About the Authors
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875) was born in Odense, Denmark, the son of a poor shoemaker and a washerwoman. As a young teenager, he became quite well known in Odense as a reciter of drama and as a singer. When he was fourteen, he set off for the capital, Copenhagen, determined to become a national success on the stage. He failed miserably, but made some influential friends in the capital who got him into school to remedy his lack of proper education. In 1829 his first book was published. After that, books came out at regular intervals. His stories began to be translated into English as early as 1846. Since then, numerous editions, and more recently Hollywood songs and Disney cartoons, have helped to ensure the continuing popularity of the stories in the English-speaking world.
Lorenzo Carcaterra is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Sleepers, A Safe Place, Apaches, Gangster, Street Boys, Paradise City, Chasers, and Midnight Angels. He is a former writer/producer for Law & Order and has written for National Geographic Traveler, the New York Times Magazine, Details, and Maxim. He lives in New York City and is at work on his next novel.
Michael Connelly, author of suspense thriller and detective mysteries, was named a Grand Master by the Mystery Writers of America in 2023. He has written several #1 New York Times bestsellers and numerous titles that made the New York Times and USA Today bestseller lists. He has won most every award given in the mystery and thriller genres, including the Anthony Award for Best Novel and the Barry Award for Best Novel. He is a former newspaper reporter who also won numerous awards for his journalism.
John Connolly is a New York Times bestselling author known for his detective Charlie Parker mysteries and supernatural and fantasy novels. His twenty-five novels, nonfiction, and short stories have won the Agatha, Barry, Edgar, Shamus, and Anthony Awards, as well as being finalists for the Hughes & Hughes Irish Novel of the Year, H. R. F. Keating Award, and Bram Stoker Award.
Thomas H. Cook was born in Fort Payne, Alabama, in 1947. He has
been nominated for the Edgar Award seven times in five different categories. He
received the best novel Edgar for The
Chatham School Affair, the Martin Beck Award, the Herodotus Prize for best
historical short story, and the Barry Award for best novel for Red Leaves, and has been nominated for numerous other awards.
Jeffery Deaver is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty novels, three collections of short stories, and a nonfiction law book. His books are sold in 150 countries and translated into twenty-five languages. His novels have won the Nero Wolfe Award, three Ellery Queen Readers’ Awards, a British Thumping Good Read Award, and the Ian Fleming Steel Dagger and Short Story Dagger awards from the British Crime Writers’ Association. A former journalist, folksinger, and attorney, he was born outside of Chicago and has a bachelor of journalism degree from the University of Missouri and a law degree from Fordham University.
Nelson Richard DeMille, a #1 New York Times bestselling author, was born in New York City. He was a first lieutenant in the United States Army (1966–69) and saw action as an infantry platoon leader with the First Cavalry Division in Vietnam. His first major novel, By the Rivers of Babylon, is still in print, as are all his succeeding novels. He attended Hofstra University, where he received a degree in political science and history. He is the author of By the Rivers of Babylon, Cathedral, The Talbot Odyssey, Word of Honor, The Charm School, The Gold Coast, The General’s Daughter, Spencerville, Plum Island, The Lion’s Game, Up Country, The Gate House, Night Fall, Wild Fire, and The Lion. He also coauthored Mayday with Thomas Block and has contributed short stories, book reviews, and articles to magazines and newspapers. A member of the Authors Guild, the Mystery Writers of America, and American Mensa, he holds honorary doctorates from Hofstra University, Long Island University, and Dowling College.
J. A. Jance is the New York Times bestselling author of the Ali Reynolds series, the J. P. Beaumont series, the Joanna Brady series, and a number of novels featuring the Walker family. Before becoming an author, she worked as a librarian and teacher on a Native American reservation.
Andrew Klavan is the author of internationally bestselling crime novels, including True Crime and Don’t Say a Word, both made into major films. He has twice won the Mystery Writers of America’s Edgar Award. He also writes screenplays and creates political satire videos have been viewed by tens of millions of people, and he hosts a popular podcast “The Andrew Klavan Show" at the Daily Wire.
Elmore Leonard (1925–2013) wrote more than fifty books during his highly successful career, including the bestsellers Djibouti, Road Dogs, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories, When the Women Come Out to Dance. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Quentin Tarantino’s Jackie Brown. He was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA and the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America.
Ed McBain is the most well known pseudonym of Evan Hunter (1926–2005), the author of over eighty novels and several famous screenplays. He is a recipient of the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award and the Diamond Dagger Award from the British Crime Writers Association. His books have sold more than one hundred million copies, ranging from the more than fifty titles in the 87th Precinct series to the bestselling novels written under his own name. McBain also wrote the screenplay for Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds.
Jay McInerney is the author of seven novels and two collections of essays on wine. He is a regular contributor to New York magazine, Guardian Weekly (London), and Corriere della Sera.
Walter Mosley is the New York Times author of more than fifty novels in several series, most notably fourteen Easy Rawlins mysteries, several of which have been made into major motion pictures. In 2020 he was a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and from the National Book Foundation. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, including an Edgar Award, O. Henry Award, the Mystery Writers of America’s Grand Master Award, PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award, a Grammy Award, and and several NAACP Image Awards. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages.
Joyce Carol Oates, an award-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, short stories, plays, and novellas, is the author of some of the most enduring fiction of our time, including two New York Times bestsellers. Her books have won the National Book Award, O. Henry Award, the Jerusalem Prize, and the National Humanities Medal, among others. Her work has been nominated for the Pulitzer Prize several times. She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters since 1978.
Otto Penzler is the proprietor of the Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. He was publisher of The Armchair Detective, the founder of the Mysterious Press and the Armchair Detective Library, and created the publishing firm Otto Penzler Books. He is a two-time Edgar Award–winner and the recipient of the Ellery Queen Award. A New York Times bestselling editor of numerous anthologies, his work includes Murder for Love, Murder for Revenge, Murder and Obsession, The 50 Greatest Mysteries of All Time, and The Best American Mystery Stories of the Century. He lives in New York City.
Anne Perry (1938-2023) was an English author of historical detective fiction, mysteries, young-adult fantasy, and young-adult fiction, and holiday novels, with several making the New York Times bestsellers list. Her novels were set in Victorian England, the Ottoman empire, and in Europe during WWI and WWI.
Ian Rankin, a New York Times bestselling author, is the recipient of an Edgar Award, a Gold Dagger for fiction, and a Chandler-Fulbright Fellowship.
S. J. Rozan is the author of the popular Lydia Chin and Bill Smith mystery series, as well as several stand-alone novels and novellas. She has won multiple awards for her fiction, including the Edgar, Shamus, Anthony, Nero, and Macavity awards, the Japanese Maltese Falcon, and the Private Eye Writers of America Lifetime Achievement Award.