Hank Phillippi Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of twelve thrillers, winning five Agathas, three Anthonys, and the Mary Higgins Clark Award. She’s also an on-air TV investigative reporter in Boston, where she’s won thirty-seven Emmy Awards for groundbreaking journalism. Her 2019 novel, The Murder List, was an Agatha, Anthony, and Mary Higgins Clark Award nominee. Of her 2020 psychological standalone The First to Lie, the Publishers Weekly starred review said: “Stellar. Ryan could win a sixth Agatha with this one.” Hank is a former board member of MWA and a past president of national Sisters in Crime.
Charles Salzberg, a former magazine journalist and nonfiction book writer is the author of the Shamus Award–nominated Swann’s Last Song and Second Story Man, which is also the winner of the Beverly Hills Book Award. His novel Devil in the Hole was named one of the best crime novels of 2013 by Suspense magazine. He is a founding member of New York Writers Workshop and he serves on the MWA-NY Board.
Emmy and Edgar Award–nominated Thomas B. Sawyer was head writer, showrunner, and producer of the classic series Murder, She Wrote, for which he wrote twenty-four episodes. He wrote, directed, and produced the cult film-comedy Alice Goodbody; was the colibrettist and lyricist of JACK, an opera about JFK; and authored Fiction Writing Demystified. His latest thriller is A Major Production!, his memoir is The Adventures of the REAL Tom Sawyer, and its companion book is 9 Badass Secrets for Putting Yourself in Luck’s Way. www.ThomasBSawyer.com
Alex Segura is a writer of novels, comics, and podcasts, including Star Wars Poe Dameron: Free Fall, the Anthony Award–nominated Pete Fernandez Mystery series, The Black Ghost, The Archies, Lethal Lit, and more. He is a Miami native and lives in New York with his family.
Elizabeth Sims is the author of the Rita Farmer Mysteries, the Lambda and GCLS Goldie Award–winning Lillian Byrd Crime Series, and other fiction, including the standalone novel Crimes in a Second Language, which won the Florida Book Awards silver medal. An internationally recognized authority on writing, Elizabeth has written dozens of feature articles for Writer’s Digest magazine, where she’s a contributing editor. Her instructional title, You’ve Got a Book in You: A Stress-Free Guide to Writing the Book of Your Dreams (Writer’s Digest Books) has helped thousands of aspiring authors find their wings.
Daniel Stashower, a three-time Edgar Award winner, has been a member of MWA for more than thirty years. His true crime books include The Beautiful Cigar Girl: Mary Rogers, Edgar Allan Poe, and the Invention of Murder, and The Hour of Peril: The Secret Plot to Murder Lincoln Before the Civil War.
For the record, my name is Marilyn Stasio, and I am the crime and mystery reviewer for the Sunday New York Times Book Review.
Daniel Steven is an attorney practicing publishing and media law. He has published prize-winning short fiction, two suspense novels, Final Remedy and Clinical Trials, a legal reference book, coauthored The Street Smart Writer, and articles in writer’s publications, including The Writer and Writer’s Digest. He has worked as an editor, counsel, and executive at a major publishing house; is a frequent speaker to writer’s groups; teaches creative writing; and is chairman of the Contracts and Grievances Committee of the Mystery Writers of America, Inc.
C. M. Surrisi was nominated for a 2019 Agatha for her cozy middle-grade mystery A Side of Sabotage, the third book in her series, The Quinnie Boyd Mysteries. She is the author of short stories: “Actresses are Like That,” published in Malice Domestic’s Anthology Mystery Most Theatrical” (2020); “The Bequest,” published in TC Sisters In Crime’s Anthology Minnesota Not So Nice (2020); and “Know Nothing,” published in the Guppy Anthology The Fish That Got Away (2021). She is the president of Minnesota Sisters In Crime.
