I. J. Parker

Who is I. J. Parker?

Ingrid J. Parker is a detective/mystery writer, best known for creating Sugawara Akitada, who solved crimes in Heian era of ancient Japan. She was born and raised in Germany.

She was the winner of Private Eye Writers of America Shamus Award for Best P.I. Short Story in 2000, with Akitada's First Case, published in 1999.

She was, until retirement, Associate Professor of English and Foreign Languages at Norfolk State University in Virginia. Writing detective mysteries set in ancient Japan was an incidental result of initial research into 11th century Japan out of professional interest in Japanese literature of the era. She was also influenced by the Judge Dee mystery series written by the noted orientalist and diplomat Robert van Gulik.

Her first short story about Sugawara Akitada was published in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine in October 1997.

She has written several Sugawara Akitada novels, but the series' first publisher decided to change the order of publication of the novels instead of following internal chronology. She switched to Penguin in 2004 with the agreement to publish the novels in internal chronological order, which is: The Dragon Scroll, Rashomon Gate, Black Arrow, Island of Exiles, The Hell Screen, The Convict's Sword.