By Margaret S. Hamilton   “Every one of us here is a child of the Cold War, Bruno. It shaped us, defined our politics and reshaped our economies and our systems of government. Not just the Russians and Americans, but we in Europe in our own way became national security states, each of us shaped by our own military-industrial complex. The past always lives on in very profound ways, particularly in our security agencies and defense bureaucracies.” (p. 169)   Recently, I realized that I had never read Martin Walker’s 2021 book in his Bruno, Chief of Police series ..read more

by Grace Topping Writers often focus on a single genre. However, recently many writers are trying different things, sometimes writing darker, going into Sci-Fi, etc. After years of writing romantic suspense, Virginia Kelly recently released her first mystery, Tangled Secrets. Virginia joins us at Writers Who Kill to talk about this transition.     Tangled Secrets Turner’s Crossroads, where nothing happens… Until it does. Reeling from her husband’s murder, librarian Gabriela Espinosa took her young daughter and sought refuge in the perceived safety of her tiny hometown in the F ..read more

By James M. Jackson Because of the unusual winter weather this year (warmer temperatures and hardly any snow), I migrated north from Madison, Wisconsin to my home in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula a couple of weeks earlier than normal. It could have been a month earlier, except I had doctors’ appointments I dared not cancel. I usually leave several days ahead of Jan to allow me to get everything set up and address any problems that arise in opening up the house. The first sense of “home” appears around Crivitz, Wisconsin, where the topography grows hillier and the vegetation more boreal. Outside F ..read more

  “It was all perfectly plausible. Yet none of it felt right.” Annette Dashofy, What Comes Around, Loc. 2694   Just as Monongahela County Coroner Zoe Chambers-Adams decides to fire her abrasive chief deputy, Dr. Charles Davis, and put an end to his constant undermining of her position, a suspicious car crash severely injures the county’s only other forensic pathologist. To keep the office operational, Zoe has little choice but to keep Davis on staff. When Zoe and her husband—Vance Township Police Chief Pete Adams—respond to a brutal homicide, they quickly learn the victim had come ..read more

    On April 17th the contributors to this blog weighed in on which dessert they preferred from these three choices – strawberry cheesecake, banana split, and chocolate cake - and, more importantly, why. The strawberry cheesecake and chocolate cake lovers are neck and neck. Banana splits come in a distant third with only two votes.   I now feel compelled to tip the scales in favor of chocolate cake. Really, in favor of chocolate anything. To that end, my posts for the foreseeable future will be Recipes for Readers in which I’ll pair a recipe for a chocolate dessert with a book y ..read more

On a recent visit to Chicago, somewhere between the Art Institute and the deep-dish pizza, I found time to visit the American Writers Museum.  According to their website, their mission is to “excite audiences about the impact of American writers—past, present, and future—in shaping our collective histories, cultures, identities, and daily lives.” I am happy to say that they are achieving that goal. To the museum’s credit, their timeline of four hundred years of American writers included a range of voices that reflected the breadth of our national identity and experience. But I was also l ..read more

“The most difficult thing is the decision to act; the rest is merely tenacity.”— Amelia Earhart   Back when I was a high school teacher and counselor, I used to tell my students that change — even positive change — was stress-inducing. They tended to berate themselves for feeling stressed over changes they had wanted and even chosen. I advised them of the importance of accepting and validating that anxiety so they could move through it and embrace the outcome. That meant giving themselves a little grace.   What’s the saying? Physician, heal thyself.   Over the past six mo ..read more

  It is certainly true that “we live in interesting times.” I often wonder if our current lives are surrounded by more violence than other times, or if the news is just superb at reporting seriously ugly, depressing stories. I also muse about how events from the news of our earlier lives affect our current time. When I look back at my Endurance Mysteries, I realize several have a major plot connection involving the past affecting the present day.  Those points were on my mind as I began researching my fifth Endurance mystery. Jeff Maitlin and Grace Kimball, my main characters, are ..read more

by Grace Topping   This past weekend, I attended the Malice Domestic Convention, the world’s largest gathering of traditional and cozy mystery fans and writers. It was at Malice many years ago that I met cozy mystery author Linda Reilly. Since then, I have enjoyed her mysteries and followed her series. Sadly, Linda wasn’t at Malice this year, but by the magic of email, she brought me up to date on what’s happening with her and answered my questions about the latest book in her Grilled Cheese Mystery Series, Brie Careful What You Wish For.      Brie Careful What You Wis ..read more

I'm always asking my writer friends what they're writing. Today Writers Who Kill are sharing their works in progress. Connie Berry: I’m working on two books at the moment: a sixth Kate Hamilton mystery and a historical. How am I doing this? With some difficulty.  Sarah Burr: I'm juggling two different projects at the moment. Flying Off the Candle, book three in the Glenmyre Whim Mysteries, is in the final editing stages with my editor. I'm aiming for a late May release. I'm also writing the final book in my Court of Mystery series--book fourteen! I'm trying to wrap up all of Duchess ..read more