Ellen Horan was raised in Philadelphia and New York. After graduating from college, where she studied painting and history, she lived in France for a year while working and studying studio art. She remained abroad for a second year and was offered a grant to live and paint in a villa in the South of France.
She returned to New York City where she maintained an art studio, while working as a freelance photo editor for magazines and books. She turned her attention to writing fiction after becoming intrigued by the infamous “Bond Street murder” case of 1857. She lives in downtown Manhattan, the setting of her first novel, 31 Bond Street, published by Harper, 2010.