{{Short description|American writer (born 1971)}} {{Use mdy dates|date=March 2026}} {{Use American English|date=March 2026}} {{Infobox writer | name = Jenny Siler | image = | alt = <!-- descriptive text for use by speech synthesis (text-to-speech) software --> | caption = | pseudonym = Alex Carr | birth_name = | birth_date = {{Birth year and age|1971}} | birth_place = | death_date = | death_place = | resting_place = | occupation = Novelist | education = University of Southern Maine (BA) | genre = {{Cslist|Crime|thriller|spy}} | notable_works = ''Easy Money'' (1998) | spouse = | children = 1 | awards = | website = {{URL|jennysiler.com}} }} '''Jenny Siler''' (born 1971)<ref>{{cite web |title=Easy Money |url=https://www.jennysiler.com/easy_money_31420.htm |website=Jenny Siler |access-date=1 March 2026}}</ref> is an American writer. She has written a number of crime thrillers under her own name, featuring strong female leads, as well as two novels under the pseudonym '''Alex Carr''' and a non-fiction biography.
==Early life, education and family== Siler grew up in Missoula, Montana. Her mother was an associate professor of English at the University of Montana.<ref name="Devlin 1999"/> After attending Hellgate High School for one year, she left home and travelled around the United States and Europe for 13 years.<ref name="Devlin">{{cite news |last1=Devlin |first1=Vince |title=Siler trades odd jobs for writing novels |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-siler-trades-odd-jobs-for/171743264/ |access-date=5 May 2025 |work=The Missoulian |date=July 1, 2002 |location=Missoula, Montana |page=1}}</ref><ref name="Devlin 1999">{{cite news |last1=Devlin |first1=Vince |title=First-person thriller |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-missoulian-first-person-thriller/188442119/ |access-date=8 January 2026 |work=The Missoulian |date=January 17, 1999 |location=Missoula, Montana |page=37}}</ref> She completed her high school studies during this time.<ref name="Devlin"/> In the late 1990s she returned to Missoula, having most recently worked as a bartender in Seattle, after the sale of her first novel through a publishing auction.<ref name="Devlin"/><ref name="Devlin 1999"/>
Siler graduated from the University of Southern Maine in 2024 with a bachelor's degree in philosophy.<ref name=USM>{{cite web |title=Scholarships have superpowers |url=https://usm.maine.edu/foundation/stories-of-transformation/scholarships-have-superpowers/ |website=University of Southern Maine |access-date=3 March 2026}}</ref> She and her husband have one daughter,<ref name=USM/> and have previously owned a coffee shop together in Portland, Maine.<ref name=USM/><ref>{{cite news |title=Little Bee Honey Ice Cream is making life in Portland a little sweeter |url=https://www.pressherald.com/2016/07/17/homegrown-little-bee-honey-ice-cream-is-making-life-in-portland-a-little-more-sweet/ |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=The Portland Press Herald |date=17 July 2016}}</ref>
==Career== ===''Easy Money'' (1998)=== Siler's first novel, ''Easy Money'' (1998), is a thriller about a young woman drug runner who becomes an inadvertent investigator after the mysterious drowning death of a CIA agent.<ref name="Devlin 1999"/><ref name="PW Iced">{{cite news |title=Iced by Jenny Siler |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780805064384 |access-date=2 March 2026 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=January 11, 2001}}</ref><ref name="Jaku">{{cite news |last1=Jakubowski |first1=Maxim |title=Big in crime |url=https://www.theguardian.com/books/2001/feb/10/crimebooks |access-date=2 March 2026 |work=The Guardian |date=10 February 2001}}</ref><ref name="Healey">{{cite news |last1=Healey |first1=Maria |title=Thrills and more mark Siler's accomplished debut |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/missoula-independent-thrills-and-more-ma/188442012/ |access-date=8 January 2026 |work=Missoula Independent |date=October 22, 1998 |location=Missoula, Montana |page=12}}</ref>
