13th Annual
Monday, April 28, 2008
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 April 28th; we once again had to move a week earlier to accommodate the Malice Domestic schedule.
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.
If you are an author who would like to attend, please Contact Us.
Tickets to the Festival are available in advance for $7, at the door for $8. Tickets purchased in advance will also get you admission to our Little Night of Romance (Mystery & Suspense, too) on Thursday, April 17.
You can purchase tickets online. For multiple ticket purchases you can adjust the quantity in the shopping cart before you check out.
One Great Ticket, Two Great Events
Buy a ticket for the Festival of Mystery and you'll also get admission to our Little Night of Romance (Mystery & Suspense, too) on Thursday, April 17. Over 20 authors in town for the Romantic Times Convention will join us at the St. Irenaeus Church Hall, around the corner from the store, for an evening of interviews.
 Festival and Little Night of Romance Ticket, $7
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 eigth, The Penguin Who Knew Too Much--nominated for an Agatha Award for Best Novel. Donna is also the author of another Agatha-nominated series featuring artificial intelligence personality Zack Turing. Most recent in that series is Delete All Suspects.
Deb Baker is author of the Dolls To Die For series and the "Yooper" mysteries, which are humorous romps through the Michigan Upper Peninsula's backwoods. The third in each series, Dolly Departed and Murder Talks Turkey, are hot off the press.
A retired Near Eastern archaeologist, Aileen G. Baron is the author of A Fly Has a Hundred Eyes, and The Torch of Tangier, both now available in paperback, and set in the Middle East during WW II, featuring archeologist Lily Sampson,. Her latest book, The Gold of Thrace, published by Poisoned Pen Press, is a contemporary stand-alone about the intrigue and deceit in the antiquities trade.
Lorna Barrett is the pen name of author Lorraine Bartlett. She honed her characterization and plotting skills as a frequent writer for romance magazines. Her manuscript, Murder in Morton Mills, a traditional mystery, was a finalist in the St. Martin's/Malice Domestic contest. Murder Is Binding is the first in the Booktown Mystery series and it introduces small-town mystery bookstore owner Tricia Miles.The sequel, Bookmarked For Murder, will be published in early 2009.
A
former high school social studies teacher, Charles Benoit has spent the
past several years living and working overseas. He currently lives in
exotic Rochester, New York and works as a copywriter and storyboard
artist, creating advertisements that drive consumers into a buying frenzy.
His first novel, Relative Danger, is now in paperback and features the around-the-world adventures of an unemployed
Pottsville, PA brewery worker. His new novel, set in Thailand, has a man helping a woman find her brother who went missing during the tsunami.
The British born Rhys Bowen now lives in California where she has written seven wildly successful mysteries featuring the feisty Irish immigrant Molly Murphy, the latest being Tell Me Pretty Maiden. 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. 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. Four more books followed, most recently Grave Apparel.
Jane K. Cleland comes to the Festival with the third in her series with New Hampshire antiques appraiser Josie Prescott, Antiques to Die For. Her Agatha-nominated debut Consigned to Death, an Antiques Roadshow for mystery fans, was the first in this traditional mystery series. Set on the rugged New Hampshire coast, Josie uses her knowledge of antiques to solve the crimes. Formerly the owner of a rare book and antiques store, Jane now lives in New York City with her husband.
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; her Orchard Mystery Series will open with One Bad Apple in August.
C.R. Corwin writes the Morgue Mama Mysteries for Poisoned Pen Press. The series features cranky, crafty newspaper librarian Dolly Madison Sprowls. Her co-workers at the Hannawa Herald-Union call her Morgue Mama -- but only behind her back. The third in the series, The Unraveling of Violetta Bell will be here in time for the Festival. Corwin, a former newspaper man himself, lives in Akron, Ohio.
Ellen Crosby launched her mystery writing career after work as a journalist with the Washington Post. She's taken her knowledge of the Virginia wine-making business and put it to excellent use in her series debut, The Merlot Murders, now in paper. At the Festival you can pick up second in the series, The Chardonnay Charade.
Barbara D'Amato has won the Carl Sandburg Award for Fiction, the first Mary Higgins Clark Award, the Agatha twice, the Anthony twice, the Macavity, and several Lovies. She is a past president of Mystery Writers of America and of Sisters in Crime International. Barbara lives in Chicago.
