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16th Annual
Monday, May 2, 2011
with media sponsorship by WDUQ
Doors open at 4 pm
Program begins at 5 pm
This year's Festival of Mystery will take place on Monday May 2rd, our traditional first Monday in May.
We will return to the new quarters at the Greek Orthodox Church in Oakmont, 12 Washington St., about 5 blocks from the store. The Church hall gave us a much more comfortable space for our many authors and their fans at last year's Festival and this year's promises to be just as big.
Keep checking this page for updates as we begin to assemble the program.
Tickets to the Festival are available in advance for $8, at the door for $9.
You can purchase tickets online. For multiple ticket purchases you can adjust the quantity in the shopping cart before you check out.
 Festival Ticket, $8
A complete bibliography of books by the Festival authors is available to download and print
Also available: four page Festival Guide.
Avery Aames is the author of A Cheese Shop Mystery series. The first in the series, The Long Quiche Goodbye, debuted as a national bestseller and is nominated for an Agatha award, “Best First Novel.” Lost and Fondue is the next in the series. Avery loves to cook and enjoys a delicious cheese and tasty wine.
Donna Andrews set the tone for her charming and humorous Meg Langslow series by winning the Agatha, Anthony, the Barry and the Romanic Times awards for the debut, Murder with Peacocks. For the Festival, Donna will be coming with the twelfth, Stork Raving Mad.
Michael Ayoob is a winner of the Minotaur Books/PWA Best First Private Eye Novel Competition. He earned a B.A. from Carnegie Mellon University and an MFA in Fiction from Columbia University. Michael lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His debut, In Search of Mercy, was released in the fall.
As an archaeologist, Aileen G. Baron taught for twenty years in the Department of Anthropology at California State University, Fullerton, and conducted many years of fieldwork in the Middle East, including a year at the American School of Oriental Research in Jerusalem as an NEH scholar and director of the overseas campus of California State Universities at the Hebrew University.
Her mysteries in the Lily Sampson series, A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes, The Torch of Tangier, and The Scorpion’s Bite feature an American archaeologist working in the Middle East during World War II. The first book in the contemporary Tamar Saticoy series, The Gold of Thrace is about the intrigue and deceit in the antiquities trade.
Lorraine Bartlett comes to the Festival with a fresh, new mystery, A Crafty Killing, the first in the Victoria Square series featuring Katie Bonner who manages a crafts market. As Lorna Barrett she is the author of the Booktown series featuring small-town mystery bookstore woner Tricia Miles. The fourth, Chapter and Hearse , was published last year.
Cara Black is the author of the best-selling Aimée Leduc series, all of which are available in the Soho Crime imprint. She lives in San Francisco with her husband and son and visits Paris frequently.
The British born Rhys Bowen now lives in California where she has written ten wildly successful mysteries featuring the feisty Irish immigrant Molly Murphy, the latest being Bless the Bride. She has been nominated for every major mystery award: Agatha, Edgar, McCavity, Anthony and Barry and has won both the Agatha and Anthony Award. Not resting, she’s started a new series Her Royal Spyness featuring 1920's sleuth Lady Victoria, an aristocrat fallen on hard times. Fourth in the series is Royal Blood. Bowen is also the author of the award-winning Evans Evans series..
Ellen Byerrum launched the Lacey Smithsonian series with Killer Hair which introduced the fashion columnist who still had time to track a killer of hair stylists while keeping tabs on the capitals fashion do's and don'ts. Six more books followed, most recently Shot Through Velvet.
JoAnna Carl is the author of the Chocoholic series, set in a resort community on Lake Michigan and featuring Lee McKinney, a young woman who is business manager for a chocolate company. The books contain not only a light-hearted mystery, but also Chocolate Lore – facts, history, and traditions of chocolate. JoAnna visited the Festival of Mystery during another lifetime, when she was Eve K. Sandstrom, author of regional mysteries.
New York Times bestselling author Kate Carlisle spent twenty years working in television production before deciding to go to law school, where she turned to writing fiction as a lawful way to kill off her evil professors. She eventually left law school but the urge to write has never stopped. Kate makes her home by the beach in Southern California.
Elizabeth Lynn Casey is the national bestselling author of the Southern Sewing Circle Mystery Series with Berkley Prime Crime. Deadly Notions , the fourth book in the series, is her latest release, debuting in plenty of time for this year's festival. In addition to her work as a mystery writer, Elizabeth is an award-winning romance author under the name, Laura Bradford. She lives in New York state with her family.
