Martin Greenberg: The Best Paranormal Crime Stories Ever Told

P. N. Elrod writes and edits, and is best known for The Vampire Files , where Bobbi Smythe hangs out with her undead boyfriend, vampire PI Jack Fleming. Elrod is a hopeless chocolate addict and cheerfully refuses all efforts at intervention. More about her toothy titles may be found at www.VampWriter.com.

Simon R. Green lives in the small country town of Bradford-on-Avon in England; the last Celtic town to fall to the invading Saxons in 504 AD. He is the New York Times best-selling author of the Nightside series (a private eye who operates in the Twilight Zone, solving cases of the weird and uncanny), and the Secret Histories series (the name’s Bond, Shaman Bond). He also wrote the perennially in-print space opera series, the Deathstalker books. He appears in open air Shakespeare productions, rides motorbikes, and once had a near-death experience quite unlike anyone else’s.

Nina Kiriki Hoffman has been writing science fiction and fantasy for more than twenty years and has sold more than 250 stories, plus novels and juvenile and media tie-in books. Her works have been finalists for the World Fantasy, Philip K. Dick, Sturgeon, and Endeavour awards. Her first novel, The Thread That Binds the Bones , won a Bram Stoker Award, and her short story “Trophy Wives” won a Nebula. Her middle school fantasy novel, Thresholds , will come out in 2010. Nina works does production work for The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction and teaches short story writing through her local community college. She also works with teen writers. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, with several cats, a mannequin, and many strange toys.

Norman Partridge’s compact thrill-a-minute style has been praised by Stephen King and Peter Straub, and his fiction has received three Bram Stokers and two IHG awards. His first short story appeared in the second issue of Cemetery Dance , and his debut novel, Slippin’ into Darkness , was the first original novel published by CD. Partridge’s chapbook Spyder was one of Subterranean Press’s inaugural titles, while his World Fantasy-nominated collection Bad Intentions was the first hardcover in the Subterranean book line. Since then, Partridge has published pair of critically acclaimed suspense novels featuring ex-boxer Jack Baddalach for Berkley Prime Crime ( Saguaro Riptide and The Ten-Ounce Siesta ), comics for Mojo and DC, and a series novel ( The Crow: Wicked Prayer ) which was adapted for the screen. His award-winning collections include Mr. Fox and Other Feral Tales and The Man with the Barbed-Wire Fists . Partridge’s latest novel, Dark Harvest , was chosen by Publishers Weekly as one of the 100 Best Books of 2006. A third-generation Californian, he lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, Canadian writer Tia V. Travis.

Anne Perry’s publishing career began with The Cater Street Hangman . Published in 1979, the first book in the series featured the Victorian policeman Thomas Pitt and his well-born wife Charlotte. This is arguably the longest sustained crime series by a living writer. Buckingham Palace Gardens , the latest in the series, appeared on the New York Times best-seller list in April 2008. In 1990, Anne started a second series of detective novels with The Face of a Stranger . Set about thirty-five years earlier, they features the private detective William Monk and volatile nurse Hester Latterly. The most recent of these (fifteenth in the series) is The Dark Assassin , which appeared in the New York Times best-seller list. Anne won an Edgar award in 2000 with her short story “Heroes.” The main character in the story features in an ambitious five-book series set during the First World War. The last of these was recently published in autumn 2007. None of her books has ever been out of print, and they have received critical acclaim and huge popular success: over twenty million copies of her books are in print worldwide. Her books have appeared on best-seller lists in a number of foreign countries, where she has also had excellent reviews. The Times selected her as one of the “100 Masters of Crime.” Currently Anne is working on more titles in the Pitt and Monk series, and her next published novel will be a stand-alone epic set in the exotic and dangerous world of the Byzantine Empire.

Steve Perry has written scores of novels, animated teleplays, short stories, along with a couple of spec movie scripts. A number of his books have appeared on the New York Times best-seller list, and he is the co-author, with Michael Reaves, of the blockbuster Star Wars novel Death Star .

Melville Davisson Post (1869-1930) was a successful lawyer who turned to writing. He first gained fame with his three books of crime stories about Randolph Mason, a lawyer who used his knowledge to help criminals evade justice. Later, he combined elements of both the mystery and fantasy genres in the tales of Uncle Abner, a highly religious man who battled evil wherever it could be found, but primarily in the Virginia backwoods.

Laura Resnick is the author of dozens of short stories, as well as such fantasy novels as Disappearing Nightly , In Legend Born , The Destroyer Goddess , and The White Dragon , which made the “Year’s Best” lists of Publishers Weekly and Voya. You can find her on the Web at www.LauraResnick.com.

Mike Resnick is, according to Locus , the all-time leading award winner, living or dead, for short science fiction. He has won five Hugos, plus other major awards in the USA, France, Japan, Spain, Croatia, and Poland, and has been nominated in England, Italy, and Australia. He is the author of sixty-one novels, 250 short stories, and two screenplays, and has edited more than forty anthologies. His work has been translated into twenty-six languages.

Michael A. Stackpole is an award-winning novelist, graphic novelist, screenwriter, podcaster, game and computer game designer best known for his New York Times best-selling novels I, Jedi , and Rogue Squadron . “If Vanity Doesn’t Kill Me” is the second of seven Trick Malloy stories-most of which are available at his website: www.Stormwolf.com. Mike lives in the Phoenix area and enjoys both swing dancing and indoor soccer in his spare time.