Lelia Kelly

As Relay for Lifes take shape across the country, the mystery genre lost an up and coming voices to breast cancer. Lelia Kelly was the author of three legal thrillers with a fourth on the way.

I challenge everyone who reads this blog to make some conribution to the American Cancer Society.

Here is her obituary from the Atlanta Journal Constitution:

Lelia Kelly, mystery book author

By DERRICK HENRY
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 03/17/07
Lelia Kelly graduated from college with degrees in history and East Asian studies, then decided to become a banker — with no training for the profession whatsoever. Before long, the native Atlantan was a vice president at the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce in New York City.

After 14 years in the banking profession, Miss Kelly quit. She wanted to write legal thrillers. She returned to Atlanta in 1994, began writing and between 1998 and 2001 published three such thrillers, the second of which landed on the New York Times best-seller list.

Lelia Kelly (center) enjoyed swimming at Lake Burton with her nieces and nephews. She turned herself into a banker and then a successful author with no training but much determination.

"Again, Lelia just decided she wanted to do something different," said her sister, Ellen Smith of Carmel, Ind. "She had always wanted to write."

Miss Kelly's goal, she wrote on her Web site, www.leliakellly.com, "was to write the kind of book I enjoy reading myself. I think of my ideal reader as a fan of the television show `Law and Order.' "

Just as she had had no prior training in banking, Miss Kelly had no training in the law. So she researched the Georgia Code online. She consulted lawyers and policemen and even shadowed a detective, her sister said.

Her first novel, "Assumption of Guilt," appeared in 1998. Two years later came "False Witness," which earned Miss Kelly a nomination for the prestigious Mary Higgins Clark Award presented by the Mystery Writers of America. Her last completed thriller, "Officer of the Court," was published in 2001. All three novels consistently earn four- and five-star ratings from reviewers on www.amazon.com.

Frances Lelia Kelly, 48, died Tuesday at her Atlanta residence of complications from breast cancer. The funeral was Friday. H. M. Patterson & Son, Oglethorpe Hill, is in charge of arrangements.

"Lelia's books were page turners and fun to read," said Allyson Greene of Atlanta, a fellow book club member. "She told me her goal was to write a book you could buy at the airport in New York and read on the airplane to Los Angeles."

Miss Kelly was fascinated by "the mystery component and interesting characters," said writer/editor Jan Butsch Schroder of Atlanta, another book club member.

Reviewer E. Bukowsky, writing on www.amazon.com, called "Officer of the Court" her "third and best novel ... an exciting and suspenseful legal thriller with an intelligent and courageous heroine."

Miss Kelly's three books centered around the character Laura Chastain, an Atlanta-based prosecuting attorney. Atlanta scenes figure prominently, and the first novel centers around Brookhaven, where Miss Kelly grew up.

Her ability to create believable characters came from the way she interacted with others, her sister suggested. "Lelia could relate to anyone by talking to them and finding out what they were interested in."

Her book club colleagues were impressed with the sophistication of Miss Kelly's reading. "She was insightful," Mrs. Schroder said. "We'd have a discussion of a book and she would come out with a comment that showed she had read so much more into it than we had."

Miss Kelly's favorite hobby, Mrs. Schroder said, "was searching for vintage sweaters on eBay. She liked the old-timey stuff, bead sweaters from the '30s through '50s. If she got a sweater she didn't like, she would give it to a friend."

And she didn't let her long cancer treatment affect her sense of humor. Two weeks ago, at the last book club meeting that Miss Kelly hosted, "someone said to her, 'Your hair looks great,' " Mrs. Schroeder said. "Lelia said, 'It may look great, but it's not my hair.' "

Additional survivors include her mother, Frances Bryan "Bree" Kelly of Atlanta; and two brothers, Michael Kelly of Atlanta and Bill Kelly of Nashville.