Kelley Armstrong (born 14 December 1968) is a Canadian writer, primarily of fantasy novels since 2001.
She has published thirty-one fantasy novels to date, thirteen in her Women of the Otherworld series, five in her Cainsville series, six in her Rockton series, three in her Darkest Powers series, three in her Darkness Rising trilogy and three in the Age of Legends series, and three stand-alone teen thrillers. She has also published three middle-grade fantasy novels in the Blackwell Pages trilogy, with co-author Melissa Marr. As well, she is the author of three crime novels, the Nadia Stafford trilogy. She has also written several serial novellas and short stories for the Otherworld series, some of which are available free from her website. Starting in 2014, a Canadian television series based on the Women of the Otherworld, called Bitten, aired for 3 seasons on Space, and SyFy.
Kelley Armstrong was born on 14 December 1968, the oldest of four siblings in a "typical middle-class family" in Sudbury, Ontario.
After graduating with a degree in psychology from University of Western Ontario, Armstrong then switched to studying computer programming at Fanshawe College so she would have time to write.
Her first novel Bitten was sold in 1999, and it was released in 2001. Following her first success she has written a total of 13 novels and a number of novellas in the world of the Women of the Otherworld series, and her first crime novel, Exit Strategy, was released July 2007. Armstrong has been a full-time writer and parent since 2002.
Her novel No Humans Involved (the seventh book of the Women of the Otherworld series) was a The New York Times bestseller in the hardback fiction category on 20 May 2007. Also, her YA novel The Awakening was a No. 1 The New York Times bestseller in the Children's Chapter books category on 17 May 2009.
Armstrong's Women of the Otherworld series is part of a recently popular contemporary fantasy subgenre of the fantasy genre that superimposes supernatural characters upon a backdrop of contemporary North American life, with strong romantic elements. Within that subgenre, she is notable for including many types of supernatural characters, including witches, sorcerers, werewolves, necromancers, ghosts, shamans, demons and vampires, rather than limiting herself primarily to a single type of supernatural creature. Most of her works have a mystery genre plot, with leading characters investigating some novel situation or unsolved question.
In the Otherworld novels, most supernatural powers are either hereditary, or arise from the act of an existing supernatural of the same type. The Otherworld, while it has overarching conflicts and plotlines that span multiple novels, is not an epic battle between good and evil. The novels are largely episodic with the continuing plotlines primarily involving the developing lives of the main characters.
Her contemporary fantasy writings share genre similarities with writers Charlaine Harris, Laurell K. Hamilton, and Kim Harrison.
The Life She Had (2022) (as K.L. Armstrong)
Known to the Victim (2024) (as K.L. Armstrong)
Someone Is Always Watching (2023), ISBN 9780735270923
The Women of the Otherworld Series
The Women of the Otherworld books feature werewolves, witches, necromancers, sorcerers, and vampires struggling to fit as "normal" in today's world. The series also includes novellas and short stories, published online (and one in an anthology)
All other stories may be found on the series' main article.
Exit Strategy (novel, Jul 2007)
Made to be Broken (novel, Feb 2009)
Wild Justice (novel, late 2013)