Mary-Jane Deeb holds a Ph.D. in International Relations from the School of Advanced International Studies at the Johns Hopkins University. She has taught at American University in Washington for almost a decade, and now holds the position of Arab world Area Specialist at the Library of Congress.In addition to her teaching career, Deeb has published three academic books and over sixty articles, book chapters and book reviews on Middle East politics. Between 1995 and 1998 she was the Editor-in-chief of The Middle East Journal and as such travelled widely in Europe, North Africa and the Middle East. She is fluent in French and Arabic and can read a number of other languages. Deeb brings her own personal knowledge of the Washington social scene to bear on the murder-mystery plot of Cocktails and Murder on the Potomac her first novel.
