Emma Lathen

Emma Lathen is the pseudonym that was used by a couple of American authors named Martha Henissart and Mary Jane Latsis for writing mystery and thriller novels. The two were also businesswomen in their professional lives, one working as an economist analyst while the other as an attorney. Mary was born on July 12, 1927 and died on October 29, 1997; while Martha was born in the year 1929. She had received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the Mount Holyoke College in the year 1950, with the subject of physics. The two authors met each other at Harvard as graduate students. Under the pen name of Lathen, they have written a number of mystery books starring the main character of Putnam Thatcher. They have described him as a banker on Wall Street. The pseudonym is developed by using parts of their names, ‘M’ and ‘Lat’ from Mary’s name and ‘Ma’ and ‘Hen’ from Martha’s name. They have also written several books under the pen name R.B. Dominic. All of their stories under this pen name feature a Congressman named Benton Safford, who works as a sleuth in the novels. Both the authors have a unique talent for writing about the complicated financial issues entertainingly and clearly.