About Robert J. Randisi
Robert J. Randisi has written more than four hundred Westerns, including the long-running Gunsmith series. He is also the editor of thirty anthologies and a Writer’s Digest book, Writing the Private Eye Novel. He founded the Private Eye Writers of America in 1982 and created the Shamus Award; he also cofounded Mystery Scene magazine and the American Crime Writer’s League. He lives in Clarksville, Missouri.
About Lawrence Block
Lawrence Block is the recipient of a Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America and an internationally renowned bestselling author. His prolific career spans over one hundred books, including four bestselling series as well as dozens of short stories, articles, and books on writing. He has won four Edgar and Shamus Awards, two Falcon Awards from the Maltese Falcon Society of Japan, the Nero and Philip Marlowe Awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Cartier Diamond Dagger from the Crime Writers Association of the United Kingdom. In France, he has been awarded the title Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice received the Societe 813 trophy.
Born in Buffalo, New York, Block attended Antioch College in Yellow Springs, Ohio. Leaving school before graduation, he moved to New York City, a locale that features prominently in most of his works. His earliest published writing appeared in the 1950s, frequently under pseudonyms, and many of these novels are now considered classics of the pulp fiction genre. During his early writing years, Block also worked in the mailroom of a publishing house and reviewed the submission slush pile for a literary agency. He has cited the latter experience as a valuable lesson for a beginning writer.
Block's first short story, "You Can't Lose," was published in 1957 in Manhunt, the first of dozens of short stories and articles that he would publish over the years in publications including American Heritage, Redbook, Playboy, Cosmopolitan, GQ, and the New York Times. His short fiction has been featured and reprinted in over eleven collections including Enough Rope, which is comprised of eighty-four of his short stories.
In 1966, Block introduced the insomniac protagonist Evan Tanner in the novel The Thief Who Couldn't Sleep. Block's diverse heroes also include the urbane and witty bookseller-and thief-on-the-side-Bernie Rhodenbarr; the gritty recovering alcoholic and private investigator Matthew Scudder; and Chip Harrison, the comical assistant to a private investigator with a Nero Wolfe fixation who appears in No Score, Chip Harrison Scores Again, Make Out with Murder, and The Topless Tulip Caper. Block has also written several short stories and novels featuring Keller, a professional hit man. Block's work is praised for his richly imagined and varied characters and frequent use of humor.
A father of three daughters, Block lives in New York City with his second wife, Lynne. When he isn't touring or attending mystery conventions, he and Lynne are frequent travelers, as members of the Travelers' Century Club for nearly a decade now, and have visited about 150 countries.
About Jeffery Deaver
Jeffery Deaver is the #1 internationally bestselling author of forty-four novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages. His first novel featuring Lincoln Rhyme, The Bone Collector, was made into a major motion picture starring Denzel Washington and Angelina Jolie and a hit television series on NBC. He’s received or been shortlisted for a number of awards around the world, including Novel of the Year by the International Thriller Writers and the Steel Dagger from the Crime Writers’ Association in the United Kingdom. In 2014, he was the recipient of three lifetime achievement awards. He has been named a Grand Master by Mystery Writers of America.
About Max Allan Collins
Max Allan Collins is an award-winning writer of mysteries, comics, thrillers, screenplays, and historical fiction. His graphic novel Road to Perdition was the basis for the 2002 Academy Award-winning film by the same name. He collaborated with Mickey Spillane on several projects and is completing a number of the Mike Hammer novels that Spillane left unfinished. Collins lives in Iowa with his wife, author Barbara Collins.
About Barbara Seranella
Barbara Seranella (1956–2007) grew up in Pacific Palisades, California. After a restless childhood that included running away from home at the age of fourteen, joining a hippie commune in the Haight, and riding with outlaw motorcycle clubs, she decided to settle down and do something normal—she became an auto mechanic, and that was the occupation she chose for her heroine when she switched from fixing cars to writing about them. She later became a member of the Orange County, Los Angeles, and San Diego chapters of Sisters in Crime and the Mystery Writers of America.
About Lee Child
Lee Child is the author of the #1 New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher series and the complete Jack Reacher story collection, No Middle Name. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in one hundred territories. Two blockbusting Jack Reacher movies have been made so far, based on his novels. He is the recipient of many awards, including the CWA’s Diamond Dagger for a writer of an outstanding body of crime fiction, the International Thriller Writers’ ThrillerMaster, and the Theakstons Old Peculier Outstanding Contribution to Crime Fiction Award. He is a native of England and a former television director.
About Jeff Abbott
Jeff Abbott is the New York Times bestselling and award-winning author of numerous mystery and suspense novels, including the Sam Capra series, winner of the International Thriller Writers Award. He is a three-time finalist for the Edgar Award. A native Texan, he graduated from Rice University with a degree in history and English and worked as a creative director at an advertising agency before writing full time.