===''Iced'' (2001), ''Shot'' (2002) and ''Flashback'' (2004)=== Siler's first novel was followed by ''Iced'' (2001). ''Kirkus Reviews'' described it as "tightly plotted, thoroughly enjoyable, angst-filled: a tough-gal follow-up to Siler’s excellent ''Easy Money'' (1999)".<ref name="Iced Kirk">{{cite news |title=Iced |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jenny-siler/iced-3/ |access-date=2 March 2026 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=15 December 2000 |language=en}}</ref> ''Publishers Weekly'' noted the introduction of a new main character and location from ''Easy Money'', and while suggesting the novel "lacks a solid punch at its end", concluded that it "shows fine movement and rhythm", with her character being "a complex soul, faithless and dour, as rugged as the Montana wilderness".<ref name="PW Iced"/> ''The Guardian'' called it "complex, rugged and entertaining".<ref name="Jaku"/> ''The Baltimore Sun'' described the work as "almost as cold and hard as winter itself, with a flinty female protagonist who repossesses cars for a living".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Willis |first1=Dail |title=Radio, darkness, Missoula, wit |url=https://www.baltimoresun.com/2001/01/07/radio-darkness-missoula-wit/ |access-date=2 March 2026 |work=The Baltimore Sun |date=January 7, 2001 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20260302082307/https://www.baltimoresun.com/2001/01/07/radio-darkness-missoula-wit/ |archive-date=2 March 2026}}</ref>
''Shot'' (2002) is a novel about a woman who wants to find out the truth behind her husband's death. ''Kirkus Reviews'' describes the character as "tough but tender", and said Siler "hits her marks with quick, fast takes packed with telling clues and sharp details".<ref name="Shot Kirk">{{cite news |title=Shot |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jenny-siler/shot-2/ |access-date=2 March 2026 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=June 15, 2002 |language=en}}</ref>
''Flashback'' (2004) features an amnesiac young woman who must track down the killer of a convent of French nuns. In its review, ''Kirkus Reviews'' described Siler as "known for her cool, street-smart, wonderfully vulnerable action heroines".<ref name="Flashback Kirk">{{cite news |title=Flashback |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jenny-siler/flashback-3/ |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=1 December 2003 |language=en}}</ref> The review concludes that the novel "loses its way amid too much villainous complication and a sudden ending that doesn’t quite tie up", but is nevertheless "a fun ride".<ref name="Flashback Kirk"/> By contrast, ''Publishers Weekly'' called it a "beautifully written spy novel", and compared Siler to John le Carré.<ref>{{cite news |title=FLASHBACK by Jenny Siler |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780805072112 |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=February 4, 2004}}</ref> ''The Globe and Mail'' said that Siler "is turning into one of crime fiction's best authors of hot action thrillers".<ref>{{cite news |last1=Cannon |first1=Margaret |title=Crime Books |url=https://www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/crime-books/article742437/ |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=The Globe and Mail |date=20 March 2004 |language=en-CA}}</ref>
===Alex Carr novels=== Siler has published two novels under the pseudonym Alex Carr, both thrillers set internationally with strong female leads.<ref name="Adams">{{cite news |last1=Adams |first1=Lorraine |title=The Interrogator |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/16/books/review/Adams-t.html |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=The New York Times |date=March 16, 2008}}</ref>
''Publishers Weekly'' called ''An Accidental American'' (2007) a "thought-provoking thriller", with "complex layers of lies and betrayal [that] keep the reader happily guessing up to the end".<ref name="PW An Acc">{{cite news |title=An Accidental American by Alex Carr |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780812977080 |access-date=2 March 2026 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=March 2007}}</ref> ''The Daily Telegraph'' described it as "downbeat" compared to Siler's earlier novels, and compared her "blend of lyrical brooding and violent action" to Len Deighton's work.<ref>{{cite news |title=The essence of identity |url=https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/3664513/The-essence-of-identity.html |access-date=2 March 2026 |work=The Daily Telegraph |date=18 April 2007}}</ref>
