Panelists & Moderators
Top row, L-R: Nicole Asselin, Brenda Buchanan, Richard Cass, Matt Cost, Paul Doiron, Kathy Lynn Emerson,
2nd row, L-R: Jessica Ellicott, Kate Flora, Gillian French, Cheryl Head, Chris Holm, Kathryn Lasky,
3rd row, L-R: Gayle Lynds, Kathryn Miles, Carla Neggers, Katherine Hall Page, Barbara Ross, Jule Selbo,
4th row, L-R: Julia Spencer-Fleming, Susan Stoker, Susan Vaughan, Carolyn Marie Wilkins, Jim Ziskin
Nicole Asselin’s debut mystery novel, Murder at First Pitch was released in 2019, and Concession Stand Crimes was released in 2022. Nicole is a current member of Sisters in Crime (National and New England) and the Mystery Writers of America (National and New England). She is the social media liaison for the SinCNE and also sits on the social media board of the NE Crime Bake held every November. nicoleasselinwriter.com
Brenda Buchanan brings years of experience as a journalist and a lawyer to her crime fiction. She has published three books featuring Joe Gale, a newspaper reporter who covers the crime and courts beat, and is now hard at work on new projects. Buchanan also helped found the Maine Crime Wave. brendabuchananwrites.com
Richard Cass writes the Elder Darrow jazz mysteries, including In Solo Time, which won the 2018 Maine Literary Award in Crime Fiction. Mickey's Mayhem (Elder Darrow Mystery #6) was published in 2021. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Playboy, Gray’s Sporting Journal, ZZYZVA, and Best Short Stories of the American West, as well as other periodicals and anthologies. rjcassbooks.com
Matt Cost was a history major at Trinity College. He owned a mystery bookstore, a video store, and a gym, before serving a ten-year sentence as a junior high school teacher. In 2014 he was released and began writing. And that’s what he does. He writes histories and mysteries.
Cost has published four books in the Mainely Mystery series, with the fifth, "Mainely Wicked", due out in August of 2023. He has also published four books in the Clay Wolfe Trap series, with the fifth, "Pirate Trap", due out in December of 2023.
Paul Doiron was born and raised in Maine. He did his undergraduate English degree at Yale, and then an MFA in Creative Writing at Emerson College. He wrote his first novel as a teenager, but it wasn't until later in life that he decided returned to novel writing. Before becoming a full-time novelist, Doiron was a member of the Maine Arts Commission and Editor in Chief of Down East: The Magazine of Maine--he still holds the title of Editor Emeritus.
Doiron's first published novel, The Poacher's Son (2010), won a Barry Award and the Strand Critics Award for Best First Novel, as well as being nominated for an Edgar, an Anthony, a Macavity, a Thriller Award for Best First Novel, and the Maine Literary Award for "Best Fiction of 2010." That novel has now become a series, following his character Mike Bowditch, a Maine game warden.
In addition to working on his books, Doiron is a member of the Maine Humanities Council and a Registered Maine Guide specializing in fly fishing and lives on a trout stream in coastal Maine. He currently lives in Camden, Maine.
Agatha award nominee Jessica Ellicott loves fountain pens, Mini Coopers and throwing parties. She lives in northern New England with her dark and mysterious husband, exuberant children and a precocious poodle named Sam.
When away from her desk, she obsessively knits wool socks and enthusiastically speaks Portuguese with a shocking disregard for the rules of grammar. She indulges her passion for historical fiction and all things British by writing the Beryl and Edwina Mysteries.
Jessica’s books have twice received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly as well as one from Library Journal. Her first novel won the Daphne du Maurier award for mystery.
As Jessica Estevao she wrote the Change of Fortune Mysteries. When inspiration strikes she writes contemporary mysteries as Jessie Crockett.
Kathy Lynn Emerson writes in several different genres and under several different names, including Kaitlyn Dunnett and Kate Emerson. As Kathy Lynn Emerson she is best known for historical mysteries, including the Face Down Mystery Series featuring sixteenth-century gentlewoman, herbalist, and sleuth, Susanna, Lady Appleton, the Diana Spaulding 1888 Quartet, and her Agatha-award-winning nonfiction, How to Write Killer Historical Mysteries. She has also written children's books and romance novels. kathylynnemerson.com
Kate Flora, a recovering attorney who was raised on a chicken farm in Maine, is the author of 24 mystery and nonfiction books. Her true crimes Finding Amy and Death Dealer have been Edgar, Agatha, and Anthony finalists. Research for Death Dealer, a story with a body hidden deep in the woods of Eastern Canada led to an ATV adventure deep in those woods, finding the bad guy on a stakeout, and getting to go shooting with the police.