Before becoming a full-time mystery writer, Sheila Connolly taught art history, structured and marketed municipal bonds for major cities, worked as a staff member on two statewide political campaigns, and served as a fundraiser for several non-profit organizations. She also managed her own consulting company providing genealogical research services. Her Glassblowing Mystery Series, written as Sarah Atwell, debuted with Through a Glass, Deadly, an Agatha nominee, followed by Pane of Death, and Snake in the Glass. Her Orchard Mystery Series opened with One Bad Apple, followed by Rotten to the Core. The third, Red Delicious Death, was published in March. Her new Museum Mystery Series will debut in October 2010 with Fundraising the Dead.
Born in McKees Rocks, reside since late '60s in Greensburg, thus Rocksburg. Started writing in the Marine Corps to spite an English prof who had flunked me twice and told me, "Mr. K., you simply don't know how to write an English sentence." Took decades to comprehend how much I owed him. Lasted one year in U. of Iowa's Writer's Workshop where I was told I did know how to write, I "just didn't know how to make a box". Lots of people still agree with that. Married to my one and only--my first reader--since 1962. Embarrassing to say why I went into hiding; no idea why I decided to search for light.
Casey Daniels, it can now be revealed, is also Miranda Bliss. As Casey, she once applied for a job as a tour guide at a historic cemetery. She didn't get the job, but she did get the idea for the Pepper Martin Mystery Series about a cemetery tour guide who finds she can communicate with the permanent residents. The seventh in the series, Hard Day's Fright, will be here in time for the Festival.
As Miranda Bliss, she is the author of five books that feature best friends Annie and Eve who give cooking classes. Most recent is Murder Has a Sweet Tooth.
Casey and Miranda learned to love mysteries early thanks to her dad, a Cleveland Police detective, who enjoyed Sherlock Holmes stories and spent his days off searching for stolen cars--with Casey along for the ride. Casey has a degree in English and a background in journalism and teaching. Casey lives in northeast Ohio.
C. William (Bill) Davis is the author of the Clive Aliston Mystery Series. Clive Aliston is a southwestern Pennsylvania County Sheriff on the trail of a serial killer.The first three books in the series are The Forever Man Trilogy, which includes, The Forever Man, Tail of the Scorpion and The Ticket Master (Return of The Forever Man). The trilogy ends but the series will continue. Bill has lived in southwestern Pennsylvania nearly all of his life. After several years in the Aerospace Electronics field and a 30 year career in Industrial/Electrical at Allegheny Ludlum he has finally been able to pursue his lifelong interest in writing.
'Vicki Delany has been called “one of Canada's most promising new practitioners of the crime genre.” (Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune). Among the Departed is the fifth in a traditional police procedural series featuring Constable Molly Smith and set in the mountains of British Columbia. She is also the author of two novels of psychological suspense, Scare the Light Away and Burden of Memory. Last year Vicki launched a historial series set during the Klondike gold rush, the second, Gold Fever, was published last year.
Born in England, Hannah moved to California to pursue a screenwriting career. Along the road to publication she has served as an obituary reporter, antique dealer, private jet flight attendant and Hollywood story analyst. Her fourth book in the Vicky Hill Mysteries, Thieves, was published in January 2011. Hannah teaches mystery writing at UCLA in Los Angeles and still works full time for a west coast advertising agency.
Laura DiSilverio served twenty years as an Air Force intelligence officer before retiring to write and parent full-time. Her first Colorado Springs-based PI novel, Swift Justice, debuted from Minotaur in Oct 2010. The second in the series, Swift Edge, hits stores in Dec 2011. Her new Mall Cop mystery series begins in August 2011 with Die Buying(Berkley Prime Crime). The Writer magazine featured Laura in March as their “Breakthrough” writer.
Because parenting teen and tween daughters and writing two series doesn’t stress her out enough, she also writes the Southern Beauty Shop series as Lila Dare. She enjoys the research for this series--facials, manicures, and hair stylings--although her tax man says she can’t write them off. Darn! Look for Tressed to Kill and Polished Off at the Festival of Mystery. Like her Southern Beauty Shop characters, she was born in Georgia. She now lives in Colorado with her hubby, daughters, and Wire-haired Pointing Griffon.
Vicki Doudera writes page-turning mysteries grounded in a reality she knows all too well: luxury real estate. A top producing broker for a firm on the coast of Maine and former Realtor of the Year, Vicki's first novel, A House to Die For, was chosen by Suspense Magazine as a top read of 2010. It introduces smart and savvy Darby Farr, a red-hot agent making multimillion dollar deals while solving bloody crimes. Killer Listing, the latest in the series, has won praise from coast to coast. Vicki lives in coastal Maine where she is president of her local Habitat for Humanity, a member of MWA, and serves on the board of SinCNE.
