Melissa Westemeier

Dervla McTiernan reveals what 80’s movie prompted her to write a book that opens with a mysterious package with contents specially curated to destroy someone’s life.

Mark Thielman’s debut novel The Devil’s Kitchen includes nearly everything but the kitchen sink!

Ever wonder what life was really like during the American Revolution? Imagine a world of spies, divided loyalties, and secret messages—award-winning author Mally Becker changed everything I thought I knew about history. Rebecca Parcell is a young widow accused of betraying her husband, and General Washington asks her to hunt secrets she’s unsure she can find. Becker takes us into the chaos of divided loyalties, spies, and deadly missions. There’s real history in her mysteries

The Marlow Murder Club needs no introduction to mystery fans, and whilst filming Murder on the Marlow Belle for PBS Masterpiece Mystery is under way, Robert Thorogood’s fifth title in the series, The Mysterious Affair of Judith Potts is landing on a bookshelf near you!

Former archaeology student and lifetime history buff Connie Berry writes a range of contemporary historic mysteries (Contemporary-historic, how’s that for an oxymoron?) set in various time periods, and sometimes she even blends the eras together. In our interview she digs into the backstory of her protagonist in the Kate Hamilton Mystery Series. Kate Hamilton’s my favorite type of amateur sleuth and I’m addicted to these mysteries. Kate’s smart, capable, doesn’t meddle too m

Anthropologist and mystery fan Michelle L. Cullen draws from personal experience moving her mother into a patio home to create her amateur sleuth, Harry Lancaster. Harry’s recovery from a fractured hip is made more interesting as he spies on neighbors. Assisted by his caregiver, Emma Stockton, Harry does more than just PT when a neighbor urgently phones Harry for help and they find her dead on her kitchen floor. Michelle talks about her research for this new series, what make

Wildwood, Amy Pease’s sequel to Northwoods, gripped me from the first scene when a young woman is discovered missing. We chat about her fictional setting of Shaky Lake, which is based on Wisconsin’s Minocqua resort area. The formidable Sheriff Marge North and her son Elia again team up with Alyssa Mason, an FBI agent from Chicago to investigate why and how an undercover informant disappeared. Their search leads them to discover terrifying secrets about a local rehab clinic. L

Bestselling writer Bruce Robert Coffin started writing following his storied career as a police detective sergeant in Maine. His mysteries are fast-paced, action-packed, and gripping from the first page. We discuss his new series featuring Detective Brock Justice, the fun he’s having bringing Justice (both literal and figurative) to different locations around the state of Maine, and the secret to how he writes such strong female characters. Bitter Fall yanks readers’ attentio

Award-winning children’s author Ross Montgomery wrote a killer read for grownups after getting inspired by Halley’s comet trip over Cornwall in 1910. Deploying the humor and criminal elements he gleaned from watching Clue as a kid, The Murder at World’s End delivers a plot twister of a mystery when servants and family members and scientists and lunatics converge at Tithe Hall in anticipation of the apocalypse.

USA Today Bestselling author and Agatha winner Ellen Byron’s new release, Crescent City Christmas Chaos tosses carolers, holiday parties, a cookbook project, and a shady thief wearing a snowman costume into this Cajun mix. Ricki James-Diaz’s hands are full when her parents come to town, her boyfriend’s filming in a Christmas cooking show special, and of course Bon Vee is hopping with festive shoppers. It’s a perfect time for a murder investigation! Ellen dishes about her pa

Sally Smith’s newest title, A Case of Life and Limb, ticks all my boxes: a secret corner of London (that really exists!), a twisty mystery set in a real place in history, backstage theater drama, lawyers wrestling with ethical questions, complex characters, and a sassy cat. She describes her background as a barrister living in The Temple, the secluded grounds dating back to the Knights Templar and today a main legal district in London. We also talk about Gabriel’s origin stor