Provocative and powerful! You can join Jacqueline Mitchard, Alafair Burke, Dirk Cussler and S. J. Rozan for a fascinating evening! Emcee is Lisa Black.

It’s all free—plus you can win the drawings for:
The Good Son by Jacqueline Mitchard
Find Me by Alafair Burke
The Devil’s Sea by Dirk Cussler
Family Business by SJ Rozan

Come eat, drink, & ask questions! Authors will share insider stories, writerly tips, and dish the latest on their new books.

Following a brief introduction each of our guests will talk about their work, and then read for about three minutes followed by Q&A.

CLICK HERE TO REGISTER

The first 100 who sign up to be in the virtual room will have the chance to ask questions live. Once registered you will be sent a link to use to log in. Everyone else can catch the event by clicking on Facebook Live, where you can ask questions via comments. The Rogues will be monitoring the chat throughout the evening, so come prepared.

As a special treat, each of our guests has paired a favorite snack with their favorite drink providing a recipe for an enjoyable evening. Drinking will commence at the start of the show!

Clive Cussler named iconic character Dirk Pitt after his son, Dirk Cussler. Dirk co-wrote and has now taken over writing the series as well as serving in NUMA, the National Underwater and Marine Agency, a non-profit organization founded by Clive that dedicates itself to preserving American maritime and naval history.

The Devil’s Sea, November 6, 2021

In The Devil’s Sea, the search for an ancient Tibetian artifact lost during the Communist takeover collides with the mission to recover a failed supersonic missile.

Dirk Pitt favors a simple shot of tequila (Don Julio) on the rocks with a lime. But he’s not opposed to a classic margarita:

  • 2 ounces Blanco Tequila
  • 1 Lime (squeezed juice)
  • ½ ounce Triple Sec (Cointreau)
  • Add Salt (for rim, optional)
  • Add Lime wedge
  • Shake and pour into a cocktail glass with ice

Chips and salsa work great as an accompanying snack.

The prolific and multiple award-winning S.J. Rozan is a native New Yorker, runs an annual writing workshop in Italy, and was an architect who specialized in police stations, firehouses, and zoos.

A Family Business, December 7, 2021

Private investigator Lydia Chin and her partner find themselves in the middle of a real-estate struggle between preservationists and developers over a young woman’s Chinatown inheritance.

Lydia Chin drinks tea and specifies: Black tea should be steeped for four minutes. Green tea should be steeped for no longer than one minute. If you want it stronger, use more tea, not more time. Time makes it bitter. (Isn’t that poetic?) Herbal tea should be steeped for five minutes, and is not tea. Lydia’s also very fond of red bean rice balls, which are similar to Japanese mochi. SJ can’t give us a recipe but they can be found at many supermarkets or Asian bakeries.

Jacqueline Mitchard has a roster of bestselling novels and writing credentials, including teaching at several universities and writing for newspapers, magazines and political speeches. She lives in Cape Cod with her husband and nine, count ‘em, nine children.

The Good Son, January 18, 2022

When her son gets out of prison after serving time for his role in the death of his girlfriend Belinda, Thea must battle her town’s rejection, including activists galvanized by Belinda’s revenge-seeking mother and anonymous threats on Stefan’s life. Soon Thea realizes that she has no idea what happened on the night of Belinda’s death and that Stefan is in more danger at home than he ever was in prison. She may lose him before she even has a chance to forgive him.

Thea loves melopita (Greek honey pie) and her own Door County Mudslides.

MELOPITA (Thea’s Greek Honey Pie)

  • 2 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
  • 1/2 cup honey
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla
  • Pomegranate seeds (optional)

Whisk or use a hand mixer to combine all the pie ingredients. Grease an 8-inch cake pan with butter and dust with corn starch. Pour pie mixture in and bake at 375° for about an hour until it is brown on top and set in the center. Let cool and then flip out and flip back over onto a serving plate. You can use a springform pan if you don’t feel comfortable flipping. Garnish with more honey and a dusting of cinnamon, and pomegranate seeds (optional).

Thea and Julie’s Door County Mudslides

  • 1 ounce* vodka
  • 1 ounce coffee liqueur (like Kahlua)
  • 1 ½ ounces Irish cream (like Baileys)
  • 1 ½ ounces heavy cream (or 2 scoops vanilla ice cream and ½ cup ice*)
  • Garnish with chocolate sauce for the rim

1. Classic Mudslide: Spread the chocolate sauce on a plate and carefully dip in the cocktail glass rim. Place the vodka, coffee liqueur, Irish cream, and heavy cream in a cocktail shaker. Add 2 handfuls of ice and shake until cold. Strain the drink into a cocktail glass.
2. Frozen Mudslide: Place the vodka, coffee liqueur, Irish cream, vanilla ice cream and ice in a blender. Blend until smooth and pour into a tall glass.

Alafair Burke is a multi award-nominated author of twenty crime novels and current president of Mystery Writers of America. A graduate of Stanford Law, she was a Deputy District Attorney in Oregon, specializing in domestic violence offenses. She now lives in New York and in the Hamptons with her husband and two dogs.

Find Me, January 11, 2022

A woman with a mysterious past mysteriously disappears and her BFF calls on New York detective Ellie Hatcher. The only clue is a drop of blood that may lead to a killer Ellie’s father hunted for years, and who may have something to do with her father’s death.

Alafair’s favorite drink is a “perfect margarita” aka a cosmorita: tequila, triple sec, lime, and cranberry juice…snacked with guacamole, of course.

Our MC:

Lisa Black is the New York Times bestselling author of 15 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 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 and will be a Guest of Honor at 2021 Killer Nashville.