Greg Herren is the award-winning author of over thirty novels, fifty short stories, and has edited over twenty anthologies. He has won two Lambda Literary Awards (out of fourteen nominations), two Moonbeam medals for excellence in young adult fiction, and an Anthony Award. He has been shortlisted for the Shirley Jackson and Macavity awards. His short stories have been published everywhere from Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine to Mystery Weekly to New Orleans Noir.

Lawrence Block has been writing crime, mystery, and suspense fiction for more than half a century. He has published in excess (oh, wretched excess!) of 100 books, and no end of short stories. He is best known for his series characters, including cop-turned-private investigator Matthew Scudder, gentleman burglar Bernie Rhodenbarr, globe-trotting insomniac Evan Tanner, and introspective assassin Keller. He is a Grand Master of Mystery Writers of America, a past president of MWA, and the Private Eye Writers of America. He has won the Edgar and Shamus awards four times each, and the Japanese Maltese Falcon award twice, as well as the Nero Wolfe and Philip Marlowe awards, a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and the Diamond Dagger for Life Achievement from the Crime Writers Association (UK). He's also been honored with the Gumshoe Lifetime Achievement Award from Mystery Ink magazine and the Edward D. Hoch Memorial Golden Derringer for Lifetime Achievement in the short story. In France, he has been proclaimed a Grand Maitre du Roman Noir and has twice been awarded the Societe 813 trophy. He has been a guest of honor at Bouchercon and at book fairs and mystery festivals in France, Germany, Australia, Italy, New Zealand, Spain and Taiwan.

Reed Farrel Coleman's love of storytelling originated on the streets of Brooklyn and was nurtured by his teachers, friends, and family. A New York Times bestseller called "a hard-boiled poet" by NPR's Maureen Corrigan, and the "noir poet laureate" in the Huffington Post, Reed is the author of novels, including Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone series, the Gus Murphy serues, the acclaimed Moe Prager series, short stories, and poetry. Reed is a four-time Edgar Award nominee in three different categories--Best Novel, Best Paperback Original, Best Short Story--and a four-time recipient of the Shamus Award for Best PI Novel of the Year. He has also won the Audie, Macavity, Barry, and Anthony Awards. A former executive vice president of Mystery Writers of America, Reed is an adjunct instructor of English at Hofstra University and a founding member of MWA University. Brooklyn born and raised, he now lives with his family--including cats Cleo and Knish--in Suffolk County on Long Island.

Brendan DuBois is the award-winning author of twenty novels and more than 160 short stories. He's currently working on a series of novels with bestselling author James Patterson. His short fiction has appeared in Playboy, Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, and numerous anthologies including Best American Mystery Stories of the Century, published in 2000, as well as Best American Noir of the Century. His stories have thrice won him the Shamus Award from the Private Eye Writers of America, and have also earned him three MWA Edgar Allan Poe Award nominations. He is also a "Jeopardy!" game show champion.

Born and raised in Philadelphia, Susanna Calkins lives outside Chicago with her husband and two sons. Holding a Ph.D. in history, Susanna writes the Lucy Campion historical mysteries set in plague-ridden 17th century London (back when people used to write murder ballads as a form of news!). Her books have been nominated for several awards, including the Agatha, the Mary Higgins Clark award, and the Lefty. Her third novel was honored with the Sue Feder Historical Mystery (Macavity) Award. She is currently working on a new series for Minotaur, set in Prohibition-era Chicago.

John D. MacDonald was a prolific author of crime and suspense novels, many of them set in his adopted home of Florida. One of the most successful American novelists of his time, MacDonald sold an estimated 70 million books in his career. His best-known works include the popular and critically acclaimed Travis McGee series, and his novel The Executioners, which was filmed as Cape Fear (1962) and remade in 1991. During 1972, MacDonald was named a grandmaster of the Mystery Writers of America and he won a 1980 U.S. National Book Award.