July 12, 7 PM EST

Join us Monday, July 12th, 2021 at 7 pm EST (5 pm Mountain Time) when the Rogues welcome four titans of crime novels: Laura Lippman, Kathy Reichs, Andrea Bartz, Gary Braver and Tess Gerritsen. Our own Lisa Black will act as MC.

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!

Baltimore born and bred, Laura Lippman is the daughter of a journalist and a librarian while her sister is a bookseller. She was a reporter for 20 years before winning just about every major award in mystery writing and is married to David Simon, who created The Wire. Like so many of us, she still loves newspapers but wrote the first Tess Monaghan book while considering work as a PI, concerned that the newspaper business might be entering hard times.

Dream Girl, June 22

Due to an accident, famous novelist Gerry has been confined to a hospital bed, dependent on strangers, when he begins to receive late night phone calls from a woman claiming to be the beautiful protagonist of his last book. Is she a deadly threat—or is he losing his mind?

Gerry’s favorites:

Hydrox cookies and unsweetened iced tea.

Dr. Kathy Reichs is a forensic anthropologist of outstanding credentials, including such real-world work as the identification of war dead from World War 2 and Korea, examining genocide victims in Rwanda, and recovering remains from the 9/11 attack. But in the fictional world she delights us with the Temperance Brennan series from which the TV show Bones was adapted. Kathy splits her time between North Carolina and Quebec.

The Bone Code, July 6

When a medical waste container with two bound bodies washes up on a barrier island, Tempe recognizes the method as similar to a fifteen-year-old case—but even worse, it may relate to the outbreak of disease now ravaging Charleston.

Kathy’s snack and drink:

Temperance Brennan doesn’t drink, but she does love a good brownie:

  • 4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped
  • 3/4 cup butter, cut into chunks
  • 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
  • 1 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/2 cup light brown sugar
  • 3 large eggs, room temperature
  • 3 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 3/4 cup all-purpose flour (unbleached)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1 cup chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a square 9×9″ baking dish with a parchment paper sling or spray with baking spray.

In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine the bittersweet chocolate and butter. Microwave on high in 20-30 second bursts, stirring well between bursts of heat until melted and smooth. Whisk in cocoa powder.

Add granulated sugar and brown sugar, whisking well to combine. Add eggs and vanilla, beating well either by hand with a whisk or using an electric mixer.

Sprinkle the flour and salt over the brownie batter and gently stir it in with a wooden spoon or spatula. Stir in chocolate chips.

Pour the brownie batter into the prepared baking dish and spread into the corners. The batter will be thick.

Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until a toothpick inserted into the center of the brownies comes out mostly clean with only a few crumbs attached. Be sure not to overbake.

Brooklyn resident Andrea Bartz is a former journalist who has worked at Glamour and Psychology Today, and whose works have appeared in numerous outlets. The first book she wrote, The Lost Night, was not only published but named as one of the best books of the year by seven different outlets.

We Were Never Here, August 3

Andrea puts her experience as a travel writer to work her new novel, in which two besties are backpacking in Chile when Emily discovers the body of the backpacker Kristen has killed—purportedly in self-defense. Emily might be more able to cope if the same thing hadn’t happened on their last trip, making her wonder how many secrets one person can keep.

Andrea’s fave snack and drink:

Emily is a Wisconsin girl, and so is Andrea! She loves fresh cheese curds, the kind that squeak against your teeth. And her family makes the fresh maple syrup she uses in her favorite WI cocktail:

    Old Fashioned

  • 2 ounces bourbon
  • 1 bar spoon simple syrup or maple syrup
  • A couple dashes Angostura bitter

Stir over ice in a rocks glass; garnish with an orange twist.

Stanford-educated internist Dr. Tess Gerritsen started writing fiction while on maternity leave, writing 15 medical or romantic thrillers before writing her first Jane Rizzoli book. By now has also written screenplays, made films with her son, wrote the musical score for one of her book trailers, and most recently collaborated on Choose Me with her friend Gary Braver. Tess lives in Maine.

Tess’s snack and drink:

    Cape Cod kettle-cooked potato chips and a Belvedere martini:

  • 3 oz Belvedere vodka (very chilled)
  • ½ oz dry vermouth
  • Shake vigorously with ice, garnish with lemon twist

Gary Braver has degrees in physics and English and teaches at Northwestern University when he’s not writing thrillers. His works have been translated into fifteen languages and optioned for film. He wrote book reviews and travel articles and no less than five college textbooks on writing, but an experience scuba diving off Mallorca led him to write an archaeological thriller. He then veered into biomedical thrillers. He and his wife live outside Boston.

Choose Me, July 1

A beautiful college senior’s apparent suicide leads a detective to her lead suspect, a college professor who knows more than he’s telling. Tess and Gary attack a controversial topic with dual perspectives, in which he wrote the sections from the male suspect’s point of view and she wrote the sections from the female detective’s point of view.

Gary’s snack and drink:

Armenian string cheese and lehmejun (Armenian pizza). Favorite drink, brown lager. Since his protagonist is also Armenian, he’d probably agree, although he does like Riesling and red pepper hummus.

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.