Ayelet Waldman’s mystery series, the Mommy-Track Mysteries, published by Berkley Prime Crime, a division of Penguin Putnam, draws on her experience of the sunny SoCal world of mall-hopping and Mommy-and-Me, and her working familiarity with the criminal mind, with courtrooms and jail cells, with a darker Los Angeles of drug dealers and bank robbers, gangbangers and boiler-room scam artists, that she gained during her time as a criminal defense attorney.
One of six children, Ayelet was born in Israel and grew up in Northern New Jersey. She is a graduate of Wesleyan University and of the Harvard Law School and an adjunct professor at the Boalt Hall School of Law at UC Berkeley, where she teaches an upper level seminar on the legal and social implications of the war on drugs. Ayelet’s expertise in this field stems from her representation of both individuals accused of drug crimes and organizations opposed to the continuation of the war on drugs.
Ayelet is an experienced lecturer and reader and enjoys making public appearances. Her latest book is Daughter’s Keeper.
Ayelet and her husband, the novelist Michael Chabon (author of Summerland, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, Wonder Boys and The Mysteries of Pittsburgh) live in Berkeley, California with their four children.