Ed Lynskey is an American poet, critic, and novelist, mostly of crime fiction. He was born in 1956 in Washington, D.C. where he still lives and works. Lynskey received his B.A. (1979) and M.A. (1984) from George Mason University as well as did post-graduate study at The George Washington University. He writes five mystery series, including the P.I. Frank Johnson Mystery Series, the Isabel & Alma Trumbo Cozy Mystery Series, the Piper & Bill Robin Cozy Mystery Series, the Hope Jones (Nozy Cat) Cozy Mystery Series, the Ginny Dove Cozy Mystery Series, and the Juno Patchen Cozy Mystery Series.
His creative work has been reviewed in Publishers Weekly , Booklist , Library Journal , Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine , San Diego Union-Tribune , London Free Press , Halifax Chronicle-Herald , Lansing State Journal , The Virginian-Pilot , Tucson Citizen , and Nashville City Paper . Lynskey's work has been favorably compared to that of Loren D. Estleman, James Lee Burke, Daniel Woodrell, Bill Pronzini, and Robert Crais.
His essays have been reprinted by Gale Research and Gryphon Books. He has written reviews for The New York Times , The Washington Post , San Francisco Chronicle , Chicago Sun-Times , Kansas City Star , Atlanta Journal-Constitution , Roanoke Times , Des Moines Register , The Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), and Columbus Dispatch . He has also reviewed books for Paste . His speculative literature has appeared in Strange Horizons , Chizine , and Alfred Hitchcock Mystery Magazine .
His numerous poems have appeared in such venues as The Atlantic Monthly , American Poetry Review , and Chicago Review . He won the 1993 Denny C. Plattner Appalachian Heritage Award in Poetry from Berea College, Kentucky. His work has been anthologized by St. Martin’s Press, University of Virginia Press, Kent State University Press, and Story Line Press.
His poem "April Sashays in Lime Heels" received an Honorable Mention in The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror 2007: 20th Annual Collection, Ellen Datlow, editor. His stories were cited in Hardcore Hardboiled, Todd Robinson, Otto Penzler, editors, Kensington Publishing Group, 2008 and Sex, Thugs, Rock & Roll, Todd Robinson, editor, Kensington Publishing Group, 2009.
Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, often a murder. Most crime drama focuses on criminal investigation and does not feature the courtroom. Suspense and mystery are key elements that are nearly ubiquitous to the genre.
Anne Perry was a British writer and murderer. She was the author of the Thomas and Charlotte Pitt and William Monk series of historical detective fiction.
Noir fiction is a subgenre of crime fiction.
Loren D. Estleman is an American writer of detective and Western fiction. He is known for a series of crime novels featuring the investigator Amos Walker.
Peter Abrahams is an American author of crime fiction for both adults and children.
Sharyn McCrumb is an American writer best known for books that celebrate the history and folklore of Appalachia. McCrumb is the winner of numerous literary awards, and the author of the Elizabeth McPherson mystery series, the Ballad series, and the St. Dale series.
Charles K. Williams was an American author of crime fiction. He is regarded by some critics as one of the finest suspense novelists of the 1950s and 1960s. His 1951 debut, the paperback novel Hill Girl, sold more than a million copies. A dozen of his books have been adapted for movies, most popularly Dead Calm and The Hot Spot.
Sarah Smith is an American author living in Brookline, Massachusetts.
Friends, Lovers, Chocolate is the second of the Sunday Philosophy Club series of novels by Alexander McCall Smith, set in Edinburgh, Scotland, and featuring the protagonist Isabel Dalhousie. It was first published in 2005, and is the sequel to The Sunday Philosophy Club.
Mary Willis Walker was an American crime fiction author.
Donna Andrews is an American mystery fiction writer of two award-winning amateur sleuth series.
Cozy mysteries, are a sub-genre of crime fiction in which sex and violence occur offstage, the detective is an amateur sleuth, and the crime and detection take place in a small, socially intimate community. Cozies thus stand in contrast to hardboiled fiction, in which more violence and explicit sexuality are central to the plot. The term "cozy" was first coined in the late 20th century when various writers produced work in an attempt to re-create the Golden Age of Detective Fiction.
Katy Munger, who has also written under the names Gallagher Gray and Chaz McGee, is an American mystery author known for writing the Casey Jones,Hubbert & Lil, and Dead Detective series. She is a former reviewer for The Washington Post.
Kathy Lynn Emerson is an American writer of historical and mystery novels and non-fiction. She also uses the pseudonyms Kaitlyn Dunnett and Kate Emerson.
Peter Spiegelman is an American crime fiction author and former Wall Street executive. He is most known for his series of books following the cases of the Manhattan-based private eye, John March, winning a Shamus Award for the first novel in the series. He lives with his family in Connecticut.
G. M. Malliet is an American author of mystery novels and short stories. She is best known as the author of the award-winning Detective Chief Inspector St. Just mysteries and the Rev. Max Tudor mysteries. The first book in her US-based series, Augusta Hawke, appeared in 2022.
Jennifer Chow or Jennifer J. Chow, is an American writer and novelist. She is an Agatha, Anthony, Lefty, and Lilian Jackson Braun Award Award-nominated author, writing cozy mysteries filled with hope and heritage. Her most recent series is the Magical Fortune Cookie novels; Booklist says of Ill-Fated Fortune:
Clea Simon is an American writer. She is the author of World Enough, a psychological suspense thriller set in the Boston music scene, and the Blackie and Care, Theda Krakow, Dulcie Schwartz, Pru Marlowe, and Witch Cats of Cambridge cozy feline mysteries. Her non-fiction books include Madhouse: Growing Up in the Shadow of Mentally Ill Siblings, Fatherless Daughters and Feline Mystique: On the Mysterious Connection between Women and Cats.
John Copenhaver is an American writer of crime fiction whose works include Dodging and Burning (2018), The Savage Kind (2022), and Hall of Mirrors (2024).