“Tara Moss is much more than a pretty face. She’s an international best-selling author, ambassador, television host, and reptile-wrangler…she may well become one of the world’s best-sellers.”
- World Literature Today, 2006
Tara Moss has successfully made the transition from international top model to bestselling author of the crime novels Fetish, Split and Covet. Her work has been published in nine countries in six languages, helping to make the young author, ”...one of Australia’s most successful female authors in any genre.” (Crime Factory, 2002)
Moss began writing gruesome “Stephen King-inspired” stories for her classmates when she was only 10. She earned a Diploma from the Australian College of Journalism in 1997, and in 1998 won the Scarlet Stiletto Young Writers Award for her story, “Psycho Magnet”. Moss started writing her successful debut novel, Fetish, when she was just 23, and had it published two years later.
Her crime novels have been nominated for both the Davitt Award and the Ned Kelly; two of Australia’s most prestigious honours. Not a writer to rely solely on imagination, Moss’ in-depth research has seen her tour the FBI Academy at Quantico, spend time in squad cars, the morgue, prisons, the Hare Psychopathy Lab, the Supreme Court and criminology conferences world-wide, take polygraph tests, shoot weapons, conduct surveillance with private investigators, pass the Firearms Training Simulator (FATSII) with the LAPD, pull 4.2 Gs doing loops over the Sydney Opera House flying with the RAAF Roulettes, acquire her CAMS race driver licence and much more. “By anyone’s estimation, this makes Moss as tough as some of the criminals featured [on the UK TV show ‘Tara Moss investigates’] every Friday night.” (National Geographic Channel, UK 2006).
Born in Victoria, British Columbia, Tara travelled the world as a top model before becoming a resident of Australia in 1996. She is now a proud dual Australian/Canadian citizen, and resides in Melbourne with her film producer husband, Mark Pennell. When not researching and writing her fifth novel, Moss enjoys riding her motorcycle, spending time with her 7 foot Diamond python ‘Gomez’, her faithful dog ‘Bogart’, and serving as Ambassador for both the Royal Institute for Deaf and Blind Children and the Bone Marrow Donor Institute among others.
Learn more about Tara Moss at www.taramoss.com
