Traci Hunter Abramson

Abramson grew up in Arizona and lives in Stafford, Virginia.[1][2] She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints when she was twelve years old.[3] She studied business at Brigham Young University[1] and worked for the CIA for six years,[2] ending in 1995.[1] Abramson is married and has five children.[2][4] She has coached the North Stafford High School swim team for over 20 seasons.[1]

Many of Abramson's novels feature FBI or CIA agents, and she bases her books on similar situations she encountered working for the CIA as a finance officer.[1] Since she is a former CIA employee, books that mention the CIA are reviewed by the agency to ensure that they do not reveal confidential material.[1][3] Many of her characters are members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and her novels have an enthusiastic fan base among Mormon readers.[1][3][5] Abramson's first book, Undercurrents, featured an Olympic-hopeful swimmer who is in witness protection.[6] The Virginia Tech shooting inspired Abramson to write Lockdown, a novel about a woman who survives a school shooting.[3] She said the process of writing the novel helped her to heal from the trauma.[3]

Critics have praised Abramson's research and believable and likeable characters[5][7], though some of her plots have been criticized as predictable.[8][9][6]

Abramson received the novel of the year Whitney award in 2017 for Safe House.[10] Abramson received the best mystery/suspense Whitney Award in 2017 also for Safe House,[10] in 2015 for Failsafe,[11][12] in 2013 for Deep Cover,[13] and in 2012 for Codeword[14] Six other of her books have been finalists for the award: The Deep End in 2007,[15] Royal Target and Freefall in 2008,[16] Lockdown in 2009,[17] Crossfire in 2010,[18] and Smokescreen in 2011.[19]

Smokescreen was on Deseret Book's bestseller list for the end of 2010,[20] and Code Word was a Deseret Book top-10 bestseller in 2012.[21]