Debbi Mack’s first novel, Identity Crisis, hit the New York Times ebook bestseller list in 2011 and is the first in the Sam McRae Mystery series. Her second novel, Least Wanted, became a Kindle bestseller during the summer of 2011 in the U.S. and the U.K. The third and fourth novels in the series are Riptide and Deep Six. The main character is a Maryland lawyer-sleuth named Stephanie Ann “Sam” McRae. You can read more about the series here.

Debbi has also written a young adult novel called Invisible Me, in which Portia Maddox, an outcast 13-year-old albino girl, tries to gain acceptance from her school’s most popular girl, while balancing the needs of another friend. Her second standalone novel is a scientific thriller called The Planck Factor. Debbi has also written and published several short stories, including one nominated for a Derringer Award. She’s compiled her short stories into an anthology called Five Uneasy Pieces.

Debbi has a podcast called The Crime Cafe, where she interviews crime fiction, true crime, suspense, and thriller authors. Those podcasts are available in video and audio format on this website, and can be downloaded for free here, or from iTunes, Google Play or SoundCloud. In 2020, the podcast finished its fifth season and has featured such noted authors as Jeff Lindsay, Robert Crais, Joe Lansdale, Burl Barer, Bill Crider, and many others.

Debbi is a stroke survivor, who suffers a rare movement disorder called dystonia. In 2009, she organized a fundraiser for a dystonia organization, inspired to do so in great part by a movie called Ikiru.

Debbi has previously reviewed books for Mystery Scene Magazine, which you can read here.

Debbi has adapted her first novel into a screenplay, at the request of Maryland film producer, Lisa Tuvalo, who’s optioned the book. She’s also written a feature film screenplay called The Enemy Within, which made the finals in the Creative World Awards and New York Screenplay Contests in 2015, as well as the Second Round in the 2014 Austin Film Festival screenplay contest. The Enemy Within was chosen to be in the spotlight at ScriptDC 2015. Her short script Murder Your Darlings received Honorable Mention for Best Short Script from the 2019 Independent Shorts Awards.

Debbi has begun work on a second mystery series featuring a Marine veteran-turned-sleuth Erica Jensen. The first book, entitled Damaged Goods, is a novella. She’s also considering writing a memoir about her road to becoming a published author — a story so strange, she couldn’t make it up if she tried.

 Debbi has worked as a waitress, a photography model, a substitute school bus driver, a typist, an attorney, a freelance writer, and a reference librarian, among other things.

Her interests include reading, music, movies, traveling, walking, baseball, and cats. And good espresso. Not necessarily in that order.