies are buried."