Crimes for Crafty Minds

The Detectives
Retired San Franisco cop Bradley Lyon and his wife have settled into life in the Shenandoah Valley, where they make and collect furry friends but the couple soon realize that no matter where you live, stuff happens.

The Detective
New Orleans scrapbooking shop owner Carmela Bertrand delights her customers with the sophisticated looks she achieves with their scrapbooks. But among her client's keepsakes she finds a few tips of her own - about murder...

The Detective
Jennifer Shane has opened her own card-making business in her hometown of Rebel Forge, Virginia. But it’s hard work just staying afloat—especially when you keep losing one of your best customers to murder.

The Detective
Kelly Flynn never picked up a pair of knitting needles she liked – until she strolled into House of Lambspun. Now she’s learning how to knit one, purl two and untangle mysteries.

The Detective
Brooklyn girl Lili Marino has found herself starting over in the tiny village of Walden Corners, New York, where she has the time and space to cultivate her first love: crafting gourds. She's also becoming surprisingly expert at cutting to the rotten heart of a mystery.

The Detective
Abby Shaw has returned to her hometown of Paradise, Colorado, leaving behind a career in corporate law and a cheating husband, to take over her aunt's candy shop, Divinity. But her sweet new life quickly turns sour when a fellow merchant dies in a fire.

She has had a long career as a short story writer and published a historical suspense novel GOLDEN DOLLY in New York in 1988 before embarking on the Elizabeth Blair series of crime novels, which are set in the beautiful city of Bath.

She writes about the Bath that is familiar to her - beautiful, lively, quirky, touristy, contemporary and sometimes parochial - rather than the Jane Austen version of Regency bucks and sedan chairs.
Lizbie's interests include art, books, auction sales and filling her house with anything old and chipped and with a story to tell. She also loves travelling both physically and mentally.

The Detectives:
Elizabeth Blair is a widowed American who left Virginia to run a quilt shop in Bath. There, she finds herself unofficially teaming up with Max, a PI who has an office is above her shop.

Monica Ferris is one of many pan names for Mary Monica Pulver. Mary Monica sold her first short story, "Pass the Word," to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, in 1983, and has since sold two dozen short stories to anthologies and magazines, including some in Germany, England and France. She has two stories each in the anthologies, The Mammoth Book of Historical Detectives and The Mammoth Book of Historical Whodunnits, and a story in Shakespearean Mysteries, Royal Whodunnits, and Unholy Orders.

Her first mystery novel, Murder at the War, appeared from St. Martin's Press in 1987 and was nominated for an Anthony as Best First Novel. The Unforgiving Minutes and Ashes to Ashes followed in 1988; but Original Sin was sold to Walker, who also presented the fifth book, Show Stopper, in May of 1992. Berkley Diamond brought these mysteries out in paperback.

Berkley published six medieval mysteries Mary Monica wrote in collaboration with Gail Frazer under the pseudonym Margaret Frazer: The Novice's Tale, The Servant's Tale (nominated for an Edgar as Best Original Paperback of 1993), The Outlaw's Tale, The Bishop's Tale, The Boy's Tale, and The Murderer's Tale. The detective in the mysteries is a nun, Dame Frevisse, a niece by marriage of Thomas Chaucer, the legendary Geoffrey's son. The stories take place in England in the 1430s. Gail presently continues the series alone.

In 1998 Mary Monica began writing a new series for Berkley featuring a needleworking sleuth. Crewel World, now in its ninth printing, came out in March and was followed by Framed in Lace , A Stitch in Time , Unraveled Sleeve, and A Murderous Yarn. Most recently, Hanging by A Thread marked her new position as lead paperback mystery author for Berkley. She has finished a seventh, Cutwork, to be published in January 2004, and is working on a Christmas hardcover set at the Nashville Needlework Market. These light and traditional novels are set in her home state of Minnesota, and written under the pseudonym Monica Ferris.

Mary Monica has taught courses on mystery writing to children at North Hennepin Commnity College, gifted children in District #287, and adults at one-evening seminars at Hennepin and Ramsey County libraries. She does lectures and signings, and has appeared on panels at mystery and science fiction conventions, including Bouchercon, Minicon, Diversicon, Magna Cum Murder, and Malice Domestic. She has won a place on national and local best-seller lists, including USA Today and the independent mystery bookstore compilation. She is a member of Sisters in Crime (a national organization that promotes women who write mystery fiction), remains a paid speaker on the life of a mystery author, and is a volunteer at Westwood Nursing Home and in area public schools.

Mary Monica studies the medieval period as an amateur, and does needlework. She is a lector and usher in The Cathedral Church of St. Mark in Minneapolis. She collects exuberant hats and is not afraid to wear them in public.

The Detective:
Betsy Devonshire, owner of the needlework and wool store called Crewel World. Betsy inherited the store from her sister Margot. Solving Margot’s murder was Betsy’s first foray into the world of amateur detection.

Earlene Fowler was raised in La Puente, California, by a Southern mother and a Western father which is probably why her Benni Harper series features quilts, cattle, smart-mouthed women, cowboys and a sexy Latino cop. She wrote literary and commercial short fiction for ten years with no publishing success when she decided to change gaits and write a mystery novel.

Her first novel Fool’s Puzzle and two sequels were sold within a week of submission to Putnam-Berkley Publishing Group as one of three lead titles for their new hardcover Prime Crime Line. Fool’s Puzzle was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Mystery of 1994. Kansas Troubles, Goose in the Pond, and Dove in the Window were each nominated for an Agatha award for Best Novel. Earlene finally won the Agatha Award for her sixth book Mariner's Compass. It was followed by Seven Sisters, Arkansas Traveler, Steps to the Altar and Sunshine and Shadow. Her 11th book, Broken Dishes, will come out in May 2004. She is currently working on her 12th, Delectable Mountains.

The Benni Harper mystery series is set on the Central Coast of California in a town remarkably similar to San Luis Obispo.

Earlene is an avid lover of quilts, folk art, horses, oral history, cowboy boots (she owns 25 pair), the Central California Coast and country/western music. She owns a purple Ford Ranger truck and lives in Southern California with her husband Allen.

The Detective:
Benni Harper, curator of the Josiah Sinclair Folk Art Museum, begins her career as amateur detective when she is forced to investigate the murder of one of the museum’s artists, a murder which could be related to the death of her husband sever months earlier. Gabriel Oritz, San Celina’s new police chief, is not at all pleased to have Benni’s assistance on the case.

Tim Myers, author of the Agatha nominated mystery, “Innkeeping with Murder” lives with his family in the mountains of North Carolina. “Innkeeping with Murder” was recently nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Mystery. It was published by Berkley Prime Crime, and is the first book in the Lighthouse Inn Mystery series. “Reservations for Murder”, also with Berkley Crime, was released in June of 2002. Tim’s latest Lighthouse Inn Mystery, “Murder Checks In” comes to bookstores in January 2003.

The first book from the Candleshop Mystery series (Tim's latest project), is coming to bookstores all over the country in early 2004 from Berkley Prime Crime. "At Wick's End," the first book in the series, centers around the goings-on near the banks of the Karawha River.

The Detective:
Harrison Black inherits more than a candleshop when his great aunt dies in the shop's storeroom. AT WICK'S END is the name of the candleshop located in the converted warehouse factory known as River's Edge, named because it sits on the banks of the Karawha river in Micah's Ridge. River's Edge has a varied group of tenants, including lawyers, potters, an antique shop, a new age crystal shop and of course, the candleshop, among many more. As Harrison learns the business, he uncovers more than he bargained for!

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