Johnson, Dolores

PERSONAL:

Married.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Aurora, CO. E-mail—Doloresdjohnson@cs.com.

CAREER:

Journalist and novelist. Editor of American Drycleaner magazine; has written for newspapers in OR, CA, WY, and CO.

WRITINGS:

"MANDY DYER" MYSTERY SERIES

Taken to the Cleaners, Dell (New York, NY), 1997.

Hung Up to Die, Dell (New York, NY), 1997.

A Dress to Die For, Dell (New York, NY), 1998.

Wash, Fold, and Die, Dell (New York, NY), 1999.

Homicide and Old Lace, Dell (New York, NY), 2000.

Buttons & Foes, St Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2002.

Taking the Wrap, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2004.

Pressed to Kill, St. Martin's Minotaur (New York, NY), 2007.

SIDELIGHTS:

Dolores Johnson, a journalist who serves as the editor of American Drycleaner magazine, is the author of Homicide and Old Lace, Pressed to Kill, and other titles in the "Mandy Dyer" series of mystery novels about a dry- cleaning entrepreneur turned amateur detective. "When I decided to write about a dry cleaner," Johnson remarked in an interview on the Sleuths to Die For Web site, "I thought of stories that dry cleaners had told me: a bloody suit brought to the cleaners, a valuable Fortuny dress that the customer never picked up, and a laundry mark that was the only ID on a body. I used those as the starting point for three of my books."

Johnson published her debut work, Taken to the Cleaners, in 1997. Mandy, the owner of Dyer's Cleaners in Denver, Colorado, becomes concerned when Betty, the neighborhood bag lady, discovers a blood-covered suit that came from Mandy's store. The clothing belonged to a high-profile lawyer who was found bludgeoned to death, and after Mandy begins her own investigation into the murder, she receives mysterious phone calls, her business is ransacked, and someone attempts to kill Betty. In Hung Up to Die, Johnson's second novel, Mandy comes under suspicion when her chief competitor, a crooked dry cleaner named Farley Mills, is murdered in Mandy's store. Though she manages to clear her own name, Mandy learns that the real killer is someone close to her. In A Dress to Die For, Kate Bosworth, the owner of an antiques clothing store, is found dead in her apartment after she secures a prized possession: a Fortuny dress from the 1920s worth thousands of dollars. Mandy haunts the local flea markets and garage sales in an effort to find her friend's murderer.

Mandy teams with police detective Stan Foster—her former boyfriend—to track down a killer in Wash, Fold, and Die, a "tightly plotted who-done-it," remarked a critic in Publishers Weekly. When a man is shot down in an alley, the only clue to the victim's identity is a laundry mark on his shirt. Mandy and Stan learn the victim was Jeremiah Atkins, an artist who disappeared years earlier and whose wife, Rosalie, is a client of Mandy's. Though Mystery Reader Web site critic Monica Pope felt that Mandy lacked sufficient motivation to solve the crime, she called Wash, Fold, and Die "a light and mildly amusing mystery with an out of the ordinary supporting cast." In Homicide and Old Lace, Mandy helps an old flame who is suspected of murdering his fiancée prove his innocence. Toby Bromberg, writing on the Romantic Times Online, described the novel as "a light, captivating read."

In Buttons & Foes, Mandy investigates the curious death of Thelma Chadwick, a longtime customer who bequeathed two bags of clothing to the dry cleaner. Noticing that Thelma had sewn a number of unusual designer buttons onto the garments, Mandy looks to some local button-collecting clubs for help. She also enlists the services of a handsome private detective, one of her former high school classmates, to solve the mystery. "Buttons & Foes showcases Mandy at her inquisitive best," noted Harriet Klausner on the Best Reviews Web site.

A missing coat leads to murder in Taking the Wrap, "an upbeat, often funny" work, Klausner stated. When Mandy's friend Laura learns that someone has taken her coat from a restaurant and left another behind, she asks Mandy to help track down its rightful owner. When Laura is struck by a hit-and-run driver and the owner of the lost coat is found dead, Mandy suspects that the switch was intentional. Samantha J. Gust, reviewing the work on the Romantic Times Online, praised the author's "brisk and snappy writing style and humor." According to Booklist contributor Jenny McLarin, "Johnson's ability to infuse comedy into the plot will keep readers chuckling."

In Pressed to Kill, Mandy looks into the strangulation death of Ardith Brewster, a valued customer who recently underwent a radical makeover to please a new boyfriend. When Lorraine Lovell, another of Mandy's patrons, is later murdered, Mandy fears that one of her customers is a serial killer. "Details about the drycleaning business, family relationships, humor, and well-developed characters add to this amiable cozy," remarked Booklist critic Sue O'Brien.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, September 1, 2004, Jenny McLarin, review of Taking the Wrap, p. 69; December 1, 2006, Sue O'Brien, review of Pressed to Kill, p. 28.

Kirkus Reviews, November 15, 2006, review of Pressed to Kill, p. 1155.

Library Journal, November 1, 2004, Rex E. Klett, review of Taking the Wrap, p. 60.

Publishers Weekly, September 6, 1999, review of Wash, Fold, and Die, p. 99; August 26, 2002, review of Buttons & Foes, p. 48; November 6, 2006, review of Pressed to Kill, p. 39.

ONLINE

Best Reviews,http://thebestreviews.com/ (July 15, 2002), Harriet Klausner, review of Buttons & Foes; (November 15, 2004), Harriet Klausner, review of Taking the Wrap.

Books 'n' Bytes,http://www.booksnbytes.com/ (August 10, 2007), Harriet Klausner, review of Wash, Fold, and Die.

Mystery Reader,http://www.themysteryreader.com/ (August 10, 2007), Monica Pope, review of Wash, Fold, and Die.

Romantic Times,http://www.romantictimes.com/ (September 6, 2007), Toby Bromberg, review of Wash, Fold, and Die; Toby Bromberg, review of Homicide and Old Lace; Samantha J. Gust, review of Taking the Wrap.

Sleuths to Die For,http://sleuths2die4.thewriters.com/ (August 10, 2007), "Dolores Johnson."