Shirley Damsgaard will arrive at the Festival with the fifth in her Ophelia Jensen series, The Witch is Dead.Her Agatha Nominated debut Witch Way to Murder kicked off this series with a paranormal twist that pairs librarian Ophelia with her Aunt Abby with entertaining results.
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 third in the series, Tombs of Endearment, came out last year.
As Miranda Bliss, she is the author of three books that feature best friends Annie and Eve who give cooking classes. Most recent is Dead Men Don't Get the Munchies.
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.
Bill Davis has lived in Southwestern Pennsylvania nearly all his life. After a thirty year career at Allegheny Ludlum he has finally been able to pursue his life-long interest in writing, publishing his debut novel The Forever Man. Set in a small town in southwest Pennsylvania it features Sheriff Clive Aliston who finds himelf tracking a serial killer. The second Clive Aliston novel, Tail of the Scorpion, will be available at the Festival..
'Vicki Delany has been called “one of Canada's most promising new practitioners of the crime genre.” (Dick Adler, Chicago Tribune). In the Shadow of the Glacier is the first 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, Burden of Memory. She has taken early retirement from her job as a systems analyst, and this is her second trip to the Festival.
Hallie Ephron is a writer, teacher, and award-winning book reviewer. Her newest book is 1001 BOOKS FOR EVERY MOOD, the book lovers guide to the outstanding funny, sad, thrilling, inspiring, mindbending...books of our time. She is the crime fiction book reviewer for the Boston Globe. Her WRITING AND SELLING YOUR MYSTERY NOVEL: HOW TO KNOCK 'EM DEAD WITH STYLE was nominated for Edgar and Anthony awards, and she co-authored five Dr.
Peter Zak mysteries by G. H. Ephron. Her psychological suspense novel, BABY, BABY, will be published in 2009 by HarperCollins.
Kate Flora hails from Maine but now lives in Concord where she shares local author billing with Thoreau and Emerson. At last year'sFestival Kate came with Finding Amy: A True Story of Murder in Maine which was subsequently nominated for an Edgar Award. This year she'll join us with a brand-new mystery, Playing God as well as the seventh in her Thea Kozak series, Stalking Death.
Pittsburgh author Kathleen George has authored three suspenseful and original mysteries, all with Pittsburgh settings: Fallen, Taken and, in December, Afterimage.. When not keeping readers breathless, she's a mainstay of the University of Pittsburgh Drama Department. Kathleen will have a new novel out in the fall, Afterimage.
Jack Getze covered financial and economic issues for the Los Angeles Times, the Los Angeles Herald-Examiner, the London Times, and many other publications before switching professions and becoming a stock and bond salesman for several regional securities firms on the New Jersey Shore. He is the author of the Austin Carr Mystery Series, debuting with Big Numbers. He'll be here with the sequel Big Money.
When it comes to community theatre, Susan Goodwill has done everything from sell popcorn to wield power tools. Susan joins the Festival with Little Shop of Murders, the second in a sexy, sassy series featuring amateur sleuth Kate London and a supporting cast of quirky community players. Born and raised in western Pennsylvania, Susan now lives in a 1927 cottage-style home on a small lake in Michigan.
Pittsburgh playwright and actor Kathryn Miller Haines is coming to the festival with her debut mystery, The War Against Miss Winter. The World War II set series featuring actress/amateur sleuth Rosie Winter will have a sequel out in July.
R.J. Harlick writes the Meg Harris Mystery series. In this unique series, she interweaves the seductive allure of the Quebec wilderness with the tensions between the people that share it, English Canadians, Quebecois and the Algonquin First Nation. The third in the series,The River Runs Orange, will be available just in time for the Festival.
Rosemary Harris, a former bookstore manager and video producer, brings her debut Pushing Up Daisies, the story of Paula Holliday, a transplanted city girl who moves to the suburbs to start a gardening business and live a quieter lifestyle. It's anything but when she finds a mummified body the first day of her first big job. Rosemary splits her time between NYC and Fairfield County, Connecticut.
Mary Ellen Hughes hails from Maryland where she has also set her Craft Corner series set in an arts and crafts shop, She even shares step-by-step directions for a project at the end. Talk about a crafty sleuth! Latest in the series is String of Lies. Mary Ellen has two previous mysteries featuring a vacationing math teacher.
