JJ. Murphy's authorship of the Algonquin Round Table Mystery series can be traced to two disparate threads:

—His love of legendary wit Dorothy Parker

—His desire to escape the mindlessness of toddler TV, which he watched with his twin daughters.

Murphy had more than he could stand of the children's music group The Wiggles when he decided to do something as far removed as possible, he said in a recent phone interview.

Thus the mysteries were born, with the first, "Murder Your Darlings," published in January 2011.