Mystery Authors Revealed

I recently attended a conference that featured a panel of well known mystery authors, and since I recognized a couple of my favorites like Laura Lippman and T. Jefferson Parker, thought it would be great fun to see them and find out who was accompanying them.

Much to my surprise one of the other authors was C. J. Box, whose newest book "Blue Heaven" I had just read and loved. I was enthralled by the pictures these three authors painted as to how they came to write, get published, and even become famous. They are now real personalities to me, and I will pursue their books with greater interest and curiosity.

An even bigger treat for me was the introduction of another author I had never encountered in my quest for new mystery authors: Linwood Barclay. Barclay is a popular newspaper columnist in Canada who broke on to the mystery scene with a humorous mystery "Bad Move" several years ago. Since I'm more in to the suspense/thriller type of mystery, I didn't follow up on his later books until he spoke about "No Time for Goodbye" which was published a year ago. I promptly checked out the book when I came back from the conference and am now convinced his forthcoming books will be at the top of my favorite mysteries list. He drew me right in when he said, "Imagine being a 14 year old and waking up one morning to find your whole family had disappeared during the night". The 14 year old grows up never knowing what happened.

Barclay went on to describe the plot of another book he is working on in which "the family next door is murdered" and you discover that it was your family that was supposed to be murdered. Barclay is right up there with John Hart and Greg Iles if you're looking for some different mystery authors, and don't forget C. J. Box.