Her experience growing up in this environment eventually served as the basis of her picture books The Circus Comes Home (1993) and Song of the Circus (2002). In Florida, she spent her youth among circus performers, including The Doll Family.

She spent her early life in Pennsylvania, relocating in her late childhood to Sarasota, Florida, where her parents resumed their employment as circus photographers. Both of Duncan's parents were professional magazine photographers, who took photos for the Ringling Bros. Duncan had one younger brother, William Janney 'Billy' Steinmetz. Lois Duncan Steinmetz was born on April 28, 1934, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first child of Lois Duncan (née Foley) and Joseph Janney Steinmetz. Her last published work, a sequel to Who Killed My Daughter? titled One to the Wolves, was published in 2013.ĭuncan on the cover of a 1949 issue of Collier's, photographed by her father After her daughter's murder, Duncan distanced herself from the thriller and horror genres, shifting her focus to picture books and novels aimed for young children. She received the 1992 Margaret Edwards Award from the American Library Association for her contribution to writing for teens. In addition to her novels and children's books, Duncan published several collections of poetry and nonfiction, including Who Killed My Daughter? (1992), which detailed the 1989 unsolved murder of Duncan's teenaged daughter, Kaitlyn. Griffin (1978), have been adapted into films. Several of her novels, including Hotel for Dogs (1971), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1973), Summer of Fear (1976), and the controversial Killing Mr. The daughter of professional photographers Lois and Joseph Janney Steinmetz, Duncan began writing at a young age, publishing two early novels under the pen name Lois Kerry. She is best known for her young-adult novels, and has been credited by historians as a pioneering figure in the development of young-adult fiction, particularly in the genres of horror, thriller, and suspense. Lois Duncan Steinmetz (Ap– June 15, 2016), known as Lois Duncan, was an American writer, novelist, poet, and journalist.

Summer of Fear by Lois Duncan