Linda O. Johnston's first mystery short story won the Robert L. Fish Award. Linda has authored 15 novels, including romantic suspense for Harlequin Intrigue. In her Kendra Ballantyne, Pet-Sitter mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime, protagonist Kendra is a lawyer who lives in the Hollywood Hills with her Cavalier King Charles Spaniel Lexie. The sixth in the series is due in June. Linda is also a lawyer who lives in the Hollywood Hills with her Cavalier Lexie.
Multi-published Diana Killian is the author of the critically praised Poetic Death series featuring the adventures of an American teacher and her ex-jewel thief boyboyfriend in the English Lake District. In Spring 2008, CORPSE POSE, the first book in the new yoga-themed Mantra for Murder series will debut from Berkeley Prime Crime. Diana is the recipient of a Mystery Writers of America grant, and can be found blogging weekly on the notorious Good Girls Kill For Money Club, as well as the Cozy Chicks blog.
John J. Lamb is the author of the IMBA bestseller, The Mournful Teddy (a 2006 Dilys Award finalist), The False-Hearted Teddy, The Crafty Teddy and Echoes of the Lost Order. He is a retired Southern California cop, with eighteen years of experience as a homicide detective, CSI, and hostage negotiator. John now lives in the Shenandoah Valley with his wife Joyce, a retired fingerprint expert and crime analyst.
Con Lehane’s third bartender Brian McNulty mystery, Death at the Old Hotel, was published in 2007. "Con Lehane's mysteries about a genial Irish-American bartender named Brian McNulty are as cruelly charming as those Irish saloon storytellers who make sure you're laughing before they flatten you with the sad stories of their lives," writes Marilyn Stasio in the New York Times.
Lehane grew up on private estates in Fairfield County, Connecticut, where his father worked as a gardener and his mother a cook and laundress. Over the years he has worked as a college professor, a union organizer, and tended bar at two dozen separate establishments.
Mary Jane will be coming to the Festival with the second in her professional organizerCharlotte Adams series. She is also the author of five books in the popular Ottawa-based Camilla MacPhee series. The second of her Fiona Silk books was publsihed last year. Mary Jane has twice won the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis award for best crime short story. She is a lapsed librarian, a former co-owner of Prime Crime (Ottawa’s tiny perfect mystery bookstore), and a past president of Crime Writers of Canada. Although she is a member of the Ladies Killing Circle, in reality, she has ever bumped off anyone.
Pittsburgh writer Nancy Martin has a long and successful career of writing romance titles. six years ago she turned her hand to mystery with outstanding results in the first of the Blackbird Sisters series: How to Murder a Millionaire which introduced a group of Philadelphia blue bloods fallen on hard times. The seventh, Murder Melts in Your Mouth, has just been published in hardcover.
Beverle Graves Myers enjoys mixing murder, music and intrigue in her Baroque Mystery series from Poisoned Pen Press. Set in dazzling, decadent 18th-century Venice, her novels feature Tito Amato, an opera singer with a stellar talent for sleuthing. The Iron Tongue of Midnight is the latest title. Bev also writes short fiction set in a variety of times and places. Her stories have appeared in Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Futures, Woman’s World, and numerous anthologies. Bev has been nominated for the Derringer Award and the Kentucky Literary Award. A retired psychiatrist, Bev now writes full time from her home in Louisville, Kentucky.
A freelance writer for more than ten years, T. Lynn Ocean's work regularly appears in magazines nationwide. Her novels include Sweet Home Carolina, which Romantic Times calls "delightful and entertaining." Her newest novel, Southern Fatality is the first in a fun mystery series featuring the security specialist character of Jersey Barnes. Next comes Southern Poison, which will be released this fall.
Jason Pinter moved from editing books to writing them with his debut novel, The Mark, featuring reporter Henry Parker. A second in the series followed and the third, The Stolen, is due in August. He’s a founding member of Killer Year, an organization of 13 authors whose debut crime novels were published in 2007. Jason lives in New York City with his wife, Susan, and their dog, Wilson.
After a childhood spent abroad, Julia Pomeroy came to the US where, after stints at Georgetown and NYU after which she worked as an actress and freelance interpreter. Seven years ago she and her husband moved to Chatham, New York where they opened The Blue Plate restaurant. Her two mysteries, The Dark End of Town and Cold Moon Home, both feature waitress Abby Silvernale. Julia is at work on a third novel, a standalone.
