Grace Brophy

Born in Bergenfield, New Jersey to Irish parents, Grace lived and worked in New York City until 2001. In September 2001, she and her late husband Miguel Peraza, a figurative painter, travelled to Italy with their two cats, Rachel and LoMein. In 2002, while still in Italy, she began her first work of fiction, “The Last Enemy”, a police procedural set in Umbria, featuring Commissario Alessandro Cenni and since republished on Kindle as “Vendetta in a Graveyard.”

Grace was a systems engineer for twenty years for various telecommunication companies, including Bell Labs, AT&T, and Verizon. Before she began work as a systems engineer, she taught writing at the City University of New York, at Queens and Hunter colleges. In 1982 and 1986, Grace studied tapestry design with Carlos Delclaux, in Geronia, Spain.

While teaching at the City University of New York, Queens and Hunter Colleges, Grace co-authored “Writing Proficiency,” a college textbook published by McGraw Hill, and “Minimum Competencies,” published jointly by CUNY and McGraw Hill. “The Last Enemy,” now entitled “Vendetta in a Graveyard,” was published by Soho Crime in May 2007. Her second novel in the series, “A Deadly Paradise,” now entitled “Vendetta in Paradise,” was published by Soho in May 2008. Both were republished on Kindle as ebooks in 2025, together with two new novels in the series: “Vendetta in the Vatican”, 3rd, and “Vendetta in a Raincoat,” 4th. The 5th and last of the series, “Vendetta in a Vineyard” is now being edited by Grace and should be available on Kindle in a few weeks. Grace is also working on a new crime series set in the Midtown South Precinct of New York City.

Grace and Miguel left the United States to live in Italy in 2001. They lived first in Venice and later in Umbria, in Assisi, where her first mystery is set. They lived in Assisi for five years, returning to the United States for medical reasons in 2006. Miguel, originally from Uruguay, died of cancer in February 2009, the year Grace stopped writing. Before that, they had lived in Spain, off and on, for some years, where Grace began writing and Miguel pursued his love of figurative painting.

One of five siblings: Margaret, John (deceased), Helen, and Patrick, Grace grew up in a large Irish family, with a mother, Mary Hannah Brophy, who believed strongly in human rights and who taught her children that life is precious to all, not just those who share our beliefs and cultures. Grace hopes that this philosophy of life is reflected in her writing.