P.L. Gaus draws inspiration for the Amish-Country Mysteries from his more than thirty years of exploration of the pastoral communities of Holmes County, the world’s largest and most varied Amish and Mennonite settlement, just a few miles from his home in Wooster, Ohio. He lectures widely about the lifestyles, culture, and religion of this remarkable Amish community. Gaus’ shares photographs and anecdotes about Amish country on his website.
Kathleen George is a Pittsburgher and her police thrillers are set here. The Odds was nominated for an Edgar® award for best novel of the year by the Mystery Writers of America. She is also the author of the acclaimed novels Taken, Fallen, and Afterimage as well as a short story collection The Man in the Buick and some books about theatre. She uses her theatre background to write suspenseful scenes. Coming very soon in 2011 are Hideout, another novel in the Richard Christie series, and Pittsburgh Noir, an edited collection of short fiction set in the neighborhoods of Pittsburgh.
Beth Groundwater comes to the Festival with the first in the Rocky Mountain Adventure series featuring river ranger Mandy Tanner, set in the wilds of Colorado. Deadly Currents will garner a whole new audience for Beth. Beth lives in Colorado and enjoys its many outdoor activities, including skiing and whitewater rafting.
Pittsburgh playwright and actor Kathryn Miller Haines is coming to the festival as one of the contributors to Pittsburgh Noir. She's well known to MLB readers as the author of four novels in a WW II-set series featuring actress and would-be PI Rosie Winters. In July she'll debut a young adult historical mystery, The Girl Is Murder.
Anthony and Barry Award winning author Julie Hyzy writes two mystery series: the White House Chef Mysteries (fourth in the series, Buffalo West Wing, came out in January), and the Manor House Mysteries beginning with Grace Under Pressure. The second book in that series, Grace Interrupted, will be out in June. Julie lives in the Chicago area with her husband, three daughters, and two cats.
Anthony and Agatha-nominated Rosemary Harris writes traditional mysteries that have been compared to Diane Mott Davidson's and Earlene Fowler's. In Slugfest, Rosemary's fourth novel, amateur sleuth Paula Holliday learns that a new friend is actually a fugitive who's been on the run for decades and she's hired to find out who outed the woman and who is still seeking revenge.The Big Dirt Nap and Pushing Up Daisies are now available in paperback.
Linda O. Johnston is the author of the new Pet Rescue Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime which debuted in March 2011 with BEAGLEMANIA. The series centers around Lauren Vancouver, dedicated administrator of a no-kill animal shelter who also finds herself having to solve murders. In the Pet Rescue Mysteries, “no-kill” means pets, not people! The Pet Rescue series is a spinoff from Linda’s Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter, mystery series.
MITCHELL JAMES KAPLAN is a cum laude graduate of Yale University, where he won the prestigious Paine Memorial Prize and where he met his first mentor, author William Styron. Mitchell's first novel, By Fire, By Water, which depicts ethnic and religious strife in Christopher Columbus's Spain, was a 2010 nominee for the Goodreads Choice Award in Historical Fiction and was selected as the Community Read for 2010 by the Jewish communities of Philadelphia, Houston, and the State of Delaware. By Fire, By Water is also a finalist in ForeWord Magazine's BOTYA (Book Of The Year Award). Mitchell was one of six debut authors selected to speak in the First Author, First Book program at the 2010 American Library Association convention.
Alice Loweecey is a former nun who went from the convent to playing prostitutes on stage to accepting her husband’s marriage proposal on the second date. Force of Habit is her first novel and it introduces Giulia Falcone who is, oddly enough, a nun turned PI. Kirkus said it’s “not by any means your mother’s detecting-nun story,” and Publisher’s Weekly said its ‘fresh take on crime fighting is a delight.” She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime. The author lives with her family in Western New York.
Jess Lourey is the author of the Lefty-nominated Murder-by-Month mysteries set in Battle Lake, Minnesota. Kirkus Reviews calls October Fest, the sixth in the series, "funny, ribald, and teeming with small town eccentrics." Jess teaches writing and sociology a Minnesota college. When not raising her wonderful kids, teaching, or writing, you can find her gardening, traveling, and navigating the niceties and meanities of small-town life. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, The Loft, and Lake Superior Writers, and serves on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America.
