Sara Paretsky - Sisters on the Case

For as long as she lived, Norah would say that she had killed Denny-in spite of the coroner’s finding that his death was most probably caused by a bullet fired from the cellar doorway an instant before or an instant after the gun in her and Denny’s hands exploded.

Mary swore she had seen Spillane when she started over at the sound of gunfire. So she, too, bore willing guilt. But it was Donel who could beat his breast the hardest.

Norah had been right. Spillane was a low-level member of the Chicago gang Donel had been in business with for years. He had thought he was breaking away from them that fall. ‘‘The boss’’ thought so, too. He suspected at first that Donel was tying in with another gang and using Mary’s place for storage. Spillane investigated even the well. Donel no more than Mary doubted his claim to be a federal agent.

When the news of the construction business came out-Hope County Construction-‘‘the boss’’ wanted a part of it. Donel refused. As he told Mary, he was clean. He thought he was, but Spillane caught up with him before he reached the door of the lawyer’s office that morning. The boss expected him to postpone the contract signing and expand the partnership. The boss promised he would get well paid, whichever way he played it. Donel told him to go to hell.

Why Denny and not Mary if Spillane was his killer? It was probably the boss’s decision. Denny was Michael O’Hearn’s nephew, and Michael had been killed-in the line of duty-in an exchange of gunfire that also killed a young and promising member of the gang those many years before.

Spillane was never found, dead or alive.

P. M. Carlson

P. M. Carlson taught psychology and statistics at Cornell University before deciding that mystery writing was more fun. Her novels have been nominated for the Edgar, the Macavity, and the Anthony. Two Bridget Mooney short stories were finalists for the Agatha. Her latest novel, featuring Deputy Sheriff Marty Hopkins, is Crossfire (Severn House). She was president of Sisters in Crime in 1992-93.

Barbara D’Amato

Barbara D’Amato has won the Carl Sandburg Award for Fiction, the Agatha twice, the Anthony twice, the first Mary Higgins Clark Award, the Macavity, and others. She is a former president of Mystery Writers of America and Sisters in Crime (1994-95). She and her husband have written several musical comedies, which were produced in Chicago, London, and Toronto.

Dorothy Salisbury Davis

Dorothy Salisbury Davis was born in Chicago in 1916. Author of twenty novels, thirty-some short stories; Grand Master, Mystery Writers of America, 1985; Lifetime Achievement Award, Bouchercon, 1989. Member of original board of Sisters in Crime.

Susan Dunlap

Susan Dunlap has written nineteen novels and numerous short stories. Her series feature Berkeley police officer Jill Smith, forensic-pathologist-cum-private-investigator Kiernan O’Shaughnessy, meter reader Vejay Haskell, and, most recently, stunt double Darcy Lott in A Single Eye . Her day jobs have ranged from social work to legal assisting, teaching hatha yoga, and being part of a death penalty defense team. She was president of Sisters in Crime in 1990-91.

Kate Flora

Recovering attorney Kate Flora is the author of seven Thea Kozak mysteries, a suspense novel, and the Joe Burgess police procedural mystery series. Her true crime book, Finding Amy, was a 2007 Edgar nominee. With two other mystery writers, she is a partner in Level Best Books, which publishes anthologies of crime stories by New England writers. She is an MFA candidate in creative writing at Vermont College. She was president of Sisters in Crime in 2002-03.

Linda Grant

Linda Grant is the author of the Catherine Sayler series. Sayler, a San Francisco private investigator, specializes in high-tech crime, taking cases that range from sabotage in a genetics lab ( Lethal Genes ) to sexual harassment in a software company ( A Woman’s Place ). Three of her six books have been nominated for Anthony Awards. She was president of Sisters of Crime in 1993-94.

Kate Grilley

Virgin Islands resident Kate Grilley was the president of Sisters in Crime in 2003-04. Kate is the author of the Anthony and Macavity Award-winning Caribbean mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Kelly Ryan. Writing as Kate Borden, she is the author of the Peggy Jean Turner/New England mysteries. In 2006 Kate was the Malice Domestic Toastmaster.

Carolyn Hart

Carolyn Hart is the author of thirty-nine novels. Her newest title is Set Sail For Murder, seventh in the Hennie O series. Coming in 2008 are Death Walked In, eighteenth in the Death on Demand series, and Ghost at Work, first in a new series featuring the late Bailey Ruth Raeburn, an impetuous redheaded ghost who returns to earth to help someone in trouble. Carolyn was president of Sisters in Crime in 1991-92.

Libby Fischer Hellmann

Libby writes the award-winning Chicago-based mystery series featuring documentary producer and single mother Ellie Foreman. There are four novels in the series, starting with the Anthony-nominated An Eye for Murder. Libby was president of Sisters in Crime in 2005-06. Her next release, Easy Innocence, is a stand-alone PI novel set in Chicago.

Sue Henry

A past president of Sisters in Crime (1997-98), Sue Henry lives in Anchorage and has traveled widely in Alaska for the last thirty-three years. Her first mystery, Murder on the Iditarod Trail, featuring sled dog racer Jessie Arnold and state trooper Alex Jensen, won both the Anthony and Macavity for Best First Novel of 1991. Besides the series that followed that book, she now writes a spin-off series featuring Maxie McNabb, another Alaskan character first introduced with Arnold in Dead North . Sue has lived in Alaska for thirty-seven years and, before retiring to focus on writing, was an administrator in the field of adult basic education for both the Alaska State Department of Education and the University of Alaska-Anchorage, where she also taught writing.

Rochelle Krich

Rochelle Krich’s first mystery, Where’s Mommy Now? won the Anthony Award and was filmed as Perfect Alibi . The author of five stand-alones, five Jessie Drake mysteries, and several short stories, Rochelle (www.rochellekrich.com) writes a series featuring LA tabloid journalist Molly Blume (‘‘A sleuth worth her salt,’’ New York Times Book Review ). Grave Endings won the Mary Higgins Clark and Left Coast Crime Calavera awards. Rochelle is currently working on Mind Games, a stand-alone. She was president of Sisters in Crime in 2006-07.

Charlotte MacLeod

Charlotte MacLeod was the cofounder and former president of the American Crime League. She was the Guest of Honor at Bouchercon and Malice Domestic. She received the Lifetime Achievement Award at Bouchercon and Malice Domestic, and has received five American Mystery Awards, two Edgar nominations, and a Nero Wolfe Award.

Margaret Maron

Margaret Maron is the author of twenty-three novels and two collections of short stories. Winners of several major American awards for mysteries, her works are on the reading lists of various courses in contemporary Southern literature. She has served as president of Sisters in Crime (1989-90), the American Crime Writers League, and Mystery Writers of America.

Claire McNab

Claire Carmichael McNab is the author of more than fifty published books in many genres, although her favorite has always been mystery fiction. She is proud of her dual citizenship of two of the greatest countries in the world-Australia and the United States. Claire also counts as one of her most rewarding experiences her term in 2000-01 as president of Sisters in Crime, followed by her ascension to the title of goddess, as she’s assured past presidents of the organization are known.