Melissa Westemeier

Guest of Honor Annette Dashofy and ME at Malice Domestic 2026 A spring weekend in Bethesda, MD is wonderful, but getting to schmooze with writers I admire, meet other mystery readers and learn pro tips to improve my writing game at Malice Domestic '26 raised the awesome bar considerably. Yes, I got to shop at the Gap (not an outlet, a real Gap store, Nicole!) and eat a crab cake sandwich and walk around outside wearing short sleeves but that's barely exciting compared to the

If you’re a fellow Anglophile who watched The Crown, you MUST check out S.J. Bennett’s series Her Majesty the Queen Investigates. The Queen of England as amateur sleuth? YES PLEASE! Bennett gives readers an inside look at royal life while serving up a puzzler of a crime for HRH to solve. Sophia discusses the inspiration behind her series, which includes her father’s service to the Crown and her own attempt to land a job in the Queen’s inner circle, how she researches her char

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

Aaron Philip Clark creates a dark world for his PI Trevor Finnegan to solve crime and describes how he wrote this bulk of his latest book, The Bluest Night, over 3 days at an artist’s retreat in Ojai. Drawing from his past as a screenwriter and a LAPD recruit, this SoCal native brings amazing authenticity and detail to the page. We discuss the threats that lurk inside gated communities, strange people, and magnificent sunsets that create the backdrop for the Trevor Finnegan s

Janice Hallett masterfully creates a world using text threads, pub quiz results, and emails in her newest book, A Killer Question . I’m a...

M.J. Robotham cut her teeth writing WWII historical fiction, but her newest release, Mrs. S py, drops readers into the exciting, vibrant...

Brandy Schillace spotlights neurodivergence, identity, found families, and murder, of course, in ep. 6 of My Bookcase Slays. Brandy...

Readers, I'm pleased as punch to introduce you to one of the women featured on the panel I'm moderating next week at Malice Domestic --...

It's been a week since Old Habits Die Hard came out, launching the Nun the Wiser Mysteries, and I'm beside myself with joy because...

OLD HABITS DIE HARD It feels like Christmas morning--all the anticipation bubbling for weeks, even months--and it's finally here! You can...

In writing news, I took a 2 month hiatus from writing murder mysteries to work on a different project. I completed 75,000 words in this...