Emily Bain Murphy was born in Indiana and raised in Hong Kong and Japan. She graduated from Tufts University and has also called Massachusetts, Connecticut, and California home.
Image by Randall Kahn
Murphy is the author of the YA fantasy The Disappearances, which was a Bank Street Best Children’s Book of the Year, an ALAN Pick, received a starred review from Publishers Weekly, and was shortlisted for the Waterstones Children’s Book Prize.
Splinters of Scarlet, Murphy’s second YA historical fantasy, is “Downton Abbey meets Frozen" set in nineteenth-century Copenhagen. It received starred reviews from School Library Journal and Bookpage and has been translated into multiple languages.
Enchanted Hill, Murphy’s debut adult novel, is a historical mystery set in 1930 over a glittering week of parties at a mansion on the California coast. It is available now from Union Square and Co.
Ivory City, a standalone adult historical mystery set at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair, will be published in November 2025 from Union Square and Co./Hachette.
Murphy is represented by Peter Knapp at Park, Fine & Brower Literary and Media. She currently lives in the St. Louis area with her husband, three children, and a rescue bunny. Find her online at Instagram @emilybainmurphy and Facebook @emilybainmurphy.