''The Prince of Bagram Prison'' (2008) was about a terrorist interrogator working in Afghanistan. It was nominated for the 2009 Edgar Allan Poe Award for Best Paperback Original.<ref>{{cite web |title=Edgar Allan Poe Awards 2009 {{!}} Bookreporter.com |url=https://www.bookreporter.com/features/awards/edgar-allan-poe-awards-2009 |website=Book Reporter |access-date=10 March 2026 |language=en}}</ref> While reviews spoke positively about the writing and main character, the book's plot was described in several reviews as confusing. ''The Washington Post'' said it was "a tribute to Alex Carr's considerable skill as a novelist that I hugely enjoyed [the book] without having much of a clue as to what was going on".<ref name=Anderson>{{cite news |last=Anderson |first=Patrick |url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/style/2008/03/17/lost-and-loving-it/ac6ad73e-8b8f-47cb-8c92-2686b8089b76/ |access-date=6 March 2026 |title=Lost and Loving It |date=March 17, 2008}}</ref> ''Kirkus Reviews'' lauded the work as a "smart, timely thriller" and a "provocative tale of military intelligence gone haywire ... marred only by rapid and bewildering shifts of time and territory from the 1970s to the early 2000s, Afghanistan and Spain to Vietnam and Morocco".<ref name="Prince Kirk">{{cite news |title=The Prince of Bagram Prison |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/alex-carr/the-prince-of-bagram-prison/ |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=1 January 2008 |language=en}}</ref> While similarly critical of the novel's time and place shifts, ''The New York Times'' praised the main character, a "smart striver who's neither fatally ambitious nor an unbelievable femme fatale"; "Almost singlehandedly, she manages to keep this spinning top of a novel guiltily entertaining".<ref name="Adams"/>
===''The Art of the Heist'' (2009)=== Together with art thief Myles Connor, Siler wrote ''The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Art Thief, Rock-and-Roller, and Prodigal Son'' (2009). It received a starred review from ''Publishers Weekly'', which noted that Connor's life "is the stuff of adventure novels".<ref name="Art PW">{{cite news |title=The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Art Thief, Rock-and-Roller, and Prodigal Son by Jenny Siler, Myles Connor |url=https://www.publishersweekly.com/9780061672286 |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=Publishers Weekly |date=May 2009}}</ref> ''Kirkus Reviews'' praised it as revealing, although noting that the narrative "focuses on [Connor's] criminal glamour rather than the nitty-gritty mechanics of his devious deeds".<ref>{{cite news |title=The Art of the Heist |url=https://www.kirkusreviews.com/book-reviews/jrmyles-j-connor/the-art-of-the-heist/ |access-date=3 March 2026 |work=Kirkus Reviews |date=March 15, 2009}}</ref>
==Selected works== * ''Easy Money'' (Henry Holt, 1998; {{ISBN|978-0-8050-6025-6}})<ref name="Healey"/> * ''Iced'' (Henry Holt, 2001; {{ISBN|0-8050-6438-9}})<ref name="Iced Kirk"/> * ''Shot'' (Henry Holt, 2002; {{ISBN|0-8050-7203-9}})<ref name="Shot Kirk"/> *''Flashback'' (Henry Holt, 2004; {{ISBN|0-8050-7211-X}})<ref name="Flashback Kirk"/> *''An Accidental American'' (as Alex Carr) (Random House, 2007; {{ISBN|978-0-8129-7708-0}})<ref name="PW An Acc"/> *''The Prince of Bagram Prison'' (as Alex Carr) (Mortalis/Random House, 2008; {{ISBN| 978-0-8129-7709-7}})<ref name="Prince Kirk"/> *''The Art of the Heist: Confessions of a Master Art Thief, Rock-and-Roller, and Prodigal Son'' (non-fiction, with Myles Connor) (Collins, 2009; {{ISBN|978-0-06-167228-6}})<ref name="Art PW"/>
== References == {{reflist}}
==Further reading== * {{cite thesis |last=Avery |first=Cathrine |date=2007 |title=Talking Back to Chandler and Spillane: Gender and Agency in Women's Hard-Boiled Detective Fiction |url=https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/40242/1/Talking%20Back%20to%20Chandler%20and%20Spillane%20-%20Gender%20and%20Agency%20in%20Women%2527s%20Hard-boiled%20Detective%20Fiction%20by%20Cathrine%20Avery.pdf |work= |degree=PhD |location= |publisher=Birkbeck University of London |access-date=March 3, 2026}} *{{cite book |last1=Bevis |first1=William W. |editor1-last=Harrison |editor1-first=Brady |title=All Our Stories Are Here: Critical Perspectives on Montana Literature|date=2009 |publisher=University of Nebraska Press |chapter=Feminism and Postmodernism in the New West: Mary Blew and Montana Women's Writing Since 1990 |location=Lincoln |isbn=978-0-8032-1390-6 }}
==External links== *{{Official website|https://www.jennysiler.com/}}
{{Authority control}}
{{DEFAULTSORT:Siler, Jenny}} Category:1971 births Category:Living people Category:21st-century American women novelists Category:21st-century American novelists Category:21st-century American biographers Category:American crime fiction writers Category:American mystery writers Category:American women mystery writers Category:University of Southern Maine alumni Category:American women crime writers