Art Taylor is the author of The Boy Detective & The Summer of ’74 and Other Tales of Suspense and On the Road with Del & Louise: A Novel in Stories. His story “English 398: Fiction Workshop,” originally published in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine, won the 2019 Edgar Award for Best Short Story. His short fiction has also won the Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Macavity Awards. He is an associate professor of English at George Mason University. www.arttaylorwriter.com
Caroline & Charles Todd are a mother and son writing team who live on the east coast of the United States. They are the New York Times best-selling authors of the Inspector Ian Rutledge series and the Bess Crawford series. They have published more than thirty titles, including two stand-alone novels, an anthology of short stories, and more than twenty short stories appearing in mystery magazines and anthologies worldwide. Their works have received the Mary Higgins Clark, Agatha, and Barry Awards along with nominations for the Anthony, Edgar, and Dagger Awards.
Susan Vaught (www.susanvaught.com) is the two-time Edgar Award–winning author of Footer Davis Probably Is Crazy and Me and Sam-Sam Handle the Apocalypse Things Too Huge to Fix by Saying Sorry received three starred reviews and an Edgar Award nomination, and Super Max and the Mystery of Thornwood’s Revenge was called “an excellent addition to middle grade shelves” by School Library Journal. Her debut picture book, Together We Grow, received four starred reviews and was called a “picture book worth owning and cherishing” by Kirkus Reviews. She works as a neuropsychologist at a state psychiatric facility and lives on a farm with her wife and son in rural western Kentucky.
Elaine Viets returned to her hard-boiled roots with Brain Storm, the debut novel in her Angela Richman, Death Investigator series. Charlaine Harris calls Brain Storm “a complex novel of crime, punishment, and medical malfeasance.” Brain Storm was followed by Fire and Ashes, Ice Blonde, and A Star Is Dead. She’s written thirty-three bestselling mysteries in four series: hard-boiled Francesca Vierling, traditional Dead-End Job, cozy Josie Marcus Mystery Shopper, and Angela Richman, Death Investigator. Elaine’s A Deal with the Devil and 13 Short Stories was published by Crippen & Landru. She’s been toastmaster and guest of honor at Malice Domestic Mystery Conference. Elaine passed the Medicolegal Death Investigator Training Course for forensic professionals. She’s won the Agatha, Anthony, and Lefty Awards. www.elaineviets.com
Bev Vincent has been a contributing editor with Cemetery Dance magazine for twenty years. He is the author of the Edgar-nominated Stephen King Illustrated Companion and other nonfiction books. In 2018, he coedited the anthology Flight or Fright with Stephen King, available in more than a dozen languages. He has also published nearly a hundred short stories, including appearances in two MWA anthologies, as well as EQMM and AHMM. He lives in Texas with his wife, and can be found online at bevvincent.com.
Pat Gallant Weich is a Manhattan-based writer. She is a widow and mother of a son. Her work can be found in anthologies, magazines, and newspapers. Ms. Gallant Weich has just completed a book of literary nonfiction shorts called Holding On to Right-Side Up, which made the Finals in the 2019 William Faulkner/William Wisdom Literary Competition. Ms. Gallant Weich is currently working on a “how dunnit” mystery novel Revenge Is Sweet. She has her own company, Edit Write Away.
Kate White is the New York Times bestselling author of seven standalone psychological thrillers, including The Fiancée and Have You Seen Me?, and eight Bailey Weggins mysteries, including Such a Perfect Wife. The former editor in chief of Cosmopolitan magazine, she is also the editor of The Mystery Writers of America Cookbook.
Jacqueline Winspear is the author of the New York Times bestsellers The American Agent, To Die But Once, and In This Grave Hour, as well as twelve other bestselling Maisie Dobbs novels. Her standalone novel, The Care and Management of Lies, was a New York Times bestseller and a finalist for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. In addition, Jacqueline is the author of two works of nonfiction: a memoir, This Time Next Year We’ll All be Laughing, and What Would Maisie Do?, a companion to the series. Jacqueline’s next novel, The Consequences of Fear, will be published in March 2021.
James W. Ziskin, Jim to his friends, is the author of the Anthony and Macavity Award–winning Ellie Stone mysteries. His books have also been finalists for the Edgar, Barry,
and Lefty Awards. Jim worked in New York as a photo-news producer and writer, and then as director of NYU’s Casa Italiana. He spent fifteen years in the Hollywood postproduction industry, running large international subtitling and visual effects operations. His international experience includes two years working and studying in France, extensive time in Italy, and more than three years in India. He speaks Italian and French.
