On a Silver Platter by Linda Morganstein

On a Silver Platter

by Linda Morganstein

When a film company begins production of a low-budget modern-day horror movie based on the beheading of Saint John the Baptist, Alex is asked to lend a hand as a stunt double. In no time, she's immersed in the intrigues of the cast and crew, culminating in a terrible calamity that sends her, once again, on the trail of a killer. On A Silver Platter is the third of the Alexis Pope mystery series.




BIOGRAPHY

Linda Morganstein is an award-winning, overeducated writer of who also happens to be the product of a Borscht Belt childhood in the Jewish hotels of the Catskills. In the seventies, she dropped out of Vassar College and drove a VW van to California, where she lived in Sonoma County for many years. Later, she studied with Jane Smiley in Iowa. She currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her understanding spouse Melanie and her exceptional dog, Courage. In addition to writing, Linda is avid golfer and sourdough bread-baker. In short, she has a phobia for boredom. Due to her Borscht Belt background, she has a distinct interest in humor as an antidote to the complications of life. This includes an arsenal of jokes supplied by her late father, a master comedian.

FIND OUT MORE
Author site: http://www.lindamorganstein.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1009546.Linda_Morganstein
Publisher: Regal Crest Books

PURCHASE
Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Harpies' Feast by Linda Morganstein

Harpies' Feast

by Linda Morganstein

In Dante's circle of hell for suicides, those who take their own lives are transformed into dead trees that can still feel pain. Sitting on their withered branches are the harpies, birds with women's faces, who peck at their limbs. In Harpies' Feast, the second in the Alexis Pope mystery series, Alex is once again confronted with a crime that doesn't seem to be what it really is. She is plunged into a mystery exploring suicide and its repercussions.

After solving a crime at the Overlook Lodge in Ordinary Furies, Alex no longer feels welcome in the resort town of Guerneville, California. She flees down the road to the village of Sebastopol, home to a melting pot of old hippies, wine estate owners, apple farmers and retired baby boomers. She gets a job teaching "cardio self-defense" at a trendy fitness center, courtesy of her new landlady, Sandy Knight, bisexual personal trainer and part-time philosophy professor.

Through the class, Alex meets two intriguing newcomers to town, a teenage actress and a striking lesbian playwright who've both arrived to work on a local theatre production. Much to her dismay, Alex feels attracted to Nickie, the playwright, and maternally protective of Jaycee, the teenager, who is becoming the victim of a group of jealous local girls.

The bullying and nastiness lead to disaster. In their search for answers to the perplexing events, Alex and her friends, both old and new, explore the glory and sting of relationships and confront the bounds of sexual orientations and attractions.
BIOGRAPHY

Linda Morganstein is an award-winning, overeducated writer of who also happens to be the product of a Borscht Belt childhood in the Jewish hotels of the Catskills. In the seventies, she dropped out of Vassar College and drove a VW van to California, where she lived in Sonoma County for many years. Later, she studied with Jane Smiley in Iowa. She currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her understanding spouse Melanie and her exceptional dog, Courage. In addition to writing, Linda is avid golfer and sourdough bread-baker. In short, she has a phobia for boredom. Due to her Borscht Belt background, she has a distinct interest in humor as an antidote to the complications of life. This includes an arsenal of jokes supplied by her late father, a master comedian.

FIND OUT MORE
Author site: http://www.lindamorganstein.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1009546.Linda_Morganstein
Publisher: Regal Crest Books

PURCHASE
Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Ordinary Furies by Linda Morganstein

Ordinary Furies

by Linda Morganstein

Alexis Pope's life has come undone. Just when she thought she'd found a life of guaranteed security and comfort, her husband's death in a sky-diving accident has cast her into self-imposed solitary confinement in her Northern California suburban mansion.

Unsure as to whether she'll ever stop grieving, or whether she'll ever want to, it's no wonder she's reluctant to accept her gay cousin Jeffrey's offer to come up and work at the Russian River resort where Jeffrey runs the dining room.

Then, a revelation in the form of a nosy fundamentalist neighbor signals enough. Enough hiding, enough lethargy. Little suspecting she's almost literally jumping from the frying pan into the fire, Alex plunges into the refreshingly frantic world of restaurant resort cooking and dining in the funky chic town of Guerneville, California.

