Award-winning Author

High-Stakes Suspense.
Atmospheric Tension.
Unyielding women.

Catherine Matthews is an award-winning Pacific Northwest author who writes edge-of-your-seat suspense fueled by the strength of unrelenting women. Known for her atmospheric settings and deep emotional grit, Catherine crafts stories about complex women pushed to their physical, mental, and emotional limits—and the fierce resilience it takes to fight back. Her novels, including the award-winning suspense Releasing the Reins and Roadside Sisters, have earned top honors across Thriller, Suspense, Women’s Fiction, and Contemporary Fiction.

Before putting her characters through the wringer, Catherine spent over three decades in a very different high-pressure environment. Holding a B.S. in Biology from the University of Alaska Fairbanks and a doctorate in Educational Leadership from Washington State University, she enjoyed a long career as a science teacher, high school principal, and district administrator. That background in science, data, and human psychology now fuels her dark, intricately plotted mysteries—where dark secrets, survival instincts, and high stakes collide.

When she isn’t engineering her next plot twist, Catherine is usually on the road with her husband or in her office with her two constant companions and literary guard dogs—Wally (a Staffordshire Terrier rescue) and Delta (a Boxer). A disciplined early riser, she starts every writing day at 4:00 a.m. alongside an online group of fellow authors from around the world. A lover of rugged landscapes, strong coffee, and sharp wit (she once named a Boxer Buttercup just so she could say, “What’s up, Buttercup?”), Catherine delivers heart-pounding stories that prove ordinary women are always more powerful than their deepest fears.