VABook!- Participants

Mystery Programs

Ace Atkins had published two critically acclaimed novels by the age of thirty, Crossroad Blues and Leavin Trunk Blues. A one-time Pulitzer Prize nominee, he now teaches Advanced Reporting at the University of Mississippi and continues to explore the South. 3/27 2 p.m., 4 p.m.

David Baldacci's latest mystery is Split Second. He is the author of six other thrillers, a coming of age novel—Wish You Well--selected by All America Reads to be read nationally by high school students--and The Christmas Train. His work has been translated into 37 languages and are sold in more than 100 countries. 3/27 12 p.m.

John Billheimer is the author of Drybone Hollow and three other Owen Allison mysteries. He lives in Portola Valley, California. 3/27 4 p.m.

Cara Black, Author of Murder in the Bastille. She's a San Francisco Library laureate. Murder in the Marais, her first novel, was a BookSense Pick and nominated for an Anthony Award for Best First Novel. She lives in San Francisco. 3/27 2 p.m.

Lawrence Block, author of The Burglar on the Prowl and a Mystery Writers Guild of America Grand Master, has been honored with Life Achievement awards in the U.S., France and the U.K. 3/27 2 p.m., 4 p.m., 8 p.m.

Dennis Burges, author of Graves Gate, comes to writing from a varied background: homebuilder, guitar builder, and teacher. He teaches English at Virginia's Longwood University. 3/26 12 p.m.; 3/27 2 p.m.

Max Allan Collins, author of the graphic novel Road to Perdition, is a two-time winner of the PWA "Shamus" Best Novel award. He received the 2002 Herodotus "Lifetime Achievement" Award from the Historical Mystery Appreciation Society. 3/27 10 a.m., 4 p.m., 8 p.m.

Barbara Collins's forthcoming collaboration with Max Allan Collins, Bombshell, imagines Marilyn Monroe and Nikita Khruschev meeting in an historical espionage tale. Her work has appeared in such top anthologies as Murder Most Delicious, Women on the Edge, Murder for Mother, and Murder for Father. 3/27 4 p.m.

Keith D. Cummings is the author of Opening Bell, a thriller. He attended UVa and has worked in information technology for the NASA, Union Bank of Switzerland, Deutsche Bank and Goldman Sachs & Company. 3/27 10 a.m.

Ed Dee, author of The Con Man's Daughter, is a retired NYPD lieutenant. His first novel, 14 Peck Slip, was a New York Times Notable Book of the Year in 1994. 3/27 2 p.m.

Joe Fontana, author of Crescent Eagle, is a writer, teacher and lawyer living in Chevy Chase, Maryland. His first novel was titled The Pentum Mission, and his third novel, Southeast Sun Rising, is forthcoming. 3/27 10 a.m.

Mary Alice Gunter, author of Murder in the Poe Room, is an associate professor emerita of the Curry School, UVA. A second Ellen and Fannie mystery, set on the Charlottesville Downtown Mall, is in progress. 3/24 2 p.m.; 3/27 10 a.m.

Robin Hathaway, author of Scarecrow, lives in New York. Her first novel, The Doctor Digs a Grave, won the SMP/Malice Domestic Award for Best First Traditional Mystery and an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. 3/27 4 p.m.

Willetta L. Heising is the award-winning author of Detecting Women and Detecting Men. Her Guide to Police Detective Series will be available next month, followed by a fourth edition of Detecting Women in November. 3/27 10 a.m., 2 p.m.

Libby Fischer Hellmann is the author of three Ellie Foreman novels, most recently An Image of Death. She coaches individuals in presentation skills, writes and produces videos in Chicago, where she lives. 3/27 10 a.m.

Richard Helms, author of Juicy Watusi and The Pat Gallegher Mystery Series, is a North Carolina native. Juicy Watusi was nominated for the Private Eye Writers of America 2003 Shamus Award. 3/27 2 p.m.

Joan Hess is the author of Muletrain to Maggody, plus twenty-eight mysteries, including fourteen in the Maggody series. A former president of the American Crime Writers League and current president of the Arkansas Mystery Writers Alliance, she lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas. 3/27 10 a.m., 8 p.m.

