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Thomas and Karen Donahue are the authors of the Kindle bestseller, Murder on the Isle of Capri. Worldwide, their Ryan--Hunter Mystery Thriller series has exceeded 100,000 downloads.

Karen A. Donahue, Ph.D.

Dr. Donahue earned her Ph.D., M.A., and B.A. from the University of California at Santa Barbara, where she graduated with highest honors. She taught Law and Society and Statistics for many years at the university level as a full professor. Her areas of expertise and interest include Law and Society, Criminology, Statistics, Law of the Sea, and Urban Issues. Within Criminology, she focuses on Criminal Law, Constitutional Law, Ocean Law, and the criminal courts. Her field research has taken her to Ireland, Geneva, and West Africa. She has taught several courses in London and Paris.

Her current research interest is the history of the law of the sea. Most of her work on ocean law was completed at the United Nations Office, in the Palais des Nations, Geneva, Switzerland, which is the world repository for international law of the sea materials.

She presented a paper on the law of the sea at the Law and Society Association conference in Berlin, Germany, summer of 2007. The title of the paper was “The Law of the Sea, 1800 to 1930: The Effects of the Second Billion People Added to the Planet.” In summer 2011, she presented a paper on the law of the sea at the Law and Society Association conference in San Francisco, California. The title of this paper was, “The Law of the Sea: Early History. The Effects of the First Billion People Added to the Planet.” In June of 2012, she presented a paper on the demographics of ocean law at the Law and Society Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Dr. Donahue completed most of her ocean law research aboard their boat docked in a Newport Beach marina. Her latest passion was writing mystery/thrillers, and she recently co-published the following books with her late husband, Thomas Donahue: Silenced, Assassin, Murder on the Isle of Capri, Cliffs of Portofino, Murder under the Bridges of Venice, Serial Killer in Paris, Moral Compass, Trapped, and Power Corrupts.

Thomas C. Donahue

Unfortunately, Thomas passed away in January 2022, of a brain tumor. Writing the mystery thrillers was one of the greatest joys in his life. He always had a smile on his face when he was writing. One of his other joys was doing research for the books, particularly the trips we took to all the locations in the books to do that research. Rest in peace, Tom!

Karen and Tom wrote their books aboard their yacht at Harbor Island. Their mornings were filled with the sounds of sea gulls and the occasional harbor seal.