Unfortunately, when it finally seems she's climbing out of her malaise, a series of increasingly vicious events at the resort forces her to revive her abandoned skills as a self-defense instructor and--to her great dismay--face up to her own involvement in her husband's death.

BIOGRAPHY

Linda Morganstein is an award-winning, overeducated writer of who also happens to be the product of a Borscht Belt childhood in the Jewish hotels of the Catskills. In the seventies, she dropped out of Vassar College and drove a VW van to California, where she lived in Sonoma County for many years. Later, she studied with Jane Smiley in Iowa. She currently resides in Saint Paul, Minnesota with her understanding spouse Melanie and her exceptional dog, Courage. In addition to writing, Linda is avid golfer and sourdough bread-baker. In short, she has a phobia for boredom. Due to her Borscht Belt background, she has a distinct interest in humor as an antidote to the complications of life. This includes an arsenal of jokes supplied by her late father, a master comedian.

FIND OUT MORE
Author site: http://www.lindamorganstein.com
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1009546.Linda_Morganstein
Publisher: Spinsters Ink

PURCHASE
Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Shadow Play by D A Lampi

Shadow Play

by D A Lampi

Psychiatrist Grace Rendeau struggles to make sense of her husband's untimely death. Left a widow with two children, Grace forges a new life for her family, abandoning her private practice and moving to Minnesota to take on a prestigious position at the Rochester Forensic Center for the Criminally Insane.

In striving to heal her patients, she finds healing, a new strength, and a sense of possibilities. Among the possibilities is a budding romance with Alex Sawyer, a divorced doctor engaged in humanitarian work. Grace accompanies Alex on a medical mission to Indonesia and they return committed to a new life together. But their joy is short lived.

Grace returns home not to her children, but to an empty house and a chilling kidnapper's note. Enemies known and unknown haunt Grace's every waking hour. Grace's story illuminates the hopes and fears of every wife or husband, mother or father, woman or man, caught in life's turmoil and striving to overcome it.

BIOGRAPHY

D.A. Lampi lives in southeastern Minnesota with her husband, four children and a sheltie named Scout Finch. She has a Master of Arts degree in Psychology and writes fiction. This is her first novel. Her short story, Fifty Years is soon be published in a horror anthology of horror stories by Aprocryphile Press. She is currently working on a second Grace Rendeau novel.

FIND OUT MORE
Author site: http://dalampiauthor.com/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7053541.D_A_Lampi
Publisher: North Star Press

PURCHASE
Amazon and Barnes & Noble

Flashover by Colin Nelson

Flashover

by Colin Nelson

Zach Sutton's little brother has been missing for over a year.  His parents have divorced. The police have found no clues. But it isnt until Zach takes a field trip to Minnesota's north woods that the mystery really begins.  Faced with supernatural visions and ghostly images, Zach finds himself in a scary adventure he couldnt have dreamed.





BIOGRAPHY

Colin T. Nelson has been a criminal defense lawyer for over thirty years.  He’s married, has two adult children, and plays saxophone in a jazz group called Blue Mood.

WEBSITE

http://www.colintnelson.com/

PURCHASE

Amazon
Barnes and Noble


OTHER PUBLISHED WORKS

Reprisal

Fallout

PUBLISHER

North Star Press

Bullwhacked - Kathy Cohen

Bullwhacked

by Kathy Cohen

Retired bullrider Cooper Lydell is finally happy. After years of living in his truck, and eating more cheeseballs than he cares to count, meals are coming regularly. Sheets and pillowcases are the norm, too, and he’s got his eye on some property in Montana…all thanks to his very successful bullrider son Tommy.

And then, suddenly, Cooper is BULLWHACKED.

Son Tommy is gone . . . with a sexy blonde in a red Thunderbird. No more meal ticket, no more hotel rooms, no more RETIREMENT.

Cooper begins a grim search for Tommy, aided by a herd of his friends. Soon someone is following him. Then there’s a murder.

BIOGRAPHY

Kathy Cohen has lived in northern Virginia, Germany, Omaha, and the Washington D.C. area. She currently resides in Minneapolis. With a degree in English literature and some non-fiction credits, she has recently completed her first novel, Bullwhacked.