Redemption and And Grant You Peace, two of her Joe Burgess police procedurals, won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Her titles include ten Thea Kozak mysteries and seven books in the starred-review Joe Burgess police series. Her latest fiction includes: Death Warmed Over, her eighth Thea Kozak mystery, and And Led Astray, her fifth Joe Burgess.
Gillian French’s debut novel, Grit (HarperTeen), was an Indie Next List pick, a Junior Library Guild Selection, an Edgar Award Finalist, a South Carolina Young Adult Book Award Finalist, and received both a Lupine Award and a Maine Literary Award. Her other novels include The Door to January (Islandport Press; Bram Stoker Award Finalist), The Lies They Tell (HarperTeen; International Thriller Award Finalist and Maine Literary Award Winner), The Missing Season (HarperTeen; Junior Library Guild Selection), and her upcoming novel for teens, Sugaring Off, which will be published in November. gillianfrench.com
Cheryl A. Head (she/her) is a writer, television producer, and broadcast executive. She is also the author of the award-winning Charlie Mack Motown mysteries, whose female PI protagonist is queer and Black. Head is an Anthony Award nominee, a two-time Lambda Literary Award finalist, a three-time Next Generation Indie Book Award finalist, and winner of the Golden Crown Literary Society’s Ann Bannon Popular Choice Award. Her books are included in the Detroit Public Library’s African American Booklist and in the Special Collections of the Library of Michigan.
In 2019, Head was named to the Hall of Fame of the New Orleans Saints and Sinners Literary Festival, and in 2022, she was awarded the Alice B Readers Appreciation Award. Head is vice chair of the national Bouchercon board of directors. She lives in Washington, DC, with her partner, and with Abby and Frisby, who provide canine supervision. www.cherylhead.com
Chris Holm is the author of the cross-genre Collector trilogy, the Michael Hendricks thrillers, and the standalone biological thriller CHILD ZERO. His work has been selected for THE BEST AMERICAN MYSTERY STORIES, named a New York Times Editors’ Choice, and won a number of awards, including the 2016 Anthony Award for Best Novel. He lives in Portland, Maine.
Kathryn Lasky is the author of over one hundred books for children and young adults, including the Guardians of Ga’Hoole series, which has more than eight million copies in print, and was turned into a major motion picture, Legend of the Guardians: The Owls of Ga’Hoole. Her books have received numerous awards including a Newbery Honor, a Boston Globe-Horn Book Award, and a Washington Post-Children’s Book Guild Nonfiction Award. She has twice won the National Jewish Book award. Her work has been translated into 19 languages worldwide. She lives with her husband in Cambridge, MA. www.kathrynlasky.com
New York Times-bestselling author Gayle Lynds is the award-winning author of 10 novels, including The Assassins and The Book of Spies. Library Journal hails her as the reigning queen of espionage fiction. With David Morrell she cofounded ITW and ThrillerFest. GayleLynds.com
Kathryn Miles is the author of five books. Her essays and articles have appeared in publications such as Audubon, Best American Essays, Best American Sports Writing, the BostonGlobe, the New York Times, Outside, Politico and Time. A contributing editor at Down East magazine, Miles also serves as a scholar-in-residence for the Maine Humanities Council and as a faculty member in several MFA programs. www.kathrynmiles.net
Carla Neggers is the New York Times bestselling author of more than 60 novels, including her popular Sharpe & Donovan and Swift River Valley series. Her books have been translated into 24 languages and sold in over 35 countries. A frequent visitor to Ireland, Carla lives with her family in New England. carlaneggers.com
Katherine Hall Page's first mystery, The Body in the Belfry, was the 1991 Agatha Award winner for Best First Mystery Novel. The fifteenth book in the series, The Body in the Snowdrift , won the 2006 Agatha Award for Best Mystery Novel. She also awarded the 2001 Agatha for Best Short Story and has been a nominee or finalist for an Edgar and multiple Agathas, Maine Literary Awards, and Mary Higgins Clark Awards. Katherine also received the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award from Malice Domestic. The Body in the Wake is her most recent book, and William Morrow will publish the 26th in Katherine’s Faith Fairchild series, The Body in the Web, in 2023. She was awarded the 2022 Maine Crime Master Award. katherine-hall-page.org
Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries and the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Barbara’s Maine Clambake novellas are included along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in holiday anthologies from Kensington Publishing. Barbara and her husband live in Portland. barbararossauthor.com
Jule Selbo’s 10 DAYS: A Dee Rommel Mystery received a starred Kirkus review and a place on Kirkus’ 2021 best crime/mysteries from independent publishers. It’s been nominated for a Clue and a Foreword Review Award. Three years ago, she left Hollywood where she focused on screenwriting (film and tv, including work for Disney, Lucasfilm, HBO and more) to Portland to write novels. After three historical fiction novels, she focused on her favorite genre – the crime/mystery – and has just completed the second in her series: 9 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery. juleselbo.com
