Anne Perry was born as Juliet Marion Hulme on October 28, 1938 in Blackheath, London. When she was about 16, Perry and her best friend Pauline had come up with a plan to kill Pauline’s mother. The two girls were successful in the murder, but they did not keep to the plan. The plan was to hit Pauline’s mother in the head with a brick only once. Instead, they had to hit her over 40 times.
After the murder, the duo stood trial and was deemed guilty. The teens escaped death due to New Zealand’s laws in place at the time. Perry spent five years behind bars and was released, but was no longer allowed to have contact with her best friend Pauline. The story of the two conspiring and committing murder inspired a movie to be made. Perry moved back to England after serving her sentence and got a job as a flight attendant. She moved to America for a short period of time before going to live in a Scottish village with her mother. Once living with her mother, she changed her name from Juliet Hulme to Ann Perry.
Her first novel, The Carter Street Hangman, was released in 1979. Her novels fall into many different categories, starting with genre fiction, detective fiction and many more. Most of her novels feature all of the same characters. In the end, Perry seemed to learn from her mistakes and literally made a new name for herself. As of 2003, she has written over 47 novels and various short stories.