Mary Jane will be coming to the Festival with, The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder, the fifth book featuring upstate New York professional organizer Charlotte Adams. She'll also arrive with an Agatha nomination for her short story "So Much in Common." She is a lapsed librarian, a former mystery bookseller, and a past president of Crime Writers of Canada. Although she is a member of the Ladies Killing Circle, in reality, she has never bumped off anyone.
Nancy Martin, author of nearly 50 popular fiction novels, departed from her bestselling Blackbird Sisters Mystery Series with the 2010 publication of Foxy Roxy, which featured tough Pittsburgh girl Roxy Abruzzo. Now Roxy is back in Sticky Fingers, a second for this Pittsburgh series. Nancy lives in Pittsburgh, serves on the board of Sisters in Crime and received the 2009 Romantic Times award for Lifetime Achievement for mystery writing.
Judi McCoy has published fifteen romances. She teaches the Aspiring Author course each year at Romantic Times, and gives writing workshops across the country. Hounding the Pavement, released in March 2009 is the first book in her new romantic mystery series. All royalties from the book will be donated to Best Friends, the largest no-kill animal shelter in the U.S. Judi currently resides on Virginia's peaceful eastern shore. A retired women’s gymnastic judge, she raises orchids and continues to write the next book in her unique series. Judi will join us with the fourth book, Begging for Trouble.
Kris Neri’s latest title, Revenge for Old Times’ Sake, a Lefty Award nominee for Best Humorous Mystery, is the most recent adventure in her Agatha, Anthony, Macavity Award-nominated Tracy Eaton mystery series, featuring the unconventional daughter of eccentric Hollywood stars. Bill Fitzhugh, author of Pest Control, writes of this madcap series: “The clever plot twists and vivid characters bring to mind what might result from the unholy coupling of Mel Brooks and Janet Evanovich. But I’ll take Tracy Eaton over Stephanie Plum any day of the week.” A first-timer at the Festival, Kris hails from Sedona, Arizona.
Clare O’Donohue is a freelance television writer and producer. She has worked worldwide on a variety of shows for Food Network, the History Channel, and truTV, among others. An avid quilter, she was also a producer for HGTV’s Simply Quilts with Alex Anderson, and is still trying to use up the fabric she was given while working there. Her next series, The Kate Conway Mysteries, will debut in May with Missing Persons. O’Donohue lives in Chicago, IL.
Alan Orloff returns to the Festival with The first book in his new series, Killer Routine- A Last Laff Mystery, featuring Channing Hayes, a stand-up comic with a tragic past. He is also the author of last year's, Diamonds for the Dead, which is an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. A former engineer, marketing manager, and newsletter editor, he lives in Northern Virginia with his wife and two children.
Gail Oust is the author of the Bunco Babe Mystery series for Obsidian (NAL.) While working as a nurse/vascular technologist, she had nine historical romances published under the pseudonym Elizabeth Turner. But it wasn’t until
she and her husband retired to South Carolina that inspiration struck for a mystery. She remembers distinctly when her partner smelled something foul in the underbrush and uttered the immortal words, “Maybe it’s a dead body.” Since then she spends more time at the computer with her newfound friends the Bunco Babes than on the golf course.
Brad Parks' debut, Faces of the Gone, became the first book ever to win both the Shamus Award and Nero Award. Library Journal called the second installment in his series, Eyes of the Innocent, "as good if not better (than) his acclaimed debut." An escaped journalist, Brad spent a dozen years as a staff writer at The Washington Post and The (Newark, N.J.) Star-Ledger. The Dartmouth College graduate is now a full time author living in Virginia with his wife and two young children.
P.J. Parrish is the New York Times bestselling author of ten Louis Kincaid and Joe Frye thrillers. The author is actually two sisters, Kristy Montee and Kelly Nichols. The series has garnered 11 major crime-fiction nominations, including the Edgar. Parrish has won two Shamus awards, one Anthony and one International Thriller competition. Their books have been published throughout Europe and Asia. Parrish’s short stories have also appeared in many anthologies, including Akashic Books acclaimed Detroit Noir, and in Ellery Queen Magazine. Most recently, they contributed an essay to a special edition of Edgar Allan Poe’s works edited by Michael Connelly and they were a collaborators on the International Thriller Writers serial novels along with Lee Child, Jeffery Deaver, Lisa Scottoline and nine others. Their next book, A Killing Song, is a stand-alone thriller set in Miami and Paris.
Louise Penny is the author of the Chief Inspector Gamache mysteries. Set in a village in Quebec, her books have hit bestseller lists internationally, including the New York Times, USA Today, The Globe and Mail and the London Times. The Gamache novels have also won international awards including the British Dagger, Canadian Arthur Ellis and in the States Louise has won the Agatha, Barry, Anthony and Dilys Awards. Her latest book, BURY YOUR DEAD, was named by the American Library Association as the Best Mystery of 2010. The London Times named it a Book of the Week, and it is a finalist for numerous awards. Louise and her husband Michael live in Quebec.
