Before dis­cov­er­ing a pas­sion for writ­ing Ms. Smith sold plumb­ing, antiques, taught ball­room danc­ing and man­aged soft­ware projects for IBM. Col­lege stud­ies includ­ed psy­chol­o­gy, arche­ol­o­gy, lit­er­a­ture, his­to­ry, anthropology/​sociology and com­put­er sci­ence, with degrees in the lat­ter two. Com­bine those wide­ly diverse inter­ests with wry wit and cre­ative tal­ent, and you’re not sur­prised at the review, ​“Lisa April Smith’s books have the pace and heat of Jacque­line Susann and the style and sophis­ti­ca­tion of Dominick Dunne.”