Anne Perry (born Juliet Marion Hulme in Blackheath, London on 28 October 1938) is an English author of historical detective fiction. Perry was convicted of the murder of her friend's mother in 1954
The daughter of Dr. Henry Hulme, an English physicist, Perry attended Christchurch Girls' High School in New Zealand.
Together with her school friend Pauline Parker, Hulme murdered Parker's mother, Honora Rieper, in June 1954. They stood trial in Christchurch in 1954, and were found guilty on August 29 of that year. As they were too young to be considered for the death penalty under New Zealand law at the time, they were convicted and sentenced to be "detained at Her Majesty's pleasure". In practice, this sentence meant they were to be detained at the discretion of the Minister of Justice. They were released separately some five years later.
After being released from prison, Hulme returned to England and became a flight attendant. Hulme took the name Anne Perry, the latter being her stepfather's surname. Her first novel, The Cater Street Hangman, was published under this name in 1979. Her works feature a number of recurring characters, most importantly Thomas Pitt, who appeared in her first novel, and amnesiac private investigator William Monk, who first appeared in her 1990 novel The Face of a Stranger. As of 2003 she had published 47 novels, and several collections of short stories. Her story "Heroes", which first appeared in the 1999 anthology Murder and Obsession, edited by Otto Penzler, won the 2001 Edgar Award for Best Short Story.