WEBSITE
Author - https://sites.google.com/site/kathykcohen/
Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/KathyKloppCohen

PURCHASE
Amazon

ADDITIONAL INFO

Why I picked the rodeo circuit for my setting: I wanted to use something that was distinctive, but something I knew at least a little about. I grew up showing quarter horses in the Midwest, and my stepfather is a very good horse trainer. We went to rodeos for entertainment and marveled at how really dangerous the sport is. My stepfather once lent a pair of chaps to a contestant who was then killed in the arena. He felt too awkward to try to get the chaps back, under the circumstances.  

I thought it would be interesting to use such a dangerous sport and yet find some humor in it. Bull riders are pretty macho guys, so I thought I’d try to show something less stereotypical to readers.  I’d like to add that training and showing horses isn’t like lounging in a recliner and watching the television either. My stepfather suffered a fractured pelvis, brain trauma, and many lesser injuries over the years, and I had one side of my face kicked in by a horse. Thank heavens for plastic surgeons!

Stake & Eggs - Laura Childs

Stake & Eggs

by Laura Childs

New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs offers up Stake and Eggs, the 4th installment in her Cackleberry Club Mystery series.  This “Queen of the Cozy” knows how to pour on the suspense!

Ice runs in this killer’s veins!

A snowstorm rolls through the Midwest, flash-freezing everything like a package of Mrs. Paul’s fish sticks.  Tucked inside the cozy Cackleberry Club café, Suzanne and her two partners hear the crash of a snowmobile and nervously decide to investigate.  But a foray into the raging storm turns up a headless rider and a wire stretched between two stakes.

Who would murder their new bank president in such a grisly manner?  Someone gunning for his job or an unhappy customer whose property has been foreclosed on?  Suzanne and Sheriff Doogie put their heads together to investigate this murder and turn up more than a few wild card suspects – even as the temperature drops and Suzanne’s romance with the local doctor heats up.

Based on a fictional Minnesota town, Laura Childs has filled Stake and Eggs with a raft of small-town characters that make you chuckle and yearn for simpler times.  The main character (Suzanne) isn’t your basic cozy heroine either.  She’s recently widowed, just launched her café, is “mom” to her aging dog Baxter, and (good heavens!) is a little past forty.  She’s also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn’t rely on “coincidences” or inept police work to solve crimes.  In fact, she’s buckthorn in the side of Sheriff Doogie, who does his small-town best to solve the grisly murder.

Halfway between a cozy and a thriller (a thrillsy!) Stake and Eggs offers an exciting read with tea, knitting, romance, a dash of spirituality, and good sleuthing with three women who are over forty and proud of it.  You’ll also flip over Cackleberry Club recipes such as lemon cornbread, dirty fried chicken, and red velvet chocolate chip pancakes.

BIOGRAPHY

Laura Childs is the author of the Scrapbook Mysteries, Tea Shop Mysteries and Cackleberry Club Mysteries.  Her books have been named to the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller Lists, and have been featured selections in the Literary Guild’s Mystery Book Club.  She is a former Cleo Award-winning ad writer and CEO of Mission Critical Marketing.

WEBSITE
http://www.laurachilds.com

PURCHASE
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


BOOK SIGNINGS

Once Upon a Crime
604 West 26th St., Mpls. 
Phone 612-870-3785

Saturday, November 10 from Noon to 2

OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED
Tea Shop Mysteries
Death by Darjeeling
Gunpowder Green
Shades of Earl Grey
English Breakfast Club Murder
Jasmine Moon Murder
Chamomile Mourning
Blood Orange Brewing
Dragonwell Dead
The Silver Needle Murder
Oolong Dead
The Teaberry Strangler
Scones & Bones
Agony of the Leaves

Scrapbook Mysteries
Keepsake Crimes
Photo Finished
Bound for Murder
Motif for Murder
Frill Kill
Death Swatch
Tragic Magic
Fiber & BrimstoneSkeleton Letters
Postcards from the Dead

Cackleberry Club Mysteries
Eggs in Purgatory
Eggs Benedict Arnold
Bedeviled Eggs
Stake & Eggs

PUBLISHER
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN 978-0-425-25557-5

Postcards from the Dead - Laura Childs

Postcards from the Dead

by Laura Childs

New York Times bestselling author Laura Childs offers up Postcards from the Dead, the 10th installment in her Scrapbook Mystery series.  This “Queen of the Cozy” knows how to pour on the suspense!

Murder, Madness, and Mardi Gras . . .

