Emma Elliot first developed a love of suspense when she was six years old. She was hiding from her cousins and sister in a closet in her grandmother's house when she discovered a passageway, though not so secret, linking to another closet. She stumbled upon a stack of worn Bobbsey Twins mysteries in that seeming labyrinth, and she spent much of her childhood there, by choice, reading mystery novels by flashlight. Her love of reading and writing grew simultaneously. Soon she was creating her own variations of the stories she read and penning her own tales. Through bouts of working as a tutor, an editor, an apple- and peach-picker, a waitress, a dog walker, a nanny, a retail associate, and a reservationist at a ski resort, writing has remained her passion.