Barbara Pronin, whose work has been praised by best-selling authors Mary Higgins Clark and Tony Hillerman, and Faye Kellerman, s the author of eight mysteries, including three as Barbara Nickolae, and a WW II novel, Winter's End, which won the 2025 Gold Medal for Best Adult Novel (IPPY Award) from the Independent Publishers Book Awards. A former actress, probation officer, journalist and substitute teacher, she is a fan of dark chocolate, the Dodgers, Greek sunsets and African elephants. When she isn't writing, which isn't often, she can probably be found struggling painfully at the piano.