Lisa Black is the New York Times bestselling author of 16 suspense novels, including works that have been translated into six languages, optioned for film, and shortlisted for the inaugural Sue Grafton Memorial Award. She is also a Certified Latent Print Examiner and a Certified Crime Scene Analyst, beginning her forensics career at the Coroner’s office in Cleveland Ohio and then the police department in Cape Coral, Florida. She has spoken to readers and writers at numerous conferences, been a consultant on CourtTV and was a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.
Karna Small Bodman is the author of five international thrillers (that have hit #1 in Thrillers on Amazon). Her latest is Trust but Verify, which was awarded a silver medal by the Military Writers Association of America. The previous four were revised and rereleased by her publisher. Her books were inspired by the six years she served in the Reagan White House, first as Deputy Press Secretary, later as Senior Director of the National Security Council where she was the highest-ranking woman on The White House staff. On book tours, she has given over 400 interviews and speeches to groups nation-wide.
Tracy Clark, a native Chicagoan, is the author of the Cass Raines Chicago Mystery series, featuring ex-cop turned PI Cassandra Raines. A multi-nominated Anthony, Lefty and Shamus Award finalist, she is also the 2020 and 2022 winner of the G.P. Putnam’s Sons Sue Grafton Memorial Award. Tracy is a member of Crime Writers of Color, Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime and sits on the boards of Bouchercon National and the Midwest Mystery Conference. Her latest book, Runner, released in June 2021.
When not writing, she’s watching old black-and-white movies, reading, or just puttering around. She roots for the Cubs, the Sox, the Bears, the Blackhawks, the Chicago Sky and the Chicago Fire equally. And she will toss a (fictional) dead body anywhere.
Chris Goff is the award-winning, Anthony-nominated author of eight novels—six mysteries and two international thrillers. Goff’s most recent release, Red Sky, set in Ukraine and Asia, was a 2018 Colorado Book Award Finalist. Her debut thriller, Dark Waters, set in Tel Aviv amid the Israel-Palestine conflict, was a finalist for a 2016 Colorado Book Award, Colorado Authors’ League Award and Anthony Award for Best Crime Audiobook. A former journalist, Goff also edited rock and ice-climbing guides for Chockstone Press and worked in graphic production for “Living the Good News,” a division of The Morehouse Publishing Group. A long-standing member of multiple writing organizations, she currently serves on the executive board of International Association of Crime Writers and her regional board of Mystery Writers of America. When not hard at work at her desk, Goff may be found frolicking in the waves in Kauai, sailing off the coast of Maine, kayaking rivers in Michigan, or strolling among the penguins in Antarctica.
KJ Howe is not only an award-winning author, she’s an adventurer. She’s raced camels in Jordan, surfed in Hawaii, ziplined in the Costa Rican jungle, dived alongside Great White Sharks in South Africa, studied modern combat in Arizona, and worked with elephants in Botswana. She writes The Freedom Broker series, which features elite kidnap negotiator Thea Paris. KJ spent extensive time researching the dark world of kidnapping, interviewing former hostages, negotiators, hostage reintegration experts, special forces operatives, and K&R insurance executives. Home is Toronto, Canada, but she is often missing in action. KJ Howe is the Executive Director of International Thriller Writers. She holds a Specialists Degree in Business as well as a Masters in Writing Popular Fiction.
Tosca Lee is a New York Times bestselling author of eleven novels including The Line Between, The Progeny, Iscariot, and The Legend of Sheba. Her work has been translated into seventeen languages and optioned for TV and film. She is the recipient of two International Book Awards, Killer Nashville’s Silver Falchion, ECPA Fiction Book of the Year, and the Nebraska Book Award. Her work has finaled for the High Plains Book Award, the Library of Virginia Reader’s Choice Award, the Christy Award, and a second ECPA Book of the Year, among others. Lee earned her bachelor’s degree in English from Smith College. A former first runner-up to Mrs. United States, she lives in Nebraska with her husband and two of four children still at home.
Gayle Lynds is the New York Times bestselling, award-winning author of ten international thrillers, including The Assassins, The Book of Spies, and The Last Spymaster. Gayle’s career began when her short stories were published in literary journals while she wrote male pulp novels under aliases. Since then, her fiction has won numerous awards. Publishers Weekly lists Masquerade among the top ten spy novels of all time. Library Journal hails her as “the reigning queen of espionage fiction.” With Robert Ludlum, she created the Covert-One series. The first—The Hades Factor—was a CBS miniseries. She recently appeared on CBS Sunday Morning, and in the deep dark past, she shattered the glass ceiling of Bouchercon’s infamous all-boys poker games. She’s co-founder (with David Morrell) of International Thriller Writers and lives in Maine with her husband, John C. Sheldon, a retired judge who’s now writing fiction, poor man, and one very bossy geriatric cat.
Wall Street Journal bestselling author Isabella Maldonado wore a gun and badge in real life before turning to crime writing. A graduate of the FBI National Academy in Quantico and the first Latina to attain the rank of captain in the Fairfax County Police Department just outside DC, she retired as the Commander of Special Investigations and Forensics. During more than two decades on the force, her assignments included hostage negotiator, department spokesperson, and precinct commander. She uses her law enforcement background to bring a realistic edge to her writing, which includes the bestselling FBI Special Agent Nina Guerrera series (soon to be a Netflix feature film starring Jennifer Lopez) and the award-winning Detective Veranda Cruz series. Her books have been translated into 20 languages.
Jenny Milchman is the Mary Higgins Clark award winning and PEN/Faulkner nominated author of five novels of suspense. Her work has been praised by the New York Times, chosen as Indie Next Picks, received starred reviews from PW, Booklist, and Library Journal, selected for numerous Best Of’s including Suspense Magazine, Pure Wow and Popsugar, and appeared on the USA Today bestsellers list (once, but we authors like to name these things). In 2013, Jenny rented out her house, traded in two cars for an SUV that could handle Denver in February, and pulled her kids out of 1st and 3rd grades to “car-school” them on what Shelf Awareness called the world’s longest book tour. Jenny now speaks nationally on the literal and figurative road to a dream.