Contributor Permissions
Extract from “Maintaining Suspense in Your Mystery: The Poker Game” Copyright © 2017 by Beth Amos, Used by permission.
“Diversity in Crime Fiction” Copyright © by Frankie Y. Bailey. Used by permission.
“When I Write a Book” Copyright © by Linwood Barclay. Used by permission
“Whenever I run into a nagging problem” Copyright from The 101 Habits of Successful Novelists used by permission of Stephanie Kay Bendel and Andrew McAleer.
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“Less-experienced writers” reprinted from Writers on Writing, in 2016, by Crystal Lake Publishing. Used by permission of Hal Bodner.
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“Often our best characters” Copyright © by Carole Buggé. Used by permission
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Introduction and “Never Outline!” by Lee Child. Used by permission.
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“A great plot” Copyright © by Tim Maleeny. Used by permission.
“Humor in Crime Fiction” Copyright © by Catriona McPherson. Used by permission.
“Before you start writing a mystery” Copyright © by Kris Neri. Used by permission.
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“The Be-Bop Barbarians” Script Copyright © by Gary Phillips and Artwork Copyright © by Dale W. Berry.
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“You stare at your blank page” Copyright @ by Hank Phillippi Ryan. Used by permission.
“It’s something you hear over and over” Copyright © by Charles Salzberg. Used by permission.
“Writing For MURDER, SHE WROTE or Creating 264+ Murders Using Three Motives—and No Blood, Violence, Crazy People or Forensics” Copyright © by Tom Sawyer Productions, Inc. Used by permission.
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“Writing in Partnership” Copyright © by Charles Todd. Used by permission.
“Mysteries for Children: An Introduction” Copyright © by Susan Vaught. Used by permission.
“My grandfather was a security guard” Copyright © by Elaine Viets. Used by permission.
“Social Media” Copyright © 2013 by Bev Vincent. Used by permission.
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“So Long Lives This” Copyright ©1997 by Pat Gallant Weich, ©1999 ©2005. Used by permission of the author.
“An agent friend of mine” Copyright © by Kate White. Used by permission.
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Index
A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.
Abbott, Megan, 7, 41, 44, 45
accents, 206, 208–9
action, 17–18, 115, 116–17, 162, 167, 172, 190, 215
“Adventure of Charles Augustus Milverton, The” (Doyle), 137
adverbs, 162, 209–
10
Agatha Awards, 84
agents, 37, 49, 51, 60, 94, 212, 236, 239, 240, 241, 267, 271, 286
Aladdin (film), 139
Aldrich, Robert, 43
Alexander, Tasha, 31
All About Eve (film), 205
Allyn, Doug, 114
Alphabet Mystery (Wood), 80
“Amapola” (Urrea), 118
amateur sleuths, 23–32
Amazon, 264, 275 ads on, 262, 264
reviews on, 252–53
Ambler, Eric, 8
Ames, Aldrich “Rick,” 69
Amos, Beth, 22, 291
anachronism, 137
analytics code, 270
ancient conspiracy thrillers, 9
Andrews, Donna, 30
Andromeda Strain, The (Crichton), 59, 60
And Then There Were None (Christie), 176
Angleton, James Jesus, 68
antagonists, 13–14, 20, 153, 161, 165, 167, 187, 192–97, 199–200 see also villains
Anthony Awards, 84
antiheroes, 186, 188
Apple Books, 264
Armstrong, Kelley, 82, 92–100, 291
Artemis (Weir), 10
artists, artwork, 80, 104, 105–6, 107–12
Associated Press, 251
Atkins, Ace, 238, 243
atmosphere, 217
attributes, 185, 188, 216
audiobooks, 163, 240, 261, 264, 271
Ault, Saudi, 31
Austen, Jane, 52, 57
authorial voice, 133–41, 152, 153–54, 155, 162, 234, 235, 281
authors: building online identity and community of, 267–74, 275, 276–83, 284
lack of diversity in, 95
How to Write a Mystery Page 30