Les Roberts is a Cleveland writer to came to the city while he was a producer for the Hollywood Squares and never left. He is the author of 15 novels featuring Cleveland PI Milan Jacovich (he stole the name from his dentist), the most recent of which, The Cleveland Creep, will be published just in time for the Festival.
Joanna Campbell Slan is the author of Paper, Scissors, Death, the first in a series featuring Kiki Lowenstein, an expert scrapbooker who plays amateur sleuth when her husband dies under suspicious circumstances. Paper, Scissors, Death has been called "an engaging cozy" with "an enjoyable mix of humor, suspense (and) a touch of romance." Make, Take, Murder, the fourth book in her Kiki Lowenstein mystery series, will be released just in time for the Festival.
Wallace Stroby is an award-winning journalist and the author of the novels Cold Shot to the Heart, Gone 'Til November, The Heartbreak Lounge and The Barbed-Wire Kiss.. A Long Branch, N.J., native, he's a lifelong resident of the Jersey Shore. "The Barbed-Wire Kiss," which The Washington Post called "a scorching first novel ...full of attention to character and memory and, even more, to the neighborhoods of New Jersey," was a finalist for the 2004 Barry Award for Best First Novel. A graduate of Rutgers University, Stroby was an editor at the Star-Ledger of Newark, Tony Soprano's hometown newspaper, for 13 years.
Leann Sweeney is the author of five Yellow Rose Mysteries featuring adoption PI Abby Rose. She also writes a new series, the "Cats in Trouble Mysteries" with amateur sleuth Jillian Hart solving the cat problems in Mercy, South Carolina, problems that always seem to involve murder. The third, The Cat, The Lady and The Liar, will be out just in time for the Festival. Leann lives in Texas with her three inspiring cats, the ADHD labradoodle Rosie and her husband Mike.
Marcia Talley returns to Pittsburgh to sign copies of her ninth Hannah Ives mystery All Things Undying, just out in trade paper. Marcia's short stories appear in more than a dozen collections, including "Can You Hear Me Now?" from Two of the Deadliest: New Tales of Lust, Greed and Murder by Outstanding Women of Mystery edited by Elizabeth George. This Agatha and Anthony award-winning author divides her time between Annapolis, Maryland and living aboard an antique sailboat in the Bahamas.
Pittsburgh attorney turned novelist Heather Terrell joins us with a book that takes her a new direction. Fallen Angels is the first in a series of young adult novels about a girl who discovers that her dreams of flying are not dreams--she's a fallen angel. Heather, an attorney, lives with her husband and two children in Sewickley, Pennsylvania.
Elaine Viets continues her national bestselling series of dead-end jobs with Pumped for Murder. Elaine, who really does work all these jobs, also has a second series featuring mystery shopper Josie Marcus. Latest is An Uplifting Murder . Elaine lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Wendy Lyn Watson writes deliciously funny cozy mysteries with a dollop of romance. Her Mysteries a la Mode, I Scream, You Scream and Scoop to Kill feature amateur sleuth Tallulah Jones, who solves murders in between scooping sundaes. While she does not commit--or solve--murders in real life, Wendy can kill a pint of ice cream in nothing flat. She’s also passionately devoted to 80s music, Asian horror films, and reality TV.
Heather Webber is the author of the Nina Quinn cozy mystery series and a
brand new romantic mystery series featuring psychic Lucy Valentine. Lucy’s
first adventure, Truly, Madly, debuted in last yearfrom St. Martin’s
Press, and the third, Absolutely, Positively was just be released.
Tina Whittle is a mystery writer living and working in Southeast Georgia. The Dangerous Edge of Things, her first novel, debuted February 1st from Poisoned Pen Press. Set in contemporary Atlanta, The Dangerous Edge of Things is the first book in a series featuring gun-shop owner Tai Randolph and corporate security agent Trey Seaver. When not writing or reading, Tina enjoys golf, sushi, and spending time with her family (one husband, one daughter, one neurotic Maltese and three chickens).
Award-winning author Lois Winston writes the Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mysteries featuring magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack. Assault With a Deadly Glue Gun, the first book in the series, debuted in January and received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and Booklist. Kirkus Reviews dubbed it “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” Lois is also published in women’s fiction, romantic suspense, and non-fiction as well as being an award-winning crafts and needlework designer.
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