Amid gigantic floats, colorful beads, and dizzying lights, Kimber Breeze, a prominent New Orleans anchorwoman, is strangled and hung from the balcony of the Hotel Tremain.  Scrapbooking maven Carmela Bertrand was supposed to be the woman’s next big interview, but now she’s up to her eyeballs in murder!  And Carmela can’t seem to escape more strange goings-on, because someone is sending cemetery-inspired postcards to her – signed by the very dead Kimber!

A cross between a cozy and a thriller – a thrillzy! – Postcards from the Dead delivers quirky characters, lots of action, humor, and scrapbooking tips.  As an extra bonus, there are New Orleans recipes such as Chicken Jambalaya, Sweet Potato Biscuits, and Cajun Meatloaf.  If you’re looking for a delicious Halloween read this is it!

BIOGRAPHY

Laura Childs is the author of the Scrapbook Mysteries, Tea Shop Mysteries and Cackleberry Club Mysteries.  Her books have been named to the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller Lists, and have been featured selections in the Literary Guild’s Mystery Book Club.  She is a former Cleo Award-winning ad writer and CEO of Mission Critical Marketing.

WEBSITE
http://www.laurachilds.com

PURCHASE
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED
Tea Shop Mysteries
Death by Darjeeling
Gunpowder Green
Shades of Earl Grey
English Breakfast Club Murder
Jasmine Moon Murder
Chamomile Mourning
Blood Orange Brewing
Dragonwell Dead
The Silver Needle Murder
Oolong Dead
The Teaberry Strangler
Scones & Bones
Agony of the Leaves

Scrapbook Mysteries
Keepsake Crimes
Photo Finished
Bound for Murder
Motif for Murder
Frill Kill
Death Swatch
Tragic Magic
Fiber & BrimstoneSkeleton Letters
Postcards from the Dead

Cackleberry Club Mysteries
Eggs in Purgatory
Eggs Benedict Arnold
Bedeviled Eggs
Stake & Eggs (December 2012)

PUBLISHER
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN 978-0-425-25275-8

Niobe's Tears - Tynan A Stone

Niobe's Tears

by Tynan A. Stone

In the throes of another dreary, cold Minnesota winter, a young prostitute is ritually murdered in a room of one of Saint Paul’s most prestigious hotels. One word is scrawled on the victim’s back, “NIOBE.” Saint Paul detectives Kelly Abner and Alan Matthews, former lovers, are struggling with the recent breakup of their romance while being confronted with one of the most bizarre murder scenes in Saint Paul history.

The murder hits a little too close to home when Detective Abner discovers her own personal connection the victim. Her partner must find the killer without her and decipher a mystery created by a serial killer bent on revenge. The contemporary myth of Niobe is played out on Saint Paul’s frozen streets, and the detectives must find the killer before one of their own is killed. Sympathy for the devil? Hardly, but the killer may just have a point.  
BIOGRAPHY

Tynan A. Stone is the pen name for Troy A. Stein. Troy Stein graduated with a BA in Human Services Administration from Metropolitan State University and currently works as a software developer with the State of Minnesota Department of Human Services.

Originally from North Dakota, he has fallen in love with his “new” home state of Minnesota. When he’s not writing, you may find him geocaching or hiking in one of the many Minnesota State Parks. Niobe’s Tears is his first book. Whipfinish, a sequel to Niobe’s Tears is due out in June 2012.

WEBSITE

Author page: http://www.tynanastone.com
Book page:  https://www.facebook.com/NiobesTearsByTynanA.Stone

PURCHASE
Amazon

Lost and Found - Danelle Helget

Lost and Found

by Danelle Helget

Danelle Helget, a writer who grew up in Milaca and now lives in Sauk Rapids, has launched a new mystery series set in her home state of Minnesota. Lost and Found (North Star Press, 2011) the first book in a series that will be called “The Sara Martin Mysteries,” is filled with interesting characters, familiar Minnesota settings and dramatic events.

Sara Martin had hoped the vacation at a tranquil cabin in northern Minnesota would be the perfect getaway. Instead, she discovers that her husband is carrying on an affair with her childhood friend, Lily. To make matters worse, Lily goes missing shortly thereafter and Sara starts having haunting dreams of a young girl in a white dress who urgently needs her help.

BIOGRAPHY

Danelle Helget grew up in Milaca, Minnesota. In the summer months she enjoys spending her weekends like many Minnesotans--on the lake, camping, boating and hiking. She resides in Sauk Rapids, Minnesota with her husband and two daughters. North Star Press of St. Cloud published her first novel, Lost and Found in 2011. Her second novel, Found and Destroyed will continue to follow Sara Martin and is due to be released in June 2012.

