Ang Pompano has been writing mystery for more than twenty years. His mystery novel, WHEN IT’S TIME FOR LEAVING is nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel. His short stories have been published in many award-winning anthologies, including the 2019 Malice Domestic Anthology, PARNELL HALL PRESENTS MALICE DOMESTIC: MURDER MOST EDIBLE. His newest story, "Stringer" appears in SEASCAPE: THE BEST NEW ENGLAND CRIME STORIES 2019. In addition, he has written many academic pieces including one on teaching detective fiction. A member of Mystery Writers of America, he is a past recipient of the Helen McCloy/Mystery Writers of America Scholarship for a novel in progress. He has been on the New England Crime Bake Planning Committee for fourteen years and is a long-time board member of Sisters in Crime New England. He lives in Connecticut with his wife, Annette, an artist, and his two rescue dogs.

Connect with him on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/A.J.Pompano or on the web at http://angpompano.com

Judge Debra H. Goldstein retired to follow her passion for writing mysteries. She is the author of Kensington’s Sarah Blair Mystery Series, Maze in Blue, Should Have Played Poker, and With Our Bellies Full and the Fire Dying. Her novels and short stories received Silver Falchion, IPPY, AWC, and BWR awards and have been Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Claymore finalists.

Debra is a national board member of Sisters in Crime and previously served on the national board of MWA and as president of the Guppy and SEMWA chapters. She is a civic volunteer, mother of four, and married to a man whose blood runs Alabama Crimson.

Gabriel Valjan is the author of The Company Files, and the Shane Cleary Mysteries with Level Best Books. He has been nominated for the Agatha, Anthony, Derringer, and Silver Falchion awards. He received the 2021 Macavity Award for Best Short Story, and the Shamus Award for Best PI in 2023. Gabriel is a member of the Historical Novel Society, ITW, MWA, and Sisters in Crime. He lives in Boston and answers to a tuxedo cat named Munchkin.

Josh Pachter's short crime fiction first appeared in Ellery Queen’s Mystery Magazine in 1968. Since then, he's published over 120 stories in magazines and books in the US and around the world. He's also edited some twenty anthologies (for publishers in the US, England, Holland, Germany, France, Finland, and Brazil) and translated both fiction and nonfiction from Dutch and Flemish into English. In 2020, he received the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Award for Lifetime Achievement and won the SMFS Derringer for Best Flash Story — the first time anyone has taken home a Golden Derringer and a competitive Derringer in the same year. In 2023, his first novel — DUTCH THREAT — was published, and the following year it was named a finalist for Left Coast Crime's Best Debut Mystery Novel Lefty Award, Malice Domestic's Best First Novel Agatha Award, and Mystery Readers International's Best Debut Mystery Macavity Award. In 2024, his first book for younger readers — FIRST WEEK FREE AT THE ROOMY TOILET — was published to rave reviews; in 2025, it was named a finalist for the Best Childrens/YA Mystery Agatha.

In 2022, Josh retired after a fifty-year "day job" in higher education. Nowadays — when he's not writing, editing or translating — he's either teaching adult learners as a volunteer at the Lifelong Learning Institute in Midlothian (VA), kayaking, or traveling with his wife Laurie and/or daughter Becca.

Shawn Reilly Simmons is the author of nine novels in the Red Carpet Catering mystery series featuring Penelope Sutherland, chef-owner of a movie set catering company. She’s also written over twenty short stories which have been published in various anthologies, including “Burnt Orange” in Passport to Murder: the 2017 Bouchercon Anthology; “The Prodigy” in Mystery Tour, the Crime Writers' anthology.

Shawn’s story “The Last Word,” appearing in Malice Domestic 14: Mystery Most Edible, won the Agatha Award for Best Short Story of 2019. Shawn also won the Anthony Award as editor for Best Anthology or Collection for the same anthology that year. Her story “The Red Herrings at Killington Inn,” appearing in Masthead: Best New England Crime Stories, received an Agatha Nomination in 2020 for Best Short Story. The following year, "Bay of Reckoning," appearing in the anthology Murder at Sea, published by Destinaiton Murders, won the Agatha Award for Best Short Story in 2021.

Shawn was born in Indiana, grew up in Florida, and began her professional career in New York City as a sales executive for an international airline after graduating from the University of Maryland with an English Lit degree. She has worked as a line cook, bartender, marketing executive, and bookstore manager, sold fine wine, written radio commercials, organized an annual mystery convention, and cooked for the cast and crew on movie sets.

In addition to her own writing, Shawn is President and Managing Editor at Level Best Books, a crime fiction press with a roster of roughly two hundred authors. She hosts a weekly podcast, Five Compelling Questions with Shawn, where she chats with writers across all genres about writing. She is also a co-host of the YouTube series We Are What We Read, which features authors highlighting books that have inspired and influenced them and their careers.

She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, the International Thriller Writers, and the Crime Writers’ Association in the UK, and a founding member of The Dames of Detection. Shawn served on the Board of Malice Domestic for over twenty years (2002-2023), where she welcomed hundreds of mystery writers and fans to the Washington, D.C. area each spring to celebrate the genre of Traditional Mystery and Agatha Christie. In 2027, Shawn will co-Chair Bouchercon, Mystery Most Monumental, in Washington, D.C.

Shawn lives in historic downtown Frederick, Maryland, with her husband, son, and Dino, their very huggable French Bulldog.

"Monnin's story has echoes of Agatha Christie's work, making the most of a large group of suspects and red herrings galore."--Kirkus Reviews

DEATH IN LUXOR coming August 2026!

Agatha Award Nominated Author M. A. Monnin writes traditional mysteries with a touch of romance.

"Death in St. George's, the third in M. A. Monnin's Intrepid Traveler Mystery series, will treat readers to the sensory pleasures of the subtropics while dipping their toes in danger. Monnin's writing is as crisp and sensual as fresh ironed linen. Readers are in for a delight and will hop on board wherever Stefanie travels." ---Sara E. Johnson, Author of the Alexa Glock Forensics Mysteries

"A contemporary cozy with the timeless charm of a classic whodunnit, Death in St. George’s feels like a refreshing rum swizzle on a warm Bermuda evening. Archaeology and mystery buffs alike will root for Stephanie and Thomas as they unravel two intertwined mysteries—one archaeological, one modern." –Megaera Lorenz, author of The Shabti

Death in the Aegean is a 2022 Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel.

Stacy Woodson is a US Army veteran and memories of her time in the military are often a source of inspiration for her stories. She made her crime fiction debut in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine's Department of First Stories and won the 2018 Readers Award. Since her debut, she has placed stories in several anthologies and publications--two winning the Derringer award. You can visit her at www.stacywoodson.com.

Nominated for the Agatha Award for Best First Novel

Joan Long writes mysteries and suspense. Her debut novel, THE FINALIST, is a locked-room-style mystery. Joan has been a finalist for the Minotaur Books/Malice Domestic Best First Traditional Mystery Novel, the William Faulkner-William Wisdom Creative Writing Competition, and Mystery Writers of America-Florida's Freddie Award for Writing Excellence. Her short story "The Extra Ingredient" is published in the Anthony Award-winning anthology MALICE DOMESTIC 14: MYSTERY MOST EDIBLE.