Born and raised in Amarillo, Texas, Sara Rosett has always loved to curl up with a good book. Her life as a military spouse has taken her to central and southern California, Texas, Washington state, Alabama, Oklahoma, Georgia, and Maryland. She and her family have moved over ten times—giving her plenty of expertise to write the Mom Zone mysteries, which feature the adventures of new mom Ellie Avery, a professional organizer, military spouse, and occasional slueth. Getting Away is Deadly is the the thrid book in the series. Moving is Murder and Staying Home is a Killer are the first two books in the series.
Local writer Mary Jo Rulnick will take the mystery out of keeping your kitchen organized and your family well fed with her Frantic Woman’s Guide to Feeding Family and Friends, a practical book that blends menu planning with healthy recipes that are simple. Mary Jo's earlier book was The Frantic Woman's Guide to Life.
Sharon Short is the author of the humorous Stain-Busting Mystery Series featuring Josie Toadfern, stain expert and laundromat owner. Tie Dyed and Dead is the sixth and most recent novel in her series. Short also writes a humor column for the Dayton Daily News.
George D Shuman writes an exciting police procedural series with a twist, his character Sherry Moore is blind and a psychic. The debut, the Shamus-nominated 18 Seconds was followed by Last Breath A native of southwest Pennsylvania, Shuman served twenty years with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington DC He now lives in the Laurel Highlands of Pennsylvania and writes full time. Mr. Shuman has two children Daniel and Melissa.
Andy Straka returns to the Festival with a fascinating thriller, Record of Wrongs, in which a man is given the chance to solve the crime that DNA evidence exonerated him from. Andy is the Shamus-winning author of an earlier PI series set in Virginia, where he lives.
Pari Noskin Taichert is a two-time Agatha Award finalist whose mysteries celebrate New Mexico’s quirkiness through Sasha Solomon, a prickly, reality-challenged, PR consultant who helps small towns promote tourism. Taichert’s newest book, THE SOCORRO BLAST, maintains Sasha’s irreverent sense of humor while it tackles the difficult issue of contemporary intolerance. Taichert is also working on a new series. Ask her about it!
Marcia Talley--returns to Pittsburgh to sign copies of her latest Hannah Ives book: Through the Darkness. She is also the editor of two collaborative novels, most recently I’d Kill For That a fascinating project involving 13 writers. This award-winning author lives on the Chesapeake Bay .
Last year Pittsburgh attorney turned novelist Heather Terrell showed up at the Festival with postcards for her coming book, The Chrysalis. What a difference a year makes as Heather joins us with the paperback of the first book and a future book, The Map Thief, due in August. The Chrysalis is an engaging thriller about artworks looted by the Nazis. Moving back and forth in time she combines art and history into a compelling tale.
Elaine Viets continues working her series of dead-end jobs with the seventh: Clubbed to Death, where Helen finds work at a fancy country club. Elaine, who really does work all these jobs, has also begun a second series featuring mystery shopper Josie Marcus. Latest is Accessory to Murder. Elaine lives in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.
Sally Wright was nominated for an Edgar Allen Poe award for the third ex-commando/archivist Ben Reese mystery set in the 60s, Pursuit And Persuasion. The latest in the series is Watches Of The Night, in which a US technical team Ben took behind-the-lines in WWII to uncover Nazi scientific secrets leads to murder in 1962, making Ben track a traitor he should’ve stopped in 1945.
Elizabeth Zelvin is a New York City psychotherapist whose debut mystery, Death Will Get You Sober, takes readers from the Bowery to Park Avenue, from the corporate towers of Wall Street to the church basements of AA as recovering alcoholic Bruce investigates a murder and gets a second chance with two old friends. First in a series. Liz has directed an alcohol treatment program on the Bowery and now does online therapy via chat and email.
Mark Richard Zubro has published twenty books in two different series. The Tom and Scott series, the most recent of which is Everyone's Dead But Us. His other series features detective Paul Turner. The most recent book in that series is Hook Line and Homicide. His other interests include eating chocolate, napping, and reading. His book A Simple Suburban Murder won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Mystery.Mark Richard Zubro recently retired after thirty-four years of teaching in the same school district. He was president of his teachers' union for the past twenty years and lives in suburban Chicago.
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Rhys Bowen
C.R. Corwin
Jack Getze 
Susan Goodwill 
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