Phyllis Ayame Whitney was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 mystery writer. Rare for her genre, she wrote mysteries for both the juvenile and the adult markets, many of which feature exotic locations. Often described as a Gothic novelist

Gothic fiction

Gothic fiction, sometimes referred to as Gothic horror, is a genre or mode of literature that combines elements of both horror and romance. Gothicism's origin is attributed to English author Horace Walpole, with his 1764 novel The Castle of Otranto, subtitled "A Gothic Story"...

, a review in The New York Times

The New York Times

The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...

once dubbed her "The Queen of the American Gothics", although she hated this title. She preferred to say she wrote "romantic novels of suspense".

She was born in Japan

Japan

Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...

 to American parents and spent her early years in Asia

Asia

Asia is the world's largest and most populous continent, located primarily in the eastern and northern hemispheres. It covers 8.7% of the Earth's total surface area and with approximately 3.879 billion people, it hosts 60% of the world's current human population...

. Whitney wrote more than seventy novels. In 1961, her book The Mystery of the Haunted Pool won an Edgar Award

Edgar Award

The Edgar Allan Poe Awards , named after Edgar Allan Poe, are presented every year by the Mystery Writers of America...

 from the Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America

Mystery Writers of America is an organization for mystery writers, based in New York.The organization was founded in 1945 by Clayton Rawson, Anthony Boucher, Lawrence Treat, and Brett Halliday....

 for Best Juvenile novel, and she duplicated the honor in 1964, for The Mystery of the Hidden Hand. In 1988, the MWA gave her a Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement. Whitney died of pneumonia on February 8, 2008, aged 104.

Published works include

• A Place for Ann (1941)
• The Mystery of the Gulls
• Red is for Murder (1943)
• Mystery on the Isle of Skye (1955)
• The Quicksilver Pool (1955)
• The Trembling Hills (1956)
• Skye Cameron (1957)
• The Moonflower (1958)
• Thunder Heights (1960)
• Blue Fire (1960)
• Window on the Square (1962)
• Seven Tears for Apollo (1963)
• Black Amber (1964)
• Sea Jade (1965)
• Columbella (1966)
• Silverhill (1967)
• Hunter's Green (1968)
• The Winter People (1969)
• Lost Island (1970)
• Listen for the Whisperer (1972)
• Snowfire (1973)
• The Turquoise Mask (1974)
• Spindrift (1975)
• The Golden Unicorn (1976)
• The Stone Bull (1977)
• The Glass Flame (1978)
• Domino (1979)
• Poinciana (1980)
• Vermilion (1981)
• Emerald (1983)
• Rainsong (1984)
• Dream of Orchids (1985)
• The Flaming Tree (1986)
• Silversword (1987)
• Feather on the Moon (1988)
• Rainbow in the Mist (1989)
• The Singing Stones (1990)
• Woman Without a Past (1991)
• The Ebony Swan (1992)
• Star Flight (1993)
• Daughter of the Stars (1994)
• Amethyst Dreams (1997)