Mystery author Julie Smith was born in Savannah, Georgia in 1944. She graduated from the University of Mississippi with a degree in journalism. After graduation, she moved to New Orleans and wrote features for the New Orleans Times-Picayune. After a year, she moved to San Francisco and got a job at the San Francisco Chronicle. Fourteen years later, she left to form a freelance writing firm called Invisible Ink with two other women. In 1982, her first novel, Death Turns a Trick, was published. Since becoming a full-time author, she has written over twenty novels including the ones in the Rebecca Schwartz Mystery series, the Paul McDonald Mystery series, the Skip Langdon Mystery series, and… the Talba Wallis series. Her novel, New Orleans Mourning, won the 1991 Edgar Allen Poe Award for best novel. She currently lives in New Orleans with her husband.
Ace Atkins is the author of several novels, including The Lost Ones and Lullaby (G.P. Putnam's Sons May 2012). Atkins is a former journalist who earned a Pulitzer Prize nomination for a feature series based on his investigation into a forgotten murder of the 1950s. The story became the core of his critically acclaimed novel, White Shadow. In 2011 he was selected by the Robert B. Parker estate to continue the bestselling adventures of Boston's iconic private eye, Spenser. He made The New York Times Best Seller List with his title's, Robert B. Parker's Wonderland and Robert B. Parker's Cheap Shot.
Laura Lippman grew up in Baltimore and returned to her home town in 1989 to work as a journalist. After writing seven books while still a full-time reporter, she left the Baltimore Sun to focus on fiction. She is the author of several New York Times bestsellers, including What the Dead Know and Another Thing to Fall. Her latest novel is entitled After I'm Gone. She has won numerous awards for her work, including the Edgar, Quill, Anthony, Nero Wolfe, Agatha, Gumshoe, Barry, and Macavity. Her bestselling series, Tess Monaghan, is popular around the globe.