WEBSITE
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Author-Danelle-Helget/102890406465130
http://twitter.com/danellehelget

PURCHASE
Amazon, Barnes & Noble, independent bookstores, and North Star Press of St. Cloud


PUBLISHER
North Star Press of St. Cloud

Skeleton Letters - Laura Childs

Skeleton Letters

by Laura Childs

Is nothing sacred?

The last thing scrapbooking maven Carmela Bertrand expected to bear witness to in St. Tristan’s Church was a crime.  But now a beloved member of her scrapbooking circle is lying lifeless next to a smashed statue of St. Sebastian – and a mysterious hooded figure had absconded with an antique silver-and-gold crucifix.

With the church, a popular New Orleans tourist site, pretty much open to the public, it looks like the police don’t have a prayer of finding the killer.  Good thing amateur sleuth Carmela and her wacky voodoo shop-owning friend Ava are hot on the trail.  With suspects that range from a deliveryman, to the strange Brother Paul, to the cult group The Seekers, Carmela and Ava comb New Orleans for clues.  And end up in a bayou at midnight, stalked by an enraged killer!

A cross between a cozy and a thriller – a thrillzy! – Skeleton Letters delivers great characters, action, humor, spooky cemeteries, scrapbooking tips, and New Orleans recipes.  This is the Halloween read you’ve been waiting for!

BIOGRAPHY

Laura Childs is the author of the Scrapbook Mysteries, Tea Shop Mysteries and Cackleberry Club Mysteries.  Her books have been named to the USA Today and New York Times Bestseller Lists, and have been featured selections in the Literary Guild’s Mystery Book Club.  She is a former Cleo Award-winning ad writer and CEO of Mission Critical Marketing.

WEBSITE
http://www.laurachilds.com

Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/embed/R0WRgk3qCy0

PURCHASE
Amazon
Barnes and Noble


OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED
Tea Shop Mysteries
Death by Darjeeling
Gunpowder Green
Shades of Earl Grey
English Breakfast Club Murder
Jasmine Moon Murder
Chamomile Mourning
Blood Orange Brewing
Dragonwell Dead
The Silver Needle Murder
Oolong Dead
The Teaberry Strangler
Scones & Bones
Agony of the Leaves

Scrapbook Mysteries
Keepsake Crimes
Photo Finished
Bound for Murder
Motif for Murder
Frill Kill
Death Swatch
Tragic Magic
Fiber & BrimstoneSkeleton Letters
Postcards from the Dead

Cackleberry Club Mysteries
Eggs in Purgatory
Eggs Benedict Arnold
Bedeviled Eggs
Stake & Eggs (December 2012)

PUBLISHER
Berkley Prime Crime
ISBN 978-0-425-24389-3

Nice Girls Don't Bite - Joan Sween

Nice Girls Don't Bite

by Joan Sween

When "Transylvania Nasty" collides with "Minnesota Nice" the outcome is hilarious. In this novel, which is definitely intended for laughs, not chills, Erleen and Louise, antiques dealers from the land of Garrison Keillor, come back from a buying trip to Romania to discover they got more than they bargained for. 

"We can't be vampires! There's no such thing as vampires!"

"I absolutely refuse to go all crazy and look mean and bite people!" 

"How are we supposed to put on makeup if we can't see ourselves in mirrors?" 

After the first shock, they begin to cope like sensible down-to-earth Minnesotans, vowing to lead normal lives, never reveal what they are, and never ever to bite anyone. Then they stumble onto a bank robbery, a murder, and a kidnapping. Attempting to free their kidnapped friends, they confront a Norwegian crime lord whose Colombian partners decide they are witches—"Brujas! Brujas! But after putting ineffectual bullets through the ladies, the Colombians change their minds—"Vampiro!" Reluctantly, Erleen and Louise realize they must behave like "real" vampires in order to put a stop to an international drug ring. Which they do—but without ever biting anyone. 

BIOGRAPHY

In Joan's pre-teen years, she wrote short stories about fairies, and learned to play the piano accordion.  Her father was a construction engineer; they moved a lot. The accordion was easier to move than a piano.  As a teenager in high school she was in the class plays and wrote pep skits.  Pep skits taught her about mystery writing–the home team, like justice, always had to triumph.  In college she was in a multitude of plays, wrote poetry, edited the college newspaper, and got engaged 16 times. 

