Mary McMullen, a pseudonym for Mary Reilly (1920–1986), was an American mystery writer who studied art and worked in fashion design and advertising before becoming an author in 1951. She won the Edgar Allan Poe Award for best first novel, Strangle Hold, in 1952.[1]
Born in Yonkers, New York, in 1920,[1] McMullen was the daughter of Paul Reilly, an artist, and Helen Reilly, a mystery writer who published under the pseudonym Kieran Abbey as well as her own name.[2] McMullen's sister Ursula Curtiss also wrote mysteries.[3]