Join our amazing panel of mystery writers to discuss the mystery genre and their latest novels!

About the authors:

- As Allison Montclair, Alan has written the Sparks and Bainbridge series: The Right Sort of Man [ALA Reading List Council’s Best Mystery of 2019], A Royal Affair, A Rogue’s Company, The Unkept Woman, The Lady From Burma, Murder at the White Palace (DorothyL’s Favorite Mystery of 2024), An Excellent Thing In a Woman, and more to come. As himself: The Fools’ Guild mysteries, starting with Thirteenth Night; as well as the Southern paranormal Where Werewolves Fear To Tread; and numerous short stories. He is also a Kleban Prize-winning lyricist-librettist for several musicals. Alan is a graduate of Swarthmore College and the University of Chicago School of Law. He finished up nearly forty years as a public defender with the NYC Legal Aid Society and now writes full-time, or at least until lunch. He lives in NYC with his wife, Judy Downer.

- Laura Joh Rowland is the bestselling author of two series of mystery novels. The first, set in seventeenth-century Japan, chronicles the adventures of samurai detective Sano Ichiro. The second series, set in Victorian England, features photographer Sarah Bain and her motley company of friends. Her latest book is River of Fallen Angels. Laura’s work has been published in thirteen foreign countries, selected for The Wall Street Journal’s list of top ten historical mysteries, and the film rights optioned by Universal Studios. She has been nominated for the Anthony Award, the Hammett Prize, and the Barnes and Noble Discover Great New Writers Award. Laura holds a Bachelor of Science and a Master of Public Health degree from the University of Michigan. The granddaughter of Chinese and Korean immigrants, Laura lives with her husband Marty in Queens.

- Mariah Fredericks was born, raised, and still lives in New York City. She graduated from Vassar College with a degree in history. She is the author of the Jane Prescott mystery series, which has twice been nominated for the Mary Higgins Clark Award. The Lindbergh Nanny, her first standalone novel, was nominated for the Agatha and Anthony Awards. Her most recent novel is The Wharton Plot, which was named one of Library Journal's Best Crime Novels of the Year.

- Radha Vatsal is the author of No. 10 Doyers Street (March 2025) and the Kitty Weeks mystery novels set in World War I-era New York. Her writing has appeared in The New York Times, The Atlantic, the Los Angeles Review of Books, CrimeReads, and elsewhere. Born and raised in Mumbai, India, she earned her Ph.D. in Film History from Duke University and has worked as a film curator, political speechwriter, and freelance journalist. She is a 2024-25 Fellow at the CUNY Writers’ Institute. She lives in New York City.