Rupert Holmes's first novel is Where the Truth Lies. He received several Tony Awards for his musical, The Mystery of Edwin Drood, and two Edgars for his Broadway thrillers.. He created and wrote the Emmy Award-winning series "Remember WENN," and the play Say Goodnight Gracie. 3/27 10 a.m., 2 p.m.

James W. Huston, author of Secret Justice and five other bestselling novels, is a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. He practices law in San Diego. Prior to law school he was a Naval Flight Officer in F-14s and graduated from Top Gun. 3/27 10 a.m.

William Kent Krueger is the author of the Cor O'Conner series, most recently, Blood Hollow. His work has received the Anthony Award, the Minnesota Book Award, and the Loft McKnight Fiction Award. He lives in Minnesota. 3/27 2 p.m.

Cornelius Lehane's Beware the Solitary Drinker was a 2002 January Magazine Notable Crime Novel, Publisher's Weekly Best Mystery Novel, and ForeWord Magazine Book of the Year Silver Award winner. His second novel, What Goes Around Comes Around, is forthcoming. 3/27 4 p.m.

Warren Murphy is the Shamus- and Edgar-winning author of Grandmaster Ceiling of Hell, and the Trace and the Destroyer series. He wrote the screenplays for Lethal Weapon II and The Eiger Sanction. Encyclopedia Mysteriosa calls him "teacher and mentor to a whole generation of thriller writers." 3/27 4 p.m.

Tim Myers, is the author of At Wick's End, the first in Berkley Prime Cime's new candleshop mystery series. He was also an Agatha-Award-nominee and IMBA Bestseller Innkeeping with Murder, Reservations for Murder, IMBA Bestsellar Murder Checks Inn and Room for Murder, 3/27 10 a.m.

T. Jefferson Parker, author of Cold Pursuit, has written eleven novels including the Edgar-winning Silent Joe, recently optioned by Focus Features. His new book, California Girl, a sweeping crime novel set in Southern California, will be published this fall. 3/27 10 a.m., 4 p.m., 8 p.m.

Rebecca Pawel, has written Law of Return and Death of a Nationalist, set during the Spanish Civil War. A third CarlosTejada mystery, The Watcher in the Pine, is forthcoming. She lives and works in New York City. 3/27 2 p.m.

Marthayn Pelegrimas, a.k.a. Christine Mathews, is the author of the historical novel On the Strength of Wings, and has written over 40 short stories in the dark fantasy, mystery and western genres, appearing in such anthologies as Borderlands 3, Hot Blood 9 &10, and Guns of the West. 3/26 8 p.m.; 3/27 4 p.m.

Qiu Xiaolong is the author of the Inspector Chen Cao novels, Death of a Red Heroine and A Loyal Character Dancer set in 1990s Shanghai. Born in Shanghai, he currently teaches at Washington University in St. Louis. 3/27 2 p.m.

Robert J. Randisi has been published, under 15 names, in the western, mystery, horror, science fiction and men's adventure genres. All told, he is the author of over 400 novels, 40 short stoires and the editor of 25 anthologies. 3/26 8 p.m.; 3/27 2 p.m. 4 p.m.

S. J. Rozan, author of Winter and Night, has written seven previous novels featuring Bill Smith and Lydia Chin. She has won the Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony awards and lives in Manhattan, where she works part time as an architect. Her book Absent Friends is forthcoming. 3/27 2 p.m., 8 p.m.

Andy Straka is the author of Cold Quarry. He received Agatha, Shamus, and Anthony award nominations for best first novel for his private eye debut novel, A Witness Above. 3/24 4 p.m.; 3/ 27 10 a.m., 4 p.m.

Marcia Talley is the Anthony and Agatha award-winning author of Sing It to Her Bones, Unbreathed Memories, Occasion of Revenge and In Death's Shadow. She is editor/author of Naked Came the Phoenix and I'd Kill for That as well as numerous short stories. 3/27 10 a.m.

Beverly Van Hook's tenth book, Juliet's Ghost, a Liza and Dutch Mystery, is about a perfect woman's bizarre death and secret life. Van Hook, the author of the SuperGranny children's series, was an award-winning journalist before turning to fiction. 3/27 10 a.m.

top of page