About John Harvey
John Harvey, best known as a writer of crime fiction, his work translated into more than twenty languages, is also a dramatist, poet, publisher, and occasional broadcaster. The first of his Charlie Resnick novels, Lonely Hearts, was named by the Times as one of the “100 Best Crime Novels of the Century.” The recipient of honorary doctorates from the Universities of Nottingham and Hertfordshire, Harvey was awarded the Crime Writers’ Association Cartier Diamond Dagger for Lifetime Achievement in 2007.
About James W. Hall
James W. Hall is the Edgar and Shamus Award-winning author of more than twenty novels, including Under Cover of Daylight, When You Can't Stop, and Bad Axe.
About Kevin Wignall
Kevin Wignall, a British writer born in Brussels, is the author of several books, including Who Is Conrad Hirst, which was shortlisted for the Edward Award and the Barry Award, and The Hunter’s Prayer, which was originally titled For the Dogs in the USA and which was made into a film directed by Jonathan Mostow and starring Sam Worthington and Odeya Rush.
About Marcus Pelegrimas
Marcus Pelegrimas is an American author of fiction in numerous genres, including westerns, mystery, horror, and fantasy. He is the author of the Skinners series, the Gillis Ledgers series. Writing as Marcus Galloway, he is the author of the Man from Boot Hill series and the Accomplice series, along with many standalone novels. He graduated from the University of Nebraska with a degree in criminal justice.
About Jenny Siler
Jenny Siler grew up in Missoula, Montana. For much of her life, she has traveled and worked her way around the world, starting as a prep cook in the scullery of a men’s soup kitchen, through working in a fish cannery in Alaska pulling salmon roe, to being a nude sketch model at an art museum in Frankfurt. Her work, she says, has defined her and her writing.
About Ed Gorman
Ed Gorman is an award-winning American author best known for his crime, mystery, Western, and horror fiction. He has won a Spur Award for best short Western fiction and the Anthony Award for best critical work and in 2011 received the Eye, the lifetime achievement award from the Private Eye Writers of America. His award nominations include the Edgar Award, Bram Stoker Award, and numerous Anthony Awards. He has written over one hundred novels and short stories under various pen names and his stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including The Shamus Winners.
About Christine Matthews
Christine Matthews’ short stories have been chosen for inclusion in many anthologies of year’s best stories. She is the coauthor with Robert J. Randisi of three cozy mysteries Murder Is the Deal of the Day, The Masks of Auntie Laveau, and Same Time, Same Murder.
About John Rubinstein
John Rubinstein is an actor, composer, and director who won a Tony Award for his starring role in Broadway’s Children of a Lesser God. He has narrated dozens of audiobooks, earning several AudioFile Earphones Awards and being named a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2013.
About Stefan Rudnicki
Stefan Rudnicki is a Grammy-winning audiobook producer and a multiaward-winning narrator, named one of AudioFile’s Golden Voices.
About Gabrielle de Cuir
Gabrielle de Cuir, award-winning narrator, has narrated over three hundred titles and specializes in fantasy, humor, and titles requiring extensive foreign language and accent skills. She was a cowinner of the Audie Award for best narration in 2011 and a three-time finalist for the Audie and has garnered six AudioFile Earphones Awards. Her “velvet touch” as an actor’s director has earned her a special place in the audiobook world as the foremost producer for bestselling authors and celebrities.
About Maxwell Caulfield
Maxwell Caulfield is a film, stage, and television actor best known for his roles as Michael Carrington in the 1982 film Grease 2 and Miles Colby in the television shows The Colbys and Dynasty. His other acting credits include the films Gettysburg, The Real Blonde, and Emmerdale. He has won six AudioFile Earphones Awards.
About Stephen Hoye
Stephen Hoye has worked as a professional actor in London and Los Angeles for more than thirty years. Trained at Boston University and the Guildhall in London, he has acted in television series and six feature films and has appeared in London’s West End. His audiobook narration has won him fifteen AudioFile Earphones Awards.
About Rex Linn
Rex Linn, a winner of the prestigious Audie Award for best narration in 2014, is an American film and television actor best known for his role as Frank Tripp in the television series CSI: Miami. Besides numerous other television roles, he has had roles in Django Unchained, Trial by Fire, and other major films. He was born and raised in the Texas panhandle and earned a BA in radio, television, and film from Oklahoma State University.
About Charles Kahlenberg
Charles Kahlenberg's experience in the entertainment business spans over three decades. His film credits began with Coal Miner’s Daughter and, more recently, Wedding Crashers and Fun With Dick and Jane. His television credits include Justice, Cold Case, ER, and Seinfeld. His voice-over work has been heard in many major motion pictures and television shows and more than 100 national commercials.
