The daughter of a law professor and a potter, Leslie Karst is the author of the Lefty Award-nominated Sally Solari culinary mysteries, as well as the IBPA Ben Franklin and IPPY silver award-winning memoir, Justice is Served: A Tale of Scallops, the Law, and Cooking for RBG.

Leslie waited tables and sang in a new wave rock band before deciding she was ready for a "real" job and ending up at Stanford Law School. It was during her career as a research and appellate attorney in Santa Cruz, California that she rediscovered her youthful passion for food and cooking, at which point she once again returned to school - this time to earn a degree in culinary arts.

Now retired from the law, in addition to writing, Leslie spends her days cooking (and eating!), gardening, cycling, and observing cocktail hour promptly at five o'clock. She and her wife and their Jack Russell mix split their time between Hilo, Hawai'i and Santa Cruz, California.