Resort to Murder: Authors New Works

• Judith Yates Borger's Where's Billie? was published on Kindle in January 2009, by Nodin Press in fall 2009 and on iBooks and other ereaders in June 2010, with great reviews in Publishers Weekly, the StarTribune, Armchair Detective. The sequel, Whose Hand? is scheduled to be released on Kindle, IBooks and other ereaders in fall 2010. Meanwhile, Borger continues to write for www.Minnpost.com. She appeared recently on Minnesota Crime Wave Presents (William Kent Krueger, Ellen Hart, and Carl Brookins mystery discussions and interviews online and on cable).

• Scott Pearson’s Star Trek novella, Honor in the Night, will be published this December by Simon & Schuster in the trade paperback collection Myriad Universes: Shattered Light, along with two other short novels by other authors. Originally scheduled for release in October 2009, the anthology was a casualty of the rough times in publishing and the economy at large, but is finally making its way to bookstores just in time for last minute holiday shopping!

• Barbara DaCosta’s story “For Want of Some Gloves” will appear this fall in the holiday anthology Why Did Santa Leave a Body? Midwest Tales of Murder and Mayhem from North Star Press.

• Carl Brookins has a new Sean Sean P.I. investigation: The Case of the Great Train Robbery, is now available as a Kindle download. Other short works by Carl are all available as e-downloads.

• Joel Arnold’s new collection of short stories is now out. See article below.

• Michael Allan Mallory’s Killer Instinct (available December 2010 from Five Star/Cengage) finds zoologist Lavender "Snake" Jones in the North Woods of Minnesota investigating the illegal shooting of four gray wolves, a situation that soon escalates into murder. Michael's short story "Breakfast with Tiffany" will be in Why Did Santa Leave a Body? Midwest Tales of Murder and Mayhem from North Star Press, available Fall 2010.

Resort to Murder Author Joel Arnold's New Book Published

Bait & Other Stories
By Joel Arnold

This collection of stories, by Resort to Murder author Joel Arnold, includes: "a father whose intense longing for his dead son leads to disturbing consequences.A group of college students tubing down a river through a burned forest who encounter terrifying creatures.
A man seeking redemption for a sinful past through the skill of a tattoo artist," and, the award winning stories Mississippi Pearl and Some Things Don't Wash Off. Bait & is available exclusively on Kindle ebooks.
Joel Arnold lives in Savage, Minnesota, and his writing has appeared in over five dozen publications, ranging from Weird Tales to American Road Magazine, and Cat Fancy, and honorable mention in the Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror series.

Resort to Murder Authors News

Resort to Murder authors have been keeping busy since the book's release in 2007. New offerings include: Joel Arnold's story "The Siege"; Judith Yates Borger novel debut: Where's Billie? features Skeeter Hughes; Carl Brookins' latest about PI Sean Sean adventures in The Case of the Deceiving Don (2008). Barbara DaCosta's story "Hands" was published online at Penny Dreadful; Monumental Minnesota: A Guide to Outdoor Sculpture is Moira Harris latest work; and Ellen Hart's The Mortal Groove, won the Golden Crown Literary Award. David Housewright's latest Rushmore McKenzie novel is Jelly's Gold,
Jess Lourey's by-the-month series continues with September Fair (Jess also serves on the national board of the Mystery Writers of America), William Kent Krueger features Cork O'Conner in Heaven's Keep, and Michael Allen Mallory (with Marilyn Victor) has a forthcoming novel Killer Instinct. Scott Pearson's "Finders Keepers" was in Full-Throttle Space Tales #3. Pat Dennis, Kent Krueger, and David Housewright have all contributed to Once Upon A Crime a tribute anthology in honor of the bookstore of the same name in Minneapolis. Carl Brookins, Ellen Hart, William Kent Krueger, and Jess Lourey will be presenters at the Loft Literary Center's first Mystery Writing Festival in November 2009, and numerous RTM authors will be attending and presenting at Bouchercon 2009.

See author website links to right for more author events.

Meet the Authors: Pat Dennis

Pat Dennis grew up on the outskirts of south side Chicago, born into a pack of relocated southerners and religious fundamentalists. She's performed stand-up comedy for corporate events, woman’s shows, comedy clubs and on national television. Her fiction and humor have been published in publications such as Woman’s World, Minnesota Monthly, The Pioneer Press, Sun Current, and even Gurnee Gardening. Her short story "Jake" was featured in The Silence of the Loons.
Pat opened her own publishing company, Penury Press. Her book of culinary mysteries Hotdish to Die For, in which the weapon of choice is hotdish, was called by the Minnesota Women’s Press “wickedly wonderful.” It soon became a regional hit, selling close to 15,000 copies. Who Died In Here? is a collection of mystery short stories where the crime occurs in the bathroom, written by twenty-five of the top mystery short story writers. Hotdish Haiku, featuring 50 haiku and 30 tantalizing oriental hotdish recipes (such as Crouching Chicken, Hidden Veggies) was written by 13 exceptional humorists. She has just finished her first novel for middle-grades. Pat can be found at her website.

Meet the Authors: Barbara DaCosta

Barbara DaCosta's story "Cabin 6" marks her debut as a mystery writer. "Lake Superior has a certain tug on many of us," she says, "and I wanted to explore what could go wrong on one of those misty evenings when one goes down the wrong path."
After many years of writing for work and school, Barbara decided to try her hand at something that would require a plotline instead of a deadline. She's at work completing her novel Death by the Depot.

Meet the Authors: Jess Lourey

Jess Lourey spent her formative years in Paynesville, Minnesota, a small town not unlike her Murder by Month series' Battle Lake. She currently lives in St. Cloud, Minnesota, where she teaches writing and sociology full time at the local college. When not raising her wonderful kids, teaching, or writing, you can find her gardening and navigating the niceties and meanities of small-town life. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, The Loft, and Lake Superior Writers.

"The Locked Fish-Cleaning-House," her short story contribution to Resort to Murder, is set in Battle Lake--the same town her series is set in--and features Mrs. Berns, a recurring but peripheral character in the series. The story puts a Minnesota spin on the classic locked room mystery. And for the record, writing a short story is a lot harder than writing a novel. Her website has information about her newest release Knee-High by the Fourth of July.

Meet the Authors: Michael Allan Mallory

Michael Allan Mallory grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in English Literature. Death Roll, his debut novel with Marilyn Victor, was published in May 2007 and features the first zoologist sleuth in the person of Lavender Snake Jones.
The original idea for "Bird of Prey" came to Michael over twenty years ago. He enjoys writing mysteries because in a mystery, "the world is made clear—motives are understood, actions are explained, connections between events are revealed. Not so in real life. In real life we often grope around in the dark hoping to find answers. As a mystery writer I can insert order and clarity into the universe, even if it is imaginary."

Meet the Authors: Scott Pearson

Scott Pearson's first publication was in 1987 with “The Mailbox,” a Minnesota Monthly Tamarack Award winner about an elderly farming couple. Over the last twenty years he has published humor, poetry, short stories, and nonfiction such as The Mosquito Book, which he coauthored with Scott Anderson and Tony Dierckins, and a number of Star Trek stories. “Out of the Jacuzzi, Into the Sauna,” in Resort to Murder is his first mystery story. Scott says, "What appeals to me about writing mysteries is trying to create real characters and then putting them into thrilling, scary situations that we all hope we wouldn't find ourselves in. And, of course, I like the idea of trying to create the puzzle for the character—and the reader—to solve." The motivation for “Out of the Jacuzzi, Into the Sauna” was a particularly trying trip to a Lake Superior resort. Please visit Scott on his website.