Carolyn Dyer was an associate professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Iowa and a member of the "Women of Mystery" book group in Iowa City, Iowa. She was also a well-known expert on the Nancy Drew mystery books and their cultural significance and the instigator of the first scholarly conference on Nancy Drew held in Iowa City in 1993. (Biographical information from the University of Iowa Libraries).

About the Book It was Carolyn Dyer’s wish that, in lieu of flowers after her death, people contribute to Iowa Public Radio and/or the Iowa Women’s Archives at the University of Iowa Libraries. The local "Women of Mystery" group — of which Carolyn was a much-loved member — agreed to pool funds in order to commission a book of memories, as well as make a collective donation to the Iowa Women’s Archives. Kären Mason, Margaret Kinsman, and Lois Cox collected contributions from friends and colleagues, and were the patient and faithful editors of this volume.

Through conversations with Kären, Margaret, and Lois, and based on books loaned to me by Margaret at the start of this work, I typeset this book to mirror stylistic elements of an early Nancy Drew title. Remembering Carolyn Dyer was digitally typeset in Baskerville, and closely follows the layout of the first edition of the The Clue of the Black Key — the 1951 Nancy Drew mystery. It was designed in the year that followed Carolyn’s death, commercially printed in Iowa City in late summer 2022, and five copies hand bound in early 2023.