Emma Redington Lee Thayer (1874-1973) was an American artist who published sixty mystery novels beginning with "The Mystery of the Thirteenth Floor" (1919) and ending, at the age of ninety-two, with "Dusty Death" (1966). All but one feature the red-headed detective Peter Clancy and his valet Wiggar.
Thayer was born in Pennsylvania and educated at Cooper Union and Pratt Institute, New York City. She married Henry W. Thayer in 1909. As an artist and illustrator, she had paintings displayed at Chicago World's Fair, and produced designs for book jackets.