New York Times-bestselling novelist Julia Spencer-Fleming took up writing while still a stay-at-home mother, creating Clare Fergusson, first female priest in the small Adirondack town of Millers Kill. Her series has won or been nominated for every American mystery award available, including the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Agatha. Her most recent book, Hid from Our Eyes (Fergusson/Van Alstyne Mysteries, 9), was published by Minotaur in 2020. juliaspencerfleming.com
Susan Stoker is a New York Times, USA Today, #1 Amazon Bestseller, and #1 Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author. She has spent the last twenty-three years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, Indiana, Texas, and Tennessee and is currently living in the wilds of Maine. She's married to a retired Army man (and current firefighter/EMT) who now gets to follow her around the country. She debuted her first series in 2014 and quickly followed that up with the SEAL of Protection Series, which solidified her love of writing and creating stories readers can get lost in. stokeraces.com
Susan Vaughan is the author of 16 novels and one children's book. She loves writing romantic suspense because it throws the hero and heroine together under extraordinary circumstances and pits them against a clever villain. Her books have been translated into French, German, Spanish, and Icelandic, have won the Golden Leaf, More Than Magic Award, and Write Touch Readers' Award, and been a finalist for the Booksellers' Best and Daphne du Maurier awards. A former educator, she's a West Virginia native, but she and her husband have lived in the Mid-Coast area of Maine for many years. susanvaughan.com
Carolyn Marie Wilkins is a professor at Berklee College of Music Online, a practicing Reiki Master, a Psychic Medium and an initiated Priestess of Yemaya, the African goddess of compassion, motherhood and the ocean. Carolyn’s mystery novels Mojo For Murder and Melody For Murder feature the crime-fighting exploits of Bertie Bigelow, a forty-something choir director and amateur sleuth living on the South Side of Chicago. Carolyn’s new book Death at a Séance, about 1920s African American psychic falsely accused of murder, is available from Pen-L Publishing. An accomplished jazz pianist and vocalist, she has performed in concert throughout the United States, Africa, Asia, and South America, where she toured as a Jazz Ambassador for the US State Department. When she is not writing, performing, or offering Reiki to students at Berklee, Carolyn maintains a private practice in healing and mediumship. carolynwilkins.com
James Ziskin 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. A linguist by training, he studied Romance languages and literature at the University of Pennsylvania. After completing his graduate degree, he 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 post production industry, running large international operations in the subtitling/localization and visual effects fields. 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. James lives in Boston. jameswziskin.com
The 2022 Maine Crime Wave Planning Committee:
Brenda Buchanan brings years of experience as a journalist and a lawyer to her crime fiction. She has published three books featuring Joe Gale, a newspaper reporter who covers the crime and courts beat, and is now hard at work on new projects. Buchanan also helped found the Maine Crime Wave. brendabuchananwrites.com
Richard Cass writes the Elder Darrow jazz mysteries, including In Solo Time, which won the 2018 Maine Literary Award in Crime Fiction. Mickey's Mayhem (Elder Darrow Mystery #6) was published in 2021. His short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Playboy, Gray’s Sporting Journal, ZZYZVA, and Best Short Stories of the American West, as well as other periodicals and anthologies. rjcassbooks.com
Barbara Kelly has been a independent bookseller for the past 34 years. She started out as a frontline seller at the Bookland of Maine chain in South Portland and then transitioned to Tradebook Manager at the University of Southern Maine (USM) bookstores. Her career has reflected her passion to create connections between books and their intended (and unintended) audiences. kellysbookstogo.com
New York Times-bestselling author Gayle Lynds is the award-winning author of 10 novels, including The Assassins and The Book of Spies. Library Journal hails her as the reigning queen of espionage fiction. With David Morrell she cofounded ITW and ThrillerFest. GayleLynds.com
Barbara Ross is the author of the Maine Clambake Mysteries and the Jane Darrowfield Mysteries. Her books have been nominated for multiple Agatha Awards for Best Contemporary Novel and have won the Maine Literary Award for Crime Fiction. Barbara’s Maine Clambake novellas are included along with stories by Leslie Meier and Lee Hollis in holiday anthologies from Kensington Publishing. Barbara and her husband live in Portland. barbararossauthor.com
Jule Selbo’s 10 DAYS: A Dee Rommel Mystery received a starred Kirkus review and a place on Kirkus’ 2021 best crime/mysteries from independent publishers. It’s been nominated for a Clue and a Foreword Review Award. Three years ago, she left Hollywood where she focused on screenwriting (film and tv, including work for Disney, Lucasfilm, HBO and more) to Portland to write novels. After three historical fiction novels, she focused on her favorite genre – the crime/mystery – and has just completed the second in her series: 9 DAYS, A Dee Rommel Mystery. juleselbo.com