Judy Fitzwater grew up an Air Force brat and has lived in New York, Oklahoma, Texas, Hawaii, Maine, Kentucky, Georgia, New Jersey, and North Carolina. She began her writing career freelancing as a columnist, feature writer, and reporter of superior court proceedings for a newspaper in rural North Carolina. Her interests soon turned to fiction, and she has been writing mystery and adventure novels ever since.

Judy belongs to a weekly critique group that steadfastly denies any resemblance to the writers' group that appears in her books. Fitzwater now lives in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. with her husband.