A native of Walnut Grove, California in the Sacramento River Delta, Mary Deal has lived in England, the Caribbean, and now resides in Kapaa, Kauai, Hawaii.

River Bones is the first of three mystery/thrillers, and takes place in her childhood hometown area.

Mary writes in several genres. She spent four years researching 3,500 years of Egyptian dynasties to find the proper period in which to weave her threads of fantasy for a novel. During the research period, she completed and published The Tropics: Child of a Storm - Caught in a Rip - Hurricane Secret. It is an adventure trilogy set in the Caribbean and Hawaiian Islands, and fictionalized from some of her near-death escapades at sea.

Also during that four-year research period, she wrote her first mystery/thriller. Another four years of writing, rewriting, and polishing produced The Ka, an Egyptian fantasy. Then finally, giving the completed Ka manuscript a rest, she wrote a second thriller.

River Bones is set in the Sacramento River Delta. Her next mystery, Down to the Needle, is set in a fictitious west coast locale. She is currently at work on the third thriller, set in the Hawaiian Islands.