She credits her wacky rites of passage as excellent background for writing a novel about perfectly nice ladies who refuse to behave like vampires She's a member of  Sisters In Crime, former Regional Vice-president of Literary Managers & Dramaturgs of the Americas, and founder of Minnesota Writers’ Alliance.  Her other books can be found on Amazon.com and her plays with Eldridge Plays & Musicals. Joan lives in Rochester, MN, with two cats who are exasperating and a husband who is wonderfully supportive.

UPCOMING EVENTS

Feb 10-12, 2012, premiere of Joan's play, "The Magic Flounder," produced by Matchbox Children's Theatre in the Historic Paramount Theatre, Austin, MN.

May, 2012, book signing sponsored by Minnesota's antiques newspaper, The Old Times at the Prime Promotions Antique Show at the St. Paul State Fairgrounds.  Exact date TBA.

WEBSITE

http://joansween.com

PURCHASE 

Amazon 

Plays may be found by searching at: http://www.histage.com/searchplaycategories.asp 

OTHER BOOKS

Dealer's Choice:  A collection of humor columns on antiques and collectibles.

Deathblow:  A detective novel with a serial killer.

Southern Surrender: A one-act farce.

Murder By Accident: A full-length farce.

KILLING KATE - Julie Kramer

KILLING KATE
by Julie Kramer
Not all angels are divine...

As TV reporter Riley Spartz discovers a serial killer drawing angel-shaped chalk outlines around the bodies of his victims, she unearths an eerie legend dating back nearly a century. Tracking the story to an Iowa cemetery, Riley finds an infamous Black Angel monument that may be connected to the string of homicides throughout the Midwest. Now she is up against a delusional young man who believes the statue is urging him to kill.

"With her newest book, Julie Kramer's reputation and following ought to soar. This wonderfully sardonic look at murder through the eyes of TV journalist Riley Spartz is not only surprisingly poignant, but is a flat-out tour de force of harrowing twists and turns." —NYT bestselling author William Kent Krueger

"A snappy repartee, tauntingly written, drum tight in its execution. Just good ole' fashioned, gimmick-free storytelling that catches the reader with line one and commands you to finish." —NYT bestselling author Steve Berry

"Julie Kramer has one of the best new series in crime fiction....You'll be turning the pages all night." —NYT bestselling author Lisa Scottoline

"Julie Kramer's Killing Kate offers everything a novel should—a most engaging protagonist, page-turning thrills, plot twists, and a host of characters that jump off the page. I loved it!" —NYT bestselling author Heather Graham

BIOGRAPHY
Investigative television journalist Julie Kramer writes a series of thrillers: STAKING SUSAN, MISSING MARK, SILENCING SAM and KILLING KATE—set in the desperate world of TV news. Julie won the Minnesota Book Award and the RT Reviews Choice Award for Best First Mystery. Her novels have also been nominated for the Anthony, Barry, Shamus, Mary Higgins Clark, and Daphne du Maurier Awards. She formerly ran the I TEAM for WCCO-TV before becoming a freelance network news producer for NBC and CBS. She grew up on a family farm along the Minnesota-Iowa State line and now lives in White Bear Lake, MN.

WEBSITE
www.juliekramerbooks.com

Reprisal - Colin T. Nelson

REPRISAL


by Colin T. Nelson

What if terrorists used American children as weapons of mass destruction? It's already started with the disappearance of the Somali boys from Minnesota. Small pox was eradicated from the planet in 1979. For future research purposes, two repositories of the deadly virus were set up in Atlanta, Georgia and Vector, Russia. When an Islamic terrorist group steals samples of the virus from Russia, they need human hosts to carry the disease and infect defenseless Americans. Release of the virus is about to explode until a criminal defense lawyer gets involved. She becomes entangled in a race against time and the terrorists to save hundreds of children and her community.

BIOGRAPHY

Colin T. Nelson has been a criminal defense lawyer for over 30 years. He's been writing since high school and through law school where he wrote a humorous weekly column. Previously, he published a non-fiction book called, When Can I Tell My Boss, I Quit! He tries to both entertain readers and teach them something in his books. He's married, has two adult children, and plays the saxophone in a jazz group called BlueMood.

WEBSITE
www.colintnelson.com

PURCHASE
Amazon.com

BLOG
Courting Crime with Colin T. Nelson
www.colintnelson.com/blog

OTHER BOOKS PUBLISHED
When Can I Tell My Boss, I Quit!
A non-fiction book teaching people how to financially be able to retire.

REVIEW
"...a provocative and compelling thriller. A must read for anyone who wonders what might lay ahead for our country." Mary Logue--Author of Frozen Still

"A suspenseful, well-crafted thriller with a terrifying plot that will leave you questioning how secure we really are." Christopher Valen--Author of The Black Minute

PUBLISHER
NorthStar Press of St. Cloud
info@northstarpress.com

Outwitted - Beth Solheim

Outwitted

by Beth Solheim

A death coach is expected to counsel patients experiencing life-threatening illness. But that’s not the case for sixty-four year old Fifi Witt, owner of the Witt’s End Resort, because her clients are already dead. They checked into Cabin 14, where no guest leaves alive. To add to Fifi’s quandary, she assumes the role of funeral director’s assistant after the untimely murder of the previous assistant.


Unexpected mayhem abounds when Fifi’s resort manager unwittingly rents Cabin 12 to the funeral director’s ex-husband, Clay, a raucous character who causes embarrassing funeral mishaps. Fifi attempts to help resurrect the respectability demanded by the profession, but only adds to the chaos caused by Clay’s high jinks.

When the uninvited guests in Cabin 14 suspect that an adjacent cabin houses a missing child, and after one of her guests discovers skeletal remains under Cabin 12, Fifi and her sister set out to solve an infant abduction and reveal the secret that ties a prominent judge to a notorious crime operation

BIOGRAPHY
Beth Solheim is the author of Outwitted and At Witt’s End, the first two books in the Sadie Witt Mystery Series. Like the main character in her Sadie Witt mystery series, Beth was born with a healthy dose of imagination and a hankering to solve a puzzle. She learned her reverence for reading from her mother, who was never without a book in her hand.

By day, Beth works in Human Resources. By night she morphs into a writer who frequents lake resorts and mortuaries and hosts a ghost or two in her humorous paranormal mysteries. Raised and still living in Northern Minnesota, she resides in lake country with her husband and a menagerie of wildlife critters.

“Not since Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, have so many quirky characters inhabited one book. A definite enjoyable read!” — Jean Henry Mead, author of Diary of Murder

“The Witt Sisters are back—with mayhem, humor, spirits and murder. When Sadie and her crew pick up the scent there is no stopping. A book you will NOT put down!” -- Nora Adrienne, Book Reviewer

PURCHASE
Amazon.com

Brogan's Island - Dave Gehrke

Brogan’s Island

by Dave Gehrke

When Sammy Jo Kendrick slips beneath the waves of Lake of the Woods, all hell breaks loose 500 miles away in Minneapolis. Sammy Jo is not the first young woman to vanish into the vast lake, but if her disappearance isn't solved, she won't be the last either. The Kendrick mystery threatens to drag down Minneapolis Detective Sergeant Will Danaher, the lead detective on the case. Despite his efforts, he has no suspect, no leads and no body. And the press and the politicians are putting Danaher at the top of the scapegoat list.

But just when things couldn’t get any worse, a bureaucrat in Personnel orders Danaher to take a vacation! The detective winds up vacationing on Lake of the Woods where he crosses paths with a lonely lake cabin housewife, a grumpy old sheriff with his own dark secrets, and a dead guy; all of whom help Danaher piece together the Kendrick case. There’s only one little problem; if Danaher reveals how he gained his evidence, he looks like a nut case. But if he doesn’t reveal how he solved the Kendrick case, he looks like the prime suspect. In the meantime, there's a real serial killer out there... and he's already stalking his next victim.

BIOGRAPHY
Dave has been a bartender, real estate broker, horse trainer, sheep farmer, newspaper publisher and columnist, high school economics teacher, school principal and superintendent. And then he “retired”. Although often described as the proverbial “jack of all trades, master of none”, Dave claims he has secretly spent his working years compiling characters and experiences for what he calls his ultimate career—novelist. Now that he’s completed what he refers to as his “training”, Dave has hunkered down with the sole purpose of grinding out novels until the Grim Reaper stabs a bony finger at the re-boot switch. Brogan’s Island reflects both Dave’s convoluted path through life as well as his character compilations. The story’s characters are life-like and fraught with frailties and misgivings and take an occasional sharp turn before reaching their final destination.

WEBSITE
http://www.sleepycreeklofts.com/Site_2/Dave_Gehrke.html

PURCHASE
Amazon.com http://www.sleepycreeklofts.com/Site_2/Dave_Gehrke.html

OTHER BOOKS
“A Shiver Runs Through It” A collection of Dave’s humorous anecdotes regarding his struggles to survive Minnesota winters from boyhood into adulthood.

APPEARANCES
Pipestone Public Library - April 30 - 1:00 p.m. Pipestone, MN

Dress Up by Joel Skelton

Dress Up

by Joel Skelton

Broadway director Wyatt Stark's smash hit, Dress Up, a free-spirited, spaghetti strap of a tale set during New York’s legendary fashion week, has played at full capacity for almost two years. Wyatt is taking his wildly successful musical to Hollywood with the help of his business partner, Murphy. But Wyatt is on the edge, overworked by the industry and overwrought by a terrible breakup, and so he agrees to spend the summer before production starts recuperating at Murphy’s secluded beach house in Maine.

It's there that Wyatt meets and falls for Ryan Taylor—but Ryan isn’t who he portrays himself to be. Distressed and desperately in love, Ryan weaves a web of lies in an effort to secure Wyatt's heart, hoping and praying that their romance can survive the deception. When Wyatt discovers the truth, will their love be there to stay, or will it be, like a worn-out fashion trend, yesterday’s news?

BIOGRAPHY
Joel Skelton is the son of a big-band pianist. Consequently, the arts have always played a prominent role in Joel’s life. Much to Dad’s dismay, piano lessons gave way to the saxophone which was eventually retired when the stage called out loud and clear. Writing is the latest destination in the author’s tour of the arts.

Born and raised in central Minnesota, Joel, along with his partner, Patrick currently live in the thriving Minnesota arts community commonly referred to as the Twin Cities. In addition to writing, Joel loves the theater, The Current, gardening, biking, limitless wine tasting and he leaps at every opportunity to travel.

WEBSITE
www.joelskelton.com

PUBLISHER
Dreamspinner Press
www.dreamspinnerpress.com

TASTE ME - Tammy Hogan

TASTE ME

by Tamara Hogan

CSI meets True Blood in a new urban fantasy romance series with a supernatural crimes unit.

Winner of a 2009 Daphne du Maurier Award for Mystery and Suspense, and a 2009 Romance Writers of America Golden Heart® finalist, Taste Me is the first book in a gritty, fast-paced, sexy urban fantasy romance series set in a world where incubi, sirens, valkyries, vampires, werewolves and faeries live undetected alongside humankind. In Taste Me, incubus security guru Lukas Sebastiani is suckered into playing bodyguard for his former lover, siren rock star Scarlett Fontaine – and neither of them are happy about it.

BIOGRAPHY
Tamara Hogan loathes cold and snow, but nonetheless lives in the Minneapolis exurbs with her partner Mark and two naughty cats. When she’s not telecommuting as a quality and process engineer for a global networking company, she enjoys writing edgy urban fantasy romance with an SF twist. A voracious reader with an unapologetic television addiction, Tammy is forever on the lookout for the perfect black boots.

A lifelong Minnesotan, Tammy grew up on the Iron Range. She earned a B.A. in English/Creative Writing from Hamline University. Taste Me is her first manuscript.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENT
Tammy will talk about Taste Me’s road to publication at the March 12, 2011 meeting of Midwest Fiction Writers, the Twin Cities chapter of the Romance Writers of America. Learn about her experiences querying agents and editors, seeing the positive in ‘negative’ contest feedback, how the book title and cover evolved through the publication cycle over time, and her perhaps non-traditional approach to promotion.

Guests (and new members!) are welcome. Taste Me can be purchased and autographed at the meeting. For more information about Midwest Fiction Writers, go to http://www.midwestfiction.com/home.html.

WEBSITE
www.tamarahogan.com


BLOG
www.rubyslipperedsisterhood.com

www.casablancaauthors.blogspot.com


RELEASE DATE
March 1, 2011.

Taste Me is available in paperback and digital formats at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, Borders, and other book retailers near you.

PUBLISHER
Sourcebooks, Inc.
www.sourcebooks.com