Katherine Jean "Kate" Ross (June 21, 1956 – March 12, 1998) was an American mystery author who wrote four books set in Regency-era England about the dandy Julian Kestrel.

The daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Edward A. Ross, Kate Ross attended Wellesley College and Yale Law School. A trial lawyer, she worked at Sullivan & Worcester (a Boston law firm) until 1981. She then began her career as a novelist.^[1]

Ross died of breast cancer in 1998 at the age of 41, and is interred in Wellesley, Massachusetts.^[2]

Her novels include:

• Cut to the Quick (1994), which won the 1994 Gargoyle award for in the category of Best Historical Mystery
• A Broken Vessel (1995)
• Whom the Gods Love (1996)^[3]
• The Devil in Music (1997), which won the 1997 Agatha Award for in the category of Best Novel.^[4]

Her short stories include:

• "The Lullaby Cheat" (1997), a short story featuring Kestrel, is included in the mystery anthology Crime Through Time, edited by Miriam Grace Monfredo and Sharan Newman.
• "The Unkindest Cut" (1998) was published in the anthology Past Poisons: An Ellis Peters Memorial Anthology of Historical Crime.^[5]

• List of female detective/mystery writers

• Mystery Book Awards, littlemoon